» Baltasar Kormakur interview
Icelandic director Baltasar Kormakur talks to Latest 7 about his new film Jar City
It’s taken a couple of years for Jar City to reach the international stage. Is it strange to be talking about a film so long after the event?
You have to wind back and get into it, and remember – but you also get a wider perspective, which is good. You go a little bit away from it, and see it from a distance. I’ve not watched it for a while but I remember it, it’s there. It has a little shelf in my brain.
What was it about Arnaldur Indridason’s novel Myrin that made you want to adapt it for the screen?
What I loved was that it was the first time I’d read a novel that had a thriller premise that could work in Iceland. Most of the time thrillers don’t fit Iceland, which is weird because geographically it’s such a film noir country, it has all the elements. But the lack of crime, doesn’t make it a good environment for a thriller.
As well as the genetics issue, you also have the fascinating parallel of the investigating policeman and his relationship with his daughter.
Yes, it’s more about the characters, it’s more of a drama.
Everyone knows about DNA and fingerprints, so we don’t have to show that, that’s in the background, and we can stay more on the characters. Story lies in character, it doesn’t lie in technology. It’s more about how the technology affects people, how somebody’s secret can come out.
This structure of the storylines, how they come together – that is different to the novel. I wanted to push that a little bit, to push the limits of the genre. I don’t want to give too much away, but I’ve never seen it done this way, where you assume the stories are happening simultaneously but actually they’re taking place at different times. That’s part of the riddle.
How is the Icelandic film industry?
It’s small and vibrant. We have maybe five films a year but with a population of 300,000 that’s not too bad and some make it to the international scene.
This one will hopefully go all over the world, it’s going to the United States, it opens in France at the same time. Jar City was a huge success in Iceland, it’s the biggest box office hit of all time. It’s bigger than Titanic. Which says a lot about how twisted the nation is.
What were the elements of the book that you have arrested?
It was the contrast between the countryside, the old Iceland in some way and the new technologies.
It was also the chance to discover the old secrets, those of the older generation. And, of course, the drama of these two fathers who lost their daughters. The human element of intrigue was decisive.
I wanted to create a double look, a look inwards and outward.
You take a lot back on violence, it transpires only in a few scenes but never outpouring of unnecessary …
The excessive violence affects me most deeply in the world! All these effects, as well as sound effects and pyrotechnic special effects, all these effects that have been use for twenty years, have made violence artificial and irrelevant.
When I show violence, it is always brief and not very attractive. Violence is something very irretrievable – it is an existentialist concept. This is something concrete and unpleasant. When you use it you must also demonstrate the consequences. You can not just glorify this kind of thing – you must take responsibility.
