Country Wedding (2008)
"Sveitabrúðkaup" (original title)

A couple decide to get married in a church out in the country. It is 1 hour drive from Reykjavik but things do not go as planed.

Director:

Valdís Óskarsdóttir

Writer:

Valdís Óskarsdóttir (screenplay)

Stars:

Hreinn Beck, Caroline Dalton, Erlendur Eiríksson

5 nominations.

Cast

Credited cast:
Hreinn Beck	...	Band roadie
Caroline Dalton	...	Girl
Erlendur Eiríksson	...	Síði
Ágústa Eva Erlendsdóttir	...	Auður
Nína Dögg Filippusdóttir	...	Lára
Gísli Örn Garðarsson	...	Grjóni
Þröstur Leó Gunnarsson	...	Svanur
Árni Pétur Guðjónsson	...	Stefán
Karl Guðmundsson	...	Jóhannes Karl
Rúnar Freyr Gíslason	...	Sigurður Atli
Björn Hlynur Haraldsson	...	Barði
Tinna Hrafnsdóttir	...	Kiosk salesperson
Theodór Júlíusson	...	Lúðvík
Hanna María Karlsdóttir	...	Imba
Sigurdir Kunar Karvarsson	...	Bus driver

Storyline

Inga and Barði decide to get married in a church in the countryside. They hire one bus for each family and guests and a band to play in the party. Inga travels with her parents and brother; her best friend Lára that brings her senile grandmother and her flirt Egill; and her mother's mate Svanur that has also a secret affair with Lára. Barði travels with his parents and sister Auður; the gay cousin of his father and his mate; and his friends Síði that Inga Hates and Grjóni that arrives later. They get lost and while seeking the church, the tension increases and secrets are disclosed in the dysfunctional families and friends in the great day of Inga and Barði.

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Genres:

Comedy

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Details

Official Sites:

Official site Official site [fr]

Country:

Iceland

Language:

Icelandic English

Release Date:

28 August 2008 (Iceland)

Also Known As:

Country Wedding

Filming Locations:

Snæfellsnes, Iceland

Company Credits

Production Co:

Mystery Island, Duo Productions, Ave Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

99 min 99 min

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The entire movie was shot in chronological order. This was due to the actors not knowing about the other characters "secrets" till they were actually revealed during shooting.

User Reviews

My first film of TIFF08

7/10

This film is more about how the acting came together than the story. That is from how I interpret what the director and cast explained during the post TIFF08 Q&A. Provided you have never seen any Nordic/Scandanavian films before this could be refreshing. But if you have seen others, it could still be interesting but it's hard not to compare.

The story is basically a road movie cross a private cozy wedding day bonanza. There are extreme close ups (chest and up) with hand held cameras, somewhat grainy stock, so if you have an issue with that it could be a problem.

The dialogue ranges from casually realistic to dramatically revealing. The story unfolds as the tension and that well foreshadowing the snow ball ending - a bit more climatic for my taste but logical.

There are loads of characters and they contrast well with each other. And since this is a comedy some characters are extended a bit more than normal. However, well improvised (in certain respects) and well conceived considering shot in 7 days.

The Q&A indicated the cast rehearsed on the history of the characters, but acted on the instance of each scene. Each had to make up an secret for the character and have to decide whether to review the secret during the shoot. While this kind of sounds intriguing it is nothing new and might be too much secret culuminating for one film ? Then again we all have secrets don't we ?