Nordic Film Days Lübeck – Homage to Friðrik Þór Friðriksson

The 64th Nordic Film Days Lübeck (Nov. 2-6, 2022) will honour Icelandic director Friðrik Þór Friðriksson with its Homage section. On opening night, November 2, the internationally acclaimed filmmaker will be on hand at Lübeck’s CineStar Filmpalast cinema to personally accept his honorary award.

“Friðrik has left his stamp on new Icelandic cinema like no other. Almost all of his films have screened at the Nordic Film Days and over the years, he has won three prizes in various sections of the festival. We are pleased and proud to welcome him back to Lübeck for this honorary award”, says Thomas Hailer, artistic director of the Nordic Film Days Lübeck.

The Homage will present a selection of five films by Friðrik Þór Friðriksson, which combine to form an overarching narrative in which Iceland’s stunning landscapes are more than just a backdrop. It was in the early 1990s that a road movie by Friðrik Þór Friðriksson catapulted Iceland to the top ranks of world cinema. In the prize-winning film “Children of Nature” (1992), two headstrong elders break out of their nursing home and take off for the remote Westfjord region where they both spent their childhood and youth. The director’s “Movie Days” (1994) evokes memories of his first visit to the cinema as a 10-year-old in Reykjavik and his encounter with an elderly farmer in the country’s far north, who inaugurated him into the world of native legends. The young Japanese tourist in “Cold Fever” (1995) is initially baffled by Iceland and its people, but in the end, an elf shows him the true path. A majority of Iceland’s population believes in the merry antics of elves and trolls. Yet Paul, the protagonist of “Angels of the Universe” (2000) is relegated to a psychiatric institution because he has odd fantasies. Finally, “Mamma Gógo” (2010) is a decidedly personal film about a director in the middle of an existential crisis. His mother has Alzheimer’s disease, and nobody wants to see his movies.

Friðrik Þór Friðriksson never went to film school; he taught himself the technical skills. As a young man, he experimented with 8mm and 16mm films. Friðriksson learned storytelling through his encounters with the old farmers in northern Iceland. Their wilfulness and frank oral narratives fed into his filmmaking. As a producer, Friðriksson actively fosters Iceland’s young filmmaking talents. They, too, continue to weave stories around the country’s myths and sagas …

Complete information about the 64th Nordic Film Days Lübeck can be found at our website www.nordische-filmtage.de and on Facebook, Instagram, Youtube.

We would like to thank our partners Finnlines, CineStar, Stadtwerke Lübeck, STAWAG, ATLANTIC Hotel Lübeck, Teschke & Collegen Versicherungsmakler, Moinsener, skanbo, Kaufmannschaft zu Lübeck, Hansebelt e.V., LYNET, avt plus media service, SG Medientechnik, as well as our media partners, broadcaster NDR and the Lübecker Nachrichten daily for their support.

Press contact Nordic Film Days Lübeck:

Dr. Kathrin Steinbrenner & Kristian Müller,
SteinbrennerMüller Kommunikation
Email: presse@nordische-filmtage.de
Tel: +49 (0)30 4737 2192