The Reykjavik International Film Festival kicked off last Thursday with the premier of Heima (Home in English), a breathtaking documentary/concert film about one of Iceland's biggest musical exports Sigur Ros. It chronicles their tour around their home country in 2006 where they preformed a series of free, unannounced concerts in rural areas.
These concerts were the last part of their world tour and the reason for them was to get back to reality and also give their native fans something back for their continued support and bring life to areas that don't see much activity on a regular basis. The film, directed by Lilo and Stitch director Dean DeBlois is made up of actual concert footage, music numbers done only for the camera and interviews with the members of the band and their co performers Amina. The whole thing is then wrapped up in beautiful nature photography that amplifies the musical numbers and shows the audience areas of Iceland they don't normally get to see. There is no actual narrative or plot in the film, in fact it's like going to a Sigur Ros concert. It's an experience, a beautiful, poetic and intense experience that captures the audience and keeps them focused on the subject.
The film is an ode to Iceland, its nature and its people and their children. It’s brimming with nostalgia and for how things were decades ago and it shows in some of the venues they chose to play in, a dilapidated fishery that was built in the big herring boom during the fifties but lasted only two years and hasn’t been used since then, a small village hall, a cave and a protest camp where they played an acoustic set because the people in the camp were protesting the building of a dam that’s going to be used to produce electricity for aluminium smelts. They clearly care about nature and its preservation. They want things left alone how they were, not to be exploited for the wealth and fortunes of global conglomerates. But don’t let that last sentence fool you in to thinking that it’s got a political agenda, it doesn’t, it’s simplicity itself and only asks the viewer to sit back and soak up the scenery along with beautiful music. The music is of course a large part of the movie and if you don’t like Sigur Ros then this film is definitely not for you but fans of the band will eat this up.
As an Icelander I might not be as amazed by the nature footage as a foreigner might be simply because I’ve seen much of this stuff before and with my own eyes but that’s not to say it isn’t gorgeous looking, it truly is.
Heima is an astoundingly beautiful film both as a visual and in sound. It manages to cram the open wilderness of Iceland in to a roughly 100 minute feast for the eyes and ears and leave you wanting for more and especially make you wish you were there when they performed these shows.
I hope that you people out there in the rest of the world will be able to see it soon cause it will be very interesting to see and hear the reaction.
Heima official website (trailer within)