Homeland: Sigur Rós

Dean DeBlois
Iceland
2006

As it says on the tour pass, ‘the greatest thing God has created is a new day’. Amen to that.

97", HD CAM
Color, English – Icelandic

about the film

Last year, in the endless magic hour of the Icelandic summer, Sigur Rós played a series of concerts around their homeland. Combining both the biggest and smallest shows of their career, the entire tour was filmed, and now provides a unique insight into one of the world’s shyest and least understood bands captured live in their natural habitat. The culmination of more than a year spent promoting their hugely successful ‘Takk…’ album around the world, the Icelandic tour was free to all-comers and went largely unannounced. Playing in deserted fish factories, outsider art follies, far-flung community halls, sylvan fields and darkened caves, the band reached an entirely new spectrum of the Icelandic population; young and old, ardent and merely quizzical, entirely by word-of-mouth. There is no doubt that the band is inextricably linked to the land in which they were forged. Heima -which means both ‘at home’ and ‘homeland’- is an attempt to make a film every bit as big, beautiful and unfettered as a Sigur Rós album. Homeland, as you would expect, is pure magic.

about the director

Dean DeBlois began his career in 1998 working for a TV animation studio in his hometown of Ottawa, Canada. His interest in feature-length animation drew him overseas to Dublin, where he honed his craft at the Don Bluth Studios. Several years later he moved to Burbank, California to work with Disney Feature Animation Studios. He joined the story department and worked for Mulan (1998) and Lilo & Stitch (2002). DeBlois then turned to live-action film and has worked for Disney/Buena Vista and Universal Studios. His love for music and music videos drove him to meet and pitch concepts to Sigur Rós, which gave birth to Homeland.

awards

2007 Oslo Film Festival
Reykjavik Film Festival
Chicago Film Festival

screenings

February 16 Saturday, 11:00 AM AFM Fitaş Beyoğlu 1

February 23 Saturday, 7:30 PM AFM Fitaş Beyoğlu 1

March 01 Saturday, 9:45 PM AFM CEPA Ankara 4

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