Interview with Bragi Þór Hinriksson (Falcons)
The opening film of this year's 58th Zlín Film Festival was the icelandic film The Falcons directed by Bragi Þór Hinriksson.
It seems that life on Iceland will stop in June and all people will watch the World Championship. I noticed that Icelandic HUH started to be copied by the football fans all around the world. Is your film kind of a reaction to the increasing popularity of this sport in Iceland? What is the story behind The Falcon story?
Yes. We are all anxiously waiting for June to start. It’s been a distant dream to have our national team take part in the World Cup and you can really feel the exitement in the air as the first game draws closer. Just like you say. The Falcon story for me realy tries to show how a small nation of just over 300.000 people manages to qualify for the World Cup. The football culture here is very strong and trough the generations and the tournament depicted in the film taking place in the Westman Islands has really been the place where many of the players on the national team went. I myself was lucky enough at the age of 10 to go to the first tournament in the year 1984 so the premise and the story really spoke to me.
I heard that this HUH chant comes originally from Scottish Premier League? Is it true or is it originated with Vikings?
Yeah I heard that story too. I guess it must be with that like all good things. They tend to get immitaded.
What was the premiere in Iceland like?
It was wonderful. We had a huge Red carpet premiere with over a thousand people attending. This film has take two years of my life to complete was finally ready. I sat there sweating and exited amongst the audience and the reaction was so good. It was a very special moment for me.
You started as a puppeteer and then you moved to live-action films. Are people easier to handle than puppets?
The short answer is yes. But it’s really not that simple. As a puppeteer on television taking on a kind of legacy Jim Henson approach there’s more technical and detailed work involved with the puppets and it puts a tremendous restrain on you physically, especially when you act both as director and performer. Directing people and actors you are much more comfortable in your directing chair, with your monitor and a cup of coffe.
This is your second film with Lúkas. I suppose you found him thanx to an audition, right? What was it like to work with so many kids? Was it kind of a football camp for them?
Lukas is such a talented and up and coming actor. I found him through an audition we did for a TV series I did called “Promises”. I immedietely was attracted to his talents as a screen performer and how emotional hes is on screen. Also that he is very intelligent and mature and I found that he took direction very well. The three kids who make up the main roles were all wonderful. Viktor, who plays Ivar the bully and Isey who so wonderfully took on the role of Rosa were all found through careful casting and auditions. All the kids were great. Four weeks prior to filming we did in fact set up a football camp where the teams trained all the football scenes very carefully like a balled dance number. We had a football choreagrapher who oversaw that. This camp proved to be a fantastic way to get the kids together, get to know eachother so that the chemistry on screen would feel genuine.
The Falcons is mainly about friendship beyond borders, team work, courage, but also about family issues, a child´s limitless love towards their parents and their forgiveness. It seems lots of films deals with such topics and show children´s strength to overcome these moments.
That’s right. These kids are in this tournament in this beautiful island. It’s summer, the sun is shining and your out there with your best friends. You’re really supposed to be having the time of your life. In the midst of that you have this tragedy of home violence and the kids team up to try to help this boy in need. It’s teamwork at it upmost best. Both on and off the pitch.
Do you know anything about the place you are coming with the international premiere?
Not really. I’ve never been to your country. I know it’s very beautiful and used to have the largest cinema in Europe so it’s most appropriate to have the international premiere of The Falcons in Zlín. I hope you like my film. Thank you for the honour.