Flirting with Hollywood

Baltasar Kormákur is a household name in Iceland, an established actor both on stage and on the silver screen. His acting career spanned over a decade before he turned to directing himself. Not that he has stopped acting. His first feature film 101 Reykjavik came out in the year 2000 and became an international hit overnight. It won the Discovery of the Year Award at the Toronto Film Festival and Baltasar's success story as a filmmaker began. He returned home to make The Sea in 2002, which hit a chord with the Icelandic nation. Last year saw A Little Trip to Heaven featuring Hollywood heavyweights Julia Stiles an Forest Whitaker. This time around Baltasar returns to his roots to deliver, Mýrin (Jar City in English), an all-Icelandic thriller adapted from the novel by Arnaldur Indriðason.

Baltasar sits down with ReykjavikMag over a cup of coffee to discuss Icelandic film culture, audience reception, the fine line between Hollywood and staying close to his roots, his first international success as a filmmaker and the challenge of directing a film about a story so close to the Icelandic soul. The interview takes place a week before the premiere of Mýrin at the Grái Kötturinn café, the local hangout for actors, directors and artists in 101 Reykjavík, across the street from the National Theatre where Baltasar's career as an actor flourished. His stage production of Peer Gynt has been running to a full house at the National Theatre all year and won Kormákur the Gríman Theatre Award as best director and Peer Gynt won best play of the year. The play received great reviews in the Guardian and will be staged in English at the Barbican Centre in London early next year.

ICELANDIC FILM CULTURE

Baltasar is perhaps the most recognized Icelandic director in the world today. Filmmaking is a young industry in Iceland but recent years have seen a boom. More Icelandic films have been touring the international film festival circuit and every year there are one or two films that are fairly successful on that scene.

"The film culture is getting better here. There are still too few Icelandic films made, however, interest in Icelandic films in general abroad is more than Icelanders realize. It's nice that the films can have a life outside Iceland but if people in the country where the film was made don't go see it something is not right. There is still a certain gap between Icelandic directors and the audience. Icelanders have a tendency to praise art-house filmmaking but we need a broader range of Icelandic films. We need comedies, tragedies, dramas, thrillers, art-house and everything in between. We need diversity. Sometimes Icelandic directors make really good films but they don't reach the Icelandic public. Although I'm not promoting commercial films, I believe it is necessary to keep the audience in mind when making films. It's ideal to be able to say I did this film for myself but you still need the audience. After all it's a public art form and an empty cinema just does not work."

A film like Mýrin is obviously meant to reach the Icelandic audience but when asked if he was thinking about the audience while filming he responds: "I'm conscious of the fact that there is no point in making a film like Mýrin if Icelanders don't go to the cinema to see it. Nevertheless, I don't go the most obvious and easiest way at the story. I challenge the story. I believe the most interesting filmmakers are those who make important films that have something to say but in an accessible way. It's important not to lose the relationship with the audience."

BALANCE BETWEEN HOLLYWOOD AND ICELAND

Mýrin is a very Icelandic project. Baltasar's last film A Little Trip to Heaven had a more international feel to it and many speculated that he was moving closer to Hollywood. Nevertheless, he moved in the opposite direction back to the heart of the Icelandic nation. "I believe I will always dance between those two worlds. When I made 101 Reykjavík it was very Icelandic but for some reason it was much more successful abroad. Not that many saw it in the cinema in Iceland. Still it was my coming of age story and it was about this special atmosphere that had been developing in downtown Reykjavík. The film defined this postcode that is now known to everyone and defined a certain culture in Reykjavík."

101 Reykjavík travelled the world and is the most widely distributed Icelandic film to date. When it won Discovery of the Year in Toronto it sold all over. "I received a lot of offers at the time. I didn't know which way to turn or what would be my next step. The biggest agency in the world was offering me deals. It's like the devil tempting you to sell your soul and it's not difficult to lose a sense of who you are. But offers I got were mostly high school comedies and cheerleading flicks. Stuff that I had zero interest in. I still have my connections in Hollywood but although I had received great recognition abroad I felt that I hadn't made a real connection with my own people so I came back home and made The Sea (Hafið)."

