Cinema
Between Mountain and Shore
Milli fjalls og fjöru
Loftur Guðmundsson · 1949
Synopsis
In the Icelandic countryside of the nineteenth century, the son of a poor farmer falls in love with the daughter of a rich merchant, and the gap between the two households already weighs on their love. The young man is then accused of stealing sheep; the accusation is false, but it is enough to compromise him in everyone's eyes and to threaten what he had hoped for. The plot is said to be drawn from a real event and is set in the landscapes of central Iceland.
Context
Released at the Gamla Bíó in Reykjavík on 13 January 1949, the film is the work of a photographer from the city who had made a first comic film as early as 1923, and who saw it as the culmination of long years of effort to give the country its own cinema. Sound and colour are already present. Gunnar Eyjólfsson, who would become one of the most popular actors in the country, plays the farmer's son, and Bryndís Pétursdóttir the young woman. The same year, Óskar Gíslason presented his documentary on the rescue at Látrabjarg.
Who it is for
In Icelandic; the film was screened at the Lincoln Center in New York, but remains rare outside Iceland.
Prizes and reception
Regarded as the country's first sound feature film; it was also shot in colour, in the late forties.
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