Jón Proppé

Running with the Herd is a unique and beautiful film. Director Thorfinnur Gudnason and his team bring to life a dramatic tale with sharply defined characters – all of them horses. Stretching the limits of the nature documentary has been Gudnason´s forte and his earlier film, Woodmouse: Life of the Run, has been shown around the world. Here he takes us into the world of horses running wild in the stark but majestic highlands of Iceland. Without humanising the animals in any way, the film tells a story full of drama and emotion, character, danger, and resolve.

Four years in the making, the film features interviews and footage never seen before, as well as older scenes of John and Yoko together, in private and performing in public. Yoko Ono talks about her and John Lennon’s love and life together, about the art they made together and their struggle for peace and justice, including the imaginative methods they used to get their message across: “Give peace a chance.” Lennon’s music provides an inspirational soundtrack to a story that that began more than forty years ago and is still unfolding. In 2007, when Yoko Ono dedicated the Imagine Peace Tower to John’s memory she added: “My love for you is forever.”

Magnús Blöndal Jóhannsson is remembered as one of the pioneers of modern Icelandic music. The conversation between Hans Ulrich Obrist and Magnúsar Blöndal took place in Reykjavík on August 9, 2004. Nine days later, he lapsed into a coma and died on January 1, 2005.

When the Icelandic banks collapsed in the autum of 2008, taking most of the economy down with them, Ari Alexander took his camera and started to film what was happening in this tiny but relatively stable and affluent society. He filmed the ever-larger protests that in the end led to the downfall of the government. He took interviews with people shocked and confused by what was going on around them. He went to conferences and seminars where scholars tired to work out what had happened and what should happen next. He followed the endless debates and negotiations around the Icesave-accounts set up by Icelandic banks abroad. Every day brought fresh news of the complicated and often illegal deals made by financiers and bankers in the years leading up to the collapse.

A short film about a young boy's escape from reality, the search for love and security, about cryptic messages from outer space and an invisible friend in the cellar. Based on the director's own memories, this is the story of a young boy's world filled with fantasies and dreams of distant worlds. His eccentric grandmother is his best friend and his partner in the world of the imagination.