Category: Interview

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City councillor Sanna Magdalena Mörtudóttir in City Hall by the Reykjavík city Pond

Interview

Power To the People

The Reykjavík City Hall welcomes a fresh newcomer this term in Sanna Magdalena Mörtudóttir. A majority of the newly appointed city council is comprised of women, none garnering more attention than newcomer Sanna. Sanna is in many ways in stark contrast with the typical city council member. She’s experienced a life of poverty, she’s young, she’s a person of colour, she’s an anthropologist, and last but not least… she’s a socialist. A founding member of Sósialistaflokkurinn (The Socialist Party), she has spearheaded the party’s foray into politics which culminated with 6.4% of the votes for the city council in Reykjavík. Born in 1992, Sanna broke a 44-year record by becoming the youngest city council member ever in Reykjavík. The person whose record she beat was Davíð Oddsson, a former prime minister and mayor of Reykjavík. I met Sanna in downtown Reykjavík, her new battling ground, and it’s safe to say Sanna proves a stark contrast to Davíð.

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Jóhann Páll Ástvaldsson June 1, 2018

Economy

Driven by Curiosity

The driven and innovative Össur Kristinsson attacks the high seas in his newest venture, as he aims to redefine the fundamentals of sailing. In his career, Össur has consistently created something out of nothing, touching down in a variety of fields as he goes wherever his mind takes him. The founder of global prosthetics giant Össur, it is clear from the moment we met that his focus is wholly on the marine company Rafnar, whose revolutionary ÖK Hull aims to change the meaning of ‘smooth sailing‘.

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Jóhann Páll Ástvaldsson May 30, 2018

Culture

A Charmed Life

Siglufjörður is a small town in the north with a population of just over 1200 people. One of the 1200 people in town is artist Aðalheiður S. Eysteinsdóttir, whose wooden sculptures are instantly recognisable to most art lovers. Iceland Review sat down with her and her daughter Brák Jónsdóttir to learn more about an artist’s life in Siglufjörður.

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Gréta Sigríður Einarsdóttir May 20, 2018

Culture

Páll Óskar Takes the Stage

Páll Óskar has lived his life on the stage. The child star evolved into a brightly shining pop star and is by now a seasoned performer, capable of charming a crowd of two or two thousand. Just when you think he‘s peaked, he finds a new way to put on a show.

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Gréta Sigríður Einarsdóttir May 19, 2018

Culture

Fresh Paint

Building a career on painting with oil on canvas in the style of the old masters isn’t what most young artists dream of, but for Þrándur Þórarinsson, it was a natural fit. „I was always drawing as a kid. At one point, I was looking for inspiration, looking for things I found cool, artists that I liked. Then I discovered the old masters.” Figuring that these guys were simply very good at drawing, he’d found something to aspire to. “When I was at school, I made the decision that I wanted to be like them. If they could do it, I could too.”

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Gréta Sigríður Einarsdóttir May 19, 2018

Interview

New Brooms Sweep Clean

Iceland hasn’t had much luck with prime ministers for the past few years. Try as we might, we can’t seem to get them to stay. They say doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results is insanity, so this time, we’re trying something different. Katrín Jakobsdóttir is the third youngest prime […]

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Gréta Sigríður Einarsdóttir May 5, 2018

Culture

“Comedy is My Only Plan”

For a few days at the end of December, the most popular event in Reykjavík was Ari Eldjárn’s Áramótaskop. The year-in-review stand-up comedy show was a hit with audiences, and despite the limited time frame, a few days between Christmas and the New Year, Ari put on several sold-out shows in one of the biggest […]

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Gréta Sigríður Einarsdóttir March 6, 2018

Culture

All Strings Attached

How an injury led Ólafur Arnalds to self-playing pianos and new creative possibilities.

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schultzgang January 19, 2018

Culture

Filmmaking is an Obstacle Race

Funding a director’s first full-length film is difficult anywhere in the world, but Iceland is also a small market for cinema. According to recent statistics, fewer women have directed films in the past ten years, than they did thirty or forty years ago, even though more movies are being made. Film making is a long process with many twists and turns along the way. Despite all of this, Ísold Uggadóttir not only completed her first full-length film, which she wrote and directed but also won Best Director at the Sundance Film Festival in the World Cinema Competition category. From there, she has taken her film to several film festivals around the world.

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Gréta Sigríður Einarsdóttir January 19, 2018

Culture

Folktales From the Fog

I met singer-songwriter Snorri Helgason at a cosy Reykjavík café on a dark, windy January day. The weather seemed appropriate for our chat, which focused on his newest album, Margt býr í þokunni (Much Lives in the Fog), a labour of love four years in the making.

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Jelena Ćirić January 6, 2018