
Baldvin Z
Directing
Biography
Baldvin Zophoníasson (aka. Baldvin Z; born 18 March 1978; Akureyri) is an Icelandic film and television director, writer, and producer. He is best known for his films Jitters, Life in a Fishbowl, Let Me Fall, and the television series Réttur and Trapped. Baldvin's first feature film was the Icelandic-language teenage drama Jitters (titled Órói in Icelandic), released in 2010. The film portrays "the confusion and excitement of being a teenager". It won the Children's Film Award at the Kristiansand International Children's Film Festival. His second feature was the 2014 movie Life in a Fishbowl, co-written with Birgir Örn Steinarsson, which won at the Edda Awards (including Best Director), Zurich Film Festival, and Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, and gathered numerous award nominations. The film is an ensemble drama set in the year before the severe economic collapse in Iceland in 2008. It portrays people from various walks of life whose lives intersect in unexpected ways. Baldvin's next major project was directing the third season of TV series Réttur, created by Sigurjón Kjartansson and produced by Saga Film for Icelandic national television RÚV and Netflix. He directed three episodes of Baltasar Kormákur's Nordic noir drama Trapped in 2016. In 2017, he released two documentaries. The first was titled Reynir Sterki: Beyond Strength and described the tragic life of vagabond strongman Reynir Örn Leósson. The second was Island Songs, a real-time multimedia project documenting the creation of Ólafur Arnalds' album Island Songs in various locations around Iceland. This was Ólafur's third collaboration with Baldvin, as he'd previously scored Baldