The Deep (Djúpið)
Contemporary World Cinema
Baltasar Kormákur / Feature Narrative / Iceland, Norway / 2012 / 95 min / Colour / DCP
In Icelandic / Arabic, English subtitles
Interests: Science/Technology, Drama, Friendship
MENA Premiere
Synopsis
In 1984, when a fishing boat capsizes off the coast of Iceland, Gulli, the lone survivor, spends several hours in the near-freezing North Atlantic waters. His inexplicable – some would say miraculous – survival makes him a media magnet and a scientific curiosity; he is poked and prodded by incredulous experts in an attempt to understand how he could have survived such an ordeal. But it is the immense sadness of his experience that stays with Gulli; he fundamentally rejects the notion that he is somehow remarkable: “All I did was save my own life,” he says; “Wouldn’t anyone have tried that?” Based on real events, director Baltasar Kormákur’s account of the tragedy captures in Gulli an Everyman in an extraordinary situation. Through recounting the fisherman’s simple actions, ‘The Deep’ becomes a moving chronicle of the human spirit – thus turning a near-mythical tale to better ends than a statistician’s study of survival.
About the Directors
Baltasar Kormákur was born in Iceland in 1966. An actor, director and producer, his films include the breakout hit ‘101 Reykjavík’ (2000), ‘A Little Trip to Heaven’ (2005) and ‘Jar City’ (2006), which won the Crystal Globe award at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. ‘The Deep’ is Iceland’s Oscar entry for 2012.
Credits
- Director
- Baltasar Kormákur
- Screenwriter
- Jón Atli Jónasson, Baltasar Kormákur
- Producer
- Baltasar Kormákur, Agnes Johansen
- Editor
- Sverrir Kristjánsson, Elísabet Ronaldsdóttir
- Executive Producer
- Lilja Pálmadóttir, David Linde
- Cinematographer
- Bergsteinn Björgúlfsson
- Sound
- Kjartan Kjartansson, Ingvar Lundberg
- Cast
- Ólafur Darri Ólafsson, Jóhann G. Jóhannsson, Þorbjörg Helga Þorgilsdóttir, Theodór Júlíusson, María Sigurðardóttir