Cinema
Children of Nature
Börn náttúrunnar
Friðrik Þór Friðriksson · 1991
Synopsis
An old widowed farmer from Skagafjörður, in the north of Iceland, gives up his farm to move in with his daughter in Reykjavík. The family does not want him and places him in a retirement home, where by chance he finds his first love, Stella, whom he had not seen for years. Together, the two old people decide to escape and return to the region where they grew up.
Context
Coproduced by companies from Reykjavík, Berlin and Oslo, the film was written by the director and the writer Einar Már Guðmundsson; Gísli Halldórsson and Sigríður Hagalín play the leading roles, alongside Bruno Ganz. Shot by Ari Kristinsson to music by Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson, it runs eighty-five minutes. It was nominated in 1992 for the Oscar for best foreign language film, Iceland's first nomination, and was released in France on 9 October 1996.
Who it is for
For an escape across Iceland, in which two old people take back their freedom from those who decided for them.
Prizes and reception
Selected by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, it remains the only Icelandic film to have obtained this nomination.