Íslenski draumurinn

Debutant Robert Douglas has with his 'The Icelandic Dream' proven that an interesting plot is not needed for a film to be (positively) well remembered.

Robert Douglas' filmic language has developed through making several short films and his style is clearly distinct from many other contemporary debutans, who often - in my opinion - use an interesting plot together with a more conventional way of telling the story. Thus, sadly enough, making the story not as dazzling as it should be.

In 'The Icelandic Dream', telling techniques more commonly seen in documentaries are used, which is not only quite daring of a debutant but also very refreshing to experience outside the cinemathèques. And what a debutant! Directing and editing skills beating both Sundance film festival winners and film makers who've already made a couple of feature films!

But please note, the Douglas style should not be mixed with the Dogma style; the constant shakiness of Dogma is not present in 'The Icelandic Dream'. (A blessing some would say.)

I hope though, that Robert Douglas' next films will have more thrilling plots that match my personal - quite fastidious- taste. Thus matching his high directing and editing skills.

Now, if the plot interests you, this will have to be a make-you-feel-good-masterpiece in every way. Instead of the worn-out stories taken or inspired from the Icelandic Sagas, 'The Icelandic Dream' is one of the few films that, in a more extremely well-done way, show how contemporary Iceland is. And there sure is a lot more than cliché volcanos, Björk and the Sagas.

This film is absolutely the best film ever made in Iceland. It's like Icelanders have finally started to make movies that you can actually compare to foreign movies in originality, character depth, style, story and so much more. Icelandic movies have been good looking yes, very well made production wise and so on, but not much else. This one might be a bit raw (it suits the story quite well) but what it lacks in production value it more than makes up for it in originality, story, acting and humor. It's also about the only Icelandic film that does not include the landscape as one of it's main characters. Instead it's the Icelandic people in all their ignorant and stupid glory.