The main actors in Icelandic coming-of-age film Heartstone (Hjartasteinn) by Guðmundur Arnar Guðmundsson, Baldur Einarsson and Blær Hinriksson, were both named Best Actor at the Marrakech International Film Festival on Saturday.
Heartstone has been hugely successful at film festivals this year. It competed for the main prize at Venice, winning the Queer Lion Award, and received three prizes in Warsaw, ruv.is reports.
In October, Heartstone claimed the Gold Q Hugo prize in the Outlook category at the Chicago International Film Festival, featuring LGBT-themed films. The jury concluded that the film had earned the prize: “For its piercingly honest portrait of adolescent sexuality, its alternately tough and warm empathy, and for how it effortlessly and evocatively captures a place and time.”
The film takes place in a small fishing village in Iceland in the summer time. This is an emotional coming-of-age story about the strong friendship between two boys. One of them is in love with a young girl in the neighborhood, but the other one gradually discovers that his feelings for his friend are deeper than he had realized.
Heartstone will premier in Iceland in the New Year.
