29° TORINO FILM FESTIVAL
TORINO 29

Á ANNAN VEG

EITHER WAY
by Hafsteinn Gunner Sigurdsson
Country: Iceland
Year: 2011
Duration: 84'


Iceland, the 1980s. Finnbogi and Alfred, employees at Iceland’s roadworks company, decide to spend the summer working on the windy and solitary roads in the northern part of the country. But the two men are very different: the older and more expert of the two has agreed to take on young Alfred as a favor to his girlfriend, the boy’s sister. Forced to live in very close contact in an arid and desolate natural environment, they come to know and respect each other, before an unexpected friendship blossoms.

 

The period quality of the film encouraged aesthetic unity and there is something both touchingly naïve and comical about the musical and fashion trends of 1980s Iceland. I went for long takes, wide frames and moving shots and tried to avoid the rough hand-held style employed in so many low budget films. The priority was always to allow the actors’ performances to carry the story and to provide an elegant framework in which to allow this to happen as truthfully as possible.

Biography

film director

Hafsteinn Gunnar Sigurdsson

Hafsteinn Gunnar Sigurdsson (Reykjavik, Iceland, 1978) studied comparative literature at the University of Iceland before moving to New York, where he studied screenwriting and directing at Columbia University. His graduating short film, Rattlesnakes, participated at various festivals, including Tribeca, Oberhausen and the Reykjavik International Film Festival, and won numerous awards, including best screenplay at Rencontres Henri Langlois in Poitiers in 2007, the special jury prize at the 2008 Aspen Shortfest and first prize at the Alcalá de Henares Festival in Spain in 2008. Either Way is his first feature-length fiction film. 

FILMOGRAFIA

filmografia/filmography

George: A Living Tune (coregia/codirector Kristján Loðmfjörð, cm, 2000), Morocco: The Quest for the Decent Arab (coregia/codirector Kristján Loðmfjörð, cm, 2001), Male: Talking Moustache (coregia/codirector Kristján Loðmfjörð, mm, 2003), Female: Other Anxiety (cm, 2003), Matthew Barney: Site Specific (coregia/codirector Bjarni Þór Sigurbjörnsson, mm, doc., 2004), No One Knows I’m Gone (cm, 2005), Love (cm, 2006), Rattlesnakes (cm, 2007), Paradox (coregia/codirector Sigurdur Skulason, mm, doc., 2011), Á annan veg (Either Way, 2011).

Cast

& Credits

regia, sceneggiatura/director, screenplay

Hafsteinn Gunnar Sigurdsson

soggetto/story

Hafsteinn Gunnar Sigurdsson, Sveinn Ólafur Gunnarsson

fotografia/cinematography

Árni Filippusson

montaggio/film editing

Kristján Loðmfjörð

scenografia/production design

Hálfdán Pedersen

costumi/costume design

Margrét Einarsdóttir

suono/sound

Huldar Freyr Arnarson, Gunnar Óskarsson

interpreti e personaggi/cast and characters

Sveinn Ólafur Gunnarsson (Finnbogi), Hilmar Guðjónsson (Alfred), Þorsteinn Bachmann (Vörubílstjóri),Valgerður Rúnarsdóttir (Kona)

produttori/producers

Árni Filippusson, Davíð Óskar Ólafsson, Hreinn Beck, Sindri Páll Kjartansson, Tobias Munthe, Theo Youngstein

produzione/production

Mystery Island, Flickbook Films

vendita all’estero/world sales

Icelandic Film Center

TFF

prizes

TORINO 29

Best Film

HOLDEN AWARD 2011

Torino 29: best Screenplay

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