Icelandic director Hrafn Gunnlaugsson was one the first of our local film directors to "make it" abroad. He is mostly known for his groundbreaking Viking film The Raven Flies, a successful mix of Kurosawa, Leone and sword wielding warriors that tells the story of an Irish man who comes to Iceland looking for his sister who was abducted when he was a young boy.
That was the first part in a trilogy of films that center around the birth of Iceland and how organized religion tore the country apart. The second part, In the Shadow of the Raven and the third The White Viking were either loathed or loved by critics and viewers alike. His films were especially popular in Scandinavia because they portrayed the Viking era in a gritty and filthy light that was a long way from Hollywood's ruggedly good looking actors who used to portray my forefathers in the past.
These films have been very hard to find for years until last year Gunnlaugsson himself released the first part on DVD and then later his new director's cut of The White Viking, now called Embla, was shown at last years Reykjavik International Film Festival.
Today I stumbled upon Streamburst.tv, a site that offers, according to them, high quality downloads that you can burn on to DVD or put on your portable media player. They are offering the whole trilogy of films for download, $14.99 each, for all you Viking fans out there.
This is a cheap alternative to the insanely priced DVD of the first film you can buy from Gunnlaugsson's own site, all three films for less than the first one on DVD.
I can vouch for the first one, it's a great film that broke new ground back then and hasn't been topped since. I saw the other two years and years ago and I don't remember all that much about them so I will have to see them again to judge them fairly.
Check the links below.
Also, on the Streamburst site there is an interview that Hrafn Gunnlaugsson did with Ingmar Bergman when he visited Iceland in 1987. Click the Bergman tab on the site.