Ajyal Film Festival 2024

All Films

The Deep (Djúpið)

Contemporary World Cinema

Baltasar Kormákur / Feature Narrative / Iceland, Norway / 2012 / 95 min / Colour / DCP
In Icelandic / Arabic, English subtitles
Interests: Science/Technology, Drama, Friendship
MENA Premiere

Synopsis

In 1984, when a fishing boat capsizes off the coast of Iceland, Gulli, the lone survivor, spends several hours in the near-freezing North Atlantic waters. His inexplicable – some would say miraculous – survival makes him a media magnet and a scientific curiosity; he is poked and prodded by incredulous experts in an attempt to understand how he could have survived such an ordeal. But it is the immense sadness of his experience that stays with Gulli; he fundamentally rejects the notion that he is somehow remarkable: “All I did was save my own life,” he says; “Wouldn’t anyone have tried that?” Based on real events, director Baltasar Kormákur’s account of the tragedy captures in Gulli an Everyman in an extraordinary situation. Through recounting the fisherman’s simple actions, ‘The Deep’ becomes a moving chronicle of the human spirit – thus turning a near-mythical tale to better ends than a statistician’s study of survival.

About the Directors

Baltasar Kormákur was born in Iceland in 1966. An actor, director and producer, his films include the breakout hit ‘101 Reykjavík’ (2000), ‘A Little Trip to Heaven’ (2005) and ‘Jar City’ (2006), which won the Crystal Globe award at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. ‘The Deep’ is Iceland’s Oscar entry for 2012.

Credits

Director
Baltasar Kormákur
Screenwriter
Jón Atli Jónasson, Baltasar Kormákur
Producer
Baltasar Kormákur, Agnes Johansen
Editor
Sverrir Kristjánsson, Elísabet Ronaldsdóttir
Executive Producer
Lilja Pálmadóttir, David Linde
Cinematographer
Bergsteinn Björgúlfsson
Sound
Kjartan Kjartansson, Ingvar Lundberg
Cast
Ólafur Darri Ólafsson, Jóhann G. Jóhannsson, Þorbjörg Helga Þorgilsdóttir, Theodór Júlíusson, María Sigurðardóttir

blog comments powered by Disqus