When they started filming, Dreamland’s directors could hardly have known that shortly before the film’s release, the world would be facing the worst economic collapse since the 1930s and that Iceland’s three major banks would be swallowed in its wake. Knowing that now, the audience has a broader lens with which to view this epic film about a small nation at a crossroads and its continuing struggle for independence.
What starts out as a massive project for economic development, ends with Iceland holding a huge debt and facing an uncertain future. How this story unfolds is told with great attention to detail in Dreamland, and is a lesson in how global economics works, or in this case doesn’t work — in a way we can all understand.
Leading up to the country’s greatest economic crisis, the government started the largest mega-project in its history. Alcoa, the world’s largest aluminum company was looking for a location for a new smelter. Iceland decides to build the biggest dam in Europe to provide cheap electricity for their smelter, located in the rugged east fjords of the country. The plan is to turn wilderness into a massive system of hydro-electric and geothermal power plants with dams and reservoirs. The industry is highly energy intense as well as a heavy emitter of chemicals, which will put an unbearable strain on the country’s resources.
This controversial matter goes largely unnoticed by the public until the industrial machine has started. Although most Icelanders are against the idea, many locals celebrate the idea of increasing investment and jobs in their region. They have been getting desperate, facing de-population as young people seek education and better jobs in the capital.
Stunning cinematography, sweeping over vast stretches of this wild and sparsely inhabited island, is combined with news footage and stories of back room politicking and the resistance. Many perspectives weigh in, including scientists, economists and farmers, giving a well-rounded picture of Iceland’s struggle and transformation.
For anyone familiar with the thriving Icelandic music scene, it should come as no surprise that music plays a significant role in the film — Valgeir Sigurdsson’s Dreamland score has just received a nomination at the 2010 Icelandic Film Academy Awards.
“Dreamland offers impassioned visual and rhetorical arguments that put the island nation's environmental and financial problems in historical perspective. Illustrating how the government blithely sold precious natural resources to predatory multinationals and used economic fear-mongering to push the deals through without proper study or reflection.”
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Alissa Simon, Variety
Directors' biographies
Þorfinnur Guðnason graduated from California College of Arts and Crafts in 1987. He began his career working for the Icelandic Broadcasting Company and worked for years as a cinematographer, editor and producer. In the early 1990s he started making his own documentaries, creating numerous well-received and award-winning films. In Dreamland he teams up with author/director Andri Snær Magnason for the first time delivering an epic film.
Andri Snær Magnason is one of Iceland’s most celebrated young writers. He has written numerous award-winning novels, poetry, plays, short stories, essays and CD’s and has collaborated with many celebrated artists. His book Dreamland – a Self Help Manual for a Frightened Nation, has been published in English and is now a feature length documentary film.
