yearbook 2004/05 - The European Film College

My left foot
AWAY FROM THE EFC
Rotterdam Amsterdam Excursion
By Ragnhildur
Sigurdardottir
In the beginning of the year we were told there
would be a trip to a film festival after Christmas.
I was kind of excited about the idea. Of course
the concept of a film festival should sound appealing
to a young and eager film student, but
also the thought of going to a big city, a place
that never sleeps with cafés, shops, and clubs,
warms you up in the cold and dark Ebeltoft
nights.
Our trip began on the 26th of January and our
destination was Amsterdam. We travelled by
bus, which takes about 12 hours so we left in
the evening and drove through the whole night.
I had been fortunate enough to tear my left
ankle ligament two days before and therefore
I carried crutches as accessories. The doctor’s
orders were to rest and keep my leg up so for
the bus ride I sat dutifully with my leg on the
back of the seat in front of me in a most comfortable
manner. When we reached Amsterdam
next morning we were treated to two additional
hours of sightseeing in the bus due to problems
finding the hotel. The hotel turned out to be
in a nice 19th Century house, furnished in a
modern youth-hostel style.
Due to my condition I was only able to move
at a snail’s pace but I was fortunate enough to
stumble across a bike rental store. So on my new
transportation I was able to keep up with the
others and, though I do say so myself, I quite
blended in with the natives. Well… apart from
the fact that I had no idea of the traffic rules
and was stopped several times by the police for
biking on a pedestrian zone or on the wrong
side of a street.
The film festival was situated in Rotterdam. Due
to my condition I only went there one day and
saw 2 films. I can’t say I was enraptured by the
ones I saw. The first, Young Gods, was Finnish
(Dir. J-P Siili) and extremely silly, whilst having
ambitions to be a drama. It was about teenagers
who found enjoyment in filming each other
having sex, with disastrous consequences. The
second one however, a Polish film called Diably
Diably, (Dir. Dorota Kedziazowska) turned out
to be rather good although nothing really happened
in it. It was a study of the relationship
between the Poles and the nomadic Romany
gypsies told in an interesting, sometimes avantgarde,
way. I guess it’s a bit of a lottery when
you go to a film festival. We didn’t receive many
descriptions of the movies beforehand so I had
chosen them kind of randomly. I mainly just
tried to pick movies from different countries.
So for the remainder of the journey I instead
tried to see the attractions of Amsterdam. That
included spending a day shopping. I think it is
obligatory for a young woman to explore the
difference between H&M in the EU countries.
Even though I couldn’t fully participate in all of
the events on the trip (as I had to leave early) I
enjoyed it and hope that an excursion to Rotterdam
will be on the schedule for coming years.
Ragnhildur Sigurdardottir is a 22 year old Icelander.
She has been working in a fish factory
since she was 7 and only recently became interested
in films. Her interests are skiing, human relations
and laminating furniture. In the future she hopes
to do feature films about people in real life situations
set in Iceland.