The Sea was a box office hit in Iceland and twice as many Icelanders saw it in the cinema as 101 Reykjavík. It was a tragic story about a family in a small fishing village in Iceland and about the fishing quotas, a highly controversial issue in Iceland. "It really reached the Icelandic audience and was a great success at home although not as well received abroad as 101 Reykjavík."

And so he flipped the coin again and worked with Hollywood actors and the English language in his next film A Little Trip to Heaven. "It wasn't as well received as I expected. That's perhaps why I have the tendency to come back to my roots and film a story that is very Icelandic. If I decided to work solely in Iceland I might be closing off other opportunities. Hollywood still sends me scripts but it is very seldom that I actually finish reading them, the stories usually don't interest me. It's very rare that I feel that I have something to add to it."

MÝRIN: ADAPTED CRIME NOVEL

Because the novel by Arnaldur Indriðason was so popular in Iceland the film is highly anticipated. Icelanders will most likely flock to the cinema. Baltasar admits he is nervous about the premiere. "It was an honest approach to the story and the film is honest work but I will leave it to others to judge it." This is the second time Kormákur adapted a novel to the screen, with 101 Reykjavík being the first. "I have never looked at myself as a writer. I think that in many ways writers or novelists are better storytellers than I am. I believe my strength lies in dramatising; I know where the story lies, what is vital in the story and what is redundant. I can take a story, turn it upside down like I did with Pétur Gautur in the theatre, and make people understand it. This is definitely my strength. I will probably do more adaptations in the future."

Arnaldur is the biggest selling Icelandic author today and he reaches a broad range of Icelanders.

It took a long time to get the film into production. Arnaldur wasn't this big when Kormákur purchased Mýrin in 2000. Now he's translated in many languages and has written several hit novels. "I thought the contrast between the old and new Iceland in the story was very interesting. With deCode and genetic technology you can all of a sudden find out your grandmother's secret. It's also about Iceland that seems to be forgotten but still exists. When you look at the media, today's celebrities are investment bankers, it used to be actors and film stars but now it's bankers. Then it's the 101 crowd and on the surface it looks as if we are all either successful artists or investment bankers, but there is a large part of the nation missing there. People who haven't benefited from the economic growth in this country. For example if you go to the Hlemmur bus stop, it's like going back in a time machine, nothing has changed for decades. This contrast provides a frame for a criminal drama. It's the first time I read an Icelandic crime novel that I believed. It has a Mystic River feel to it. It's not just about the crime but also the people and their situation."

Although Baltasar has directed a few films now he admits that it doesn't become easier each time. "It's the opposite. It becomes more difficult every time. There is certain pressure, especially if you have had some success. I have learned a lot but it's still harder. Perhaps it's because I put more pressure on myself, that every step becomes heavier. The expectations for Mýrin are greater than it seems. A real thriller has never been done in Iceland and it's a novel that is very dear to Icelanders. Finding the tone to make the audience believe the characters and still make it work was not easy. It's the most challenging story I have worked on."

BACK IN THE COUNTRY

Mýrin will open in Iceland on October 19th and Baltasar will take it from there; he has no further plans at the moment having just relocated to the country with his family, but he intends to look at film festivals and just see what happens in the new year. "Now I will go back to Skagafjörður and raise my boys. I'm very happy out there, nobody leaves Skagafjörður untouched, it's a great place to work and I have space to think in peace and quiet. I do my homework there, I wrote the screenplay for Mýrin there and also edited the film." In a sense he has moved even further away from Hollywood. "I went in the opposite direction. But they still have my number and they contact me regularly." Baltasar's story is just about to begin.

Text by Hanna Björk Valsdóttir

Photo by Valgarður Gíslason