101 Reykjavik

Hlynur, turning thirty, lives with his mother, does not work and spends his days online, in bars and in front of the television. At New Year his mother's friend Lola, a flamenco teacher, comes to stay. He sleeps with her. The next day his mother announces that she and Lola are together. Then Lola becomes pregnant. The film is not interested in scandal. It is interested in carrying on as though nothing has happened: none of the characters goes into crisis, nobody shouts, and the matter is laid on the table coolly. Icelandic humour at its driest. The form is a winter film: the dark days of Reykjavik, small flats, bars and snow. The palette is pale and the light is scarce. It is Baltasar Kormákur's first feature, from Hallgrímur Helgason's novel. Damon Albarn of Blur and Einar Örn Benediktsson of the Sugarcubes wrote the score together, and the film mattered for the international visibility of Icelandic cinema. Hilmir Snær Guðnason plays Hlynur and Victoria Abril plays Lola. Who it is for: viewers who like northern humour and uncomfortable family situations. Who it is not for: anyone waiting for the character to develop. Hlynur is the same man at the end as at the start, and that is deliberate.