***NOW STREAMING ON NETFLIX***
“Kind of a masterpiece [...] The grandfather is a sprawling life force, I can not stop thinking about him, and I want to be exactly like him [...] Hope most of you will see this film.
Eiríkur Guðmundsson, radio host at Víðsjá, a cultural radio program on National Radio 1 of the Icelandic National broadcasting Service, 2021.
Eiríkur Guðmundsson, radio host at Víðsjá, a cultural radio program on National Radio 1 of the Icelandic National broadcasting Service, 2021.
A lighthouse keeper prepares his earthly funeral while trying to reconnect the elf within. Hulda and Trausti have shared a roof on Icelandic shores for over seventy years. Her love of books is matched by his love of stones. When he bursts out singing, she begs him to stop screaming, when he tells her he wants to change his name to "Elf" she warns his family will abandon him.
Now, as his one hundredth birthday nears and Trausti senses the hand of death upon him he is on a quest to find the coffin that can carry this elf back to the mysteries beyond.... Meanwhile, Hulda retreats into a world of poetry with the help of an electric magnifying glass. Half Elf is a modern Icelandic fairy-tale, where life is celebrated - despite everything, despite ourselves and despite the reality that awaits us all in the end.
Ethnocineca, International Documentary Film Festival, Vienna, Austria 7th - 13th May 2020, Nominated for the “Excellence in Visual Anthropology Awards”
Skjaldborg, International Documentary Film Festival, Patreksfjörður, Iceland 18th - 20th September 2020 ***WINNER of the Grand Jury Prize***
Nomination for the "Best New Nordic Voice" at Nordisk Panorama, Malmö, Sweden 17th - 27th September 2020
Nomination for the international competition at ASTRA FILM, Sibiu International Film Festival, Sibiu, Romania 4th - 13th September 2020 and 15th - 25th October 2020
Official Selection for the Green Years program, Docslisboa, Lisbon, Portugal 22nd October - 3rd November 2020
Tromsö International Film Festival, TIFF, Tromsö, Norway 18th - 24th January 2021
Nomination for the Rai Film Prize & The Basil Wright Prize at the Royal Anthropological Institute (RAI) Film Festival 19th - 28th March 2021
International Ethnographic Film Festival, Göttingen 25th -29th May 2022 ***WINNER Manfred Krüger award for excellent camera work***
“A piece of cinematic genius, managing to negotiate between lighthearted sweetness and the intense processes of ageing. [...] beautifully intimate and personal, showcasing the merits of how ethnographic film can allow us into homes, families, life and death.”
Lula Wattam, The RAI Film Festival Blog, 2021.
Lula Wattam, The RAI Film Festival Blog, 2021.
Director Jón Bjarki Magnússon (left) and composer Hlín Ólafsdóttir picking up the Jury Prize for Best Documentary at Skjaldborg
“A strong, solid story, sincerely told; an unpretentious film that captivates you from the first shot and makes you laugh and cry in equal measure. It features priceless characters that have a strong bond with nature and Icelandic cultural heritage. The film reminds you to not take life too seriously and to make sure you have fun, yet it also makes you think about death and it’s aftermath.”
Winner of ‘the Grand Jury Prize’ at Skjaldborg, the Icelandic Documentary Film Festival 2020.
Winner of ‘the Grand Jury Prize’ at Skjaldborg, the Icelandic Documentary Film Festival 2020.
HALF ELF is produced by SKAK BÍÓFILM, a small Icelandic film production company. SKAK is an Icelandic word that means „line fishing at sea in search for food“ - Jón Bjarki Magnússon and Hlín Ólafsdóttir, the two people behind SKAK, are often in their little rowboat fishing for stories to make anthropological and artistic films for TV and festival broadcast. Jón met Andy Lawrence in Berlin as supervisor to the MA in Visual Anthropology that he was completing with the first part of the Half Elf project, now F4F™ are co-producing to help take the film to the next level.
“An experience of unfettered joy” [...] that comes “with a lightness of being that offers inspiration to us all.”
Special mention at the Ava Award of the European Association of Social Anthropologists Age and Generations Network, 2021.