Icelandic cinema: a primer

The mere existence of Icelandic cinema is fascinating in and of itself, especially given the country’s tiny population of just over 360,000. Not only does this unique local cinema exist, but it does so on a relatively large scale, and on a level of quality that makes it worthy of wider celebration.

Prior to the foundation of a and . The first purely Icelandic film came in 1923, named and directed by Loftur Gudmundsson who went on to become one of the pioneers of native film production. Two years later Gudmundsson produced the first documentary to focus solely on Iceland, named , and then dedicated the rest of his career to capturing the local fishing industry on film.