Foreign Directors Attend RIFF

A large number of international film directors are attending this year’s Reykjavík International Film Festival. As well as the guests of honor, Lukas Moodysson, Laurent Cantet and James Gray, all of whom are holding free master classes during the festival, Danish director Sören Kragh-Jacobsen is in Iceland to present his latest film, the dark The Hour of the Lynx, starring Sofie Gråbøl.

Sören Kragh-Jacobsen. Photo: IMDb.

Other guests include British director Simon Brook, whose documentaries The Tightrope, about his father, theater and film director of Lord of the Flies (1963), and Indian Summer about Ayurvedic medicine, will be screened at the festival. Brooks will also take part in a panel on finding a cure for cancer at 8 pm tonight.

Directors Andy Heathcote and Heike Bachelier, also from the U.K., present The Moo-Man, a documentary about a farmer struggling to save his family farm, and take part in a panel discussion entitled ‘The Future of Food’ on October 5.

Greek directors Alexandros Avranas, Menelaos Karamaghiolis and Penny Panayotopoulou are showing their films as part of the ‘In Focus: Greece’ program and will take part in a panel discussion, ‘The Economic Collapse and Cinema,’ on October 4.

In addition, directors Stephen A. Smith (U.S.), Julia Szucs (Canada) and Patrick Gambuti Jr. (U.S.) will join scientists and others at the ‘Climate Change and Cinema: Reaching Out to the World’ panel on October 3.

A host of other directors will also hold Q&A sessions during screenings of their films.

Follow icelandreview.com for coverage of this year’s festival.

For more information about RIFF panels, discussions and master classes visit riff.is.