White Whales
Skytturnar

Fridrik Thor Fridriksson
Iceland, 1987, 80 mins.

Producers: Petter J. Borgii, Fridrik Thor Fridriksson
Screenplay: Fridrik Thor Fridriksson, Einar Karason
Director of Photography: Ari Kristinsson
Music: Hilmar Orn Hilmarsson, Bubbi Morthens, The Sugarcubes
Principal cast: Eggert Gudmundsson, Thorarinn Oskar Thorarinsson.

Driven ashore by the end of whale hunting season, two grizzled deck-hands, Grimur and Bubbi, wander the terra incognito of Reykjavik at night. Dangerously unawares of their own ominous detachment, they lurch from bar to bar in search of yet another drink, with no questions asked. As lost on land as they are at home on the high seas, the two inevitably provoke a violent clash of cultures, holing up in a rifle shop with the police closing in. In his debut feature, Fridriksson sends his brooding loners into as dark and fateful a night as any they have sailed through, and challenges the audience to follow them. - Scott Meserve