Atlantica - Iceland Review

What do The Simpsons, Sex and the City,
George Orwell and Jules Verne
all have in common?
TRUE LIES
by Sari Peltonen
Illustrations by Noora IsOeskeli
Apart from success and fame, Iceland. Be it literature,
television and film, from supermodels to cartoon
characters and unpronounceable volcanoes,
Iceland pops up in the culture as an inspiration, curious
setting or just for novelty. A study in filmography and bibliography
of the island portrays an otherworldly landscape
and a handsome nation. In between the stereotypes and
soft soap, one may also come across some strikingly sharp
portraits of the state of affairs.
NORTHERN EXPOSURE
Fi r s t a n d f o r e m o s t it is of course the stunning
nature in the distant, freezing ultima Thule that
has stirred our inspiration, and an entire gang of
cultural icons have used Iceland as their running
grounds.
Godfather of all Iceland references is Jules Verne,
whose science fiction classic Journey to the Centre of
the Earth from 1864 depicts a trip to the center of
the earth through the volcano Snaefellsjökull. An
inspiration for generations of sci-fi nerds, the latest
in the Verne-inspired pieces is the 3D-blockbuster
from 2008.
Another remake of sorts, Gerald Butler raved
through the fog and green pastures of Iceland as
Beowulf in a 2005 version of the legend of Beowulf
and Grendel. It was a failure in the box office, only
making a heartbreaking 4,000 USD (ISK 449,280
EUR 2,942/GBP 2,491) during its opening weekend.
A better watch is the documentary depicting
the making of the epic, Wrath of Gods, which
chronicles how the financial outcome was merely
a dot above the i for a project that was already catastrophic
in every way imaginable.
007, on the other hand, was perfectly successful
in ordering his “vodka martini with ice, if you
can spare it” by the glacial lagoon Jökulsárlón in
the 2002 flick Die Another Day. Comic hero Tintin
stopped by in Akureyri for fuel for his vessel Aurora
on an expedition to the North Pole (a little too late
to catch fellow expeditionary Prince Nikolai in
Dostoyevsky’s Possessed). Iceland is also a regular
pit stop in the work of critically acclaimed English
comic-book writer Warren Ellis. In his Global
Frequency, parapsychologist Beta Kristjansdottir,
while investigating an angel sighting in Norway,
sets the language issues straight:
Allan Crowe: You speak Norwegian?
Beta Kristjansdottir: Well, Icelandic is only spoken
by the Icelandic and there are only a quartermillion
of us. It helps to speak another couple of
languages. You?
Alan Crowe: I don’t have to. God was an
Englishman.
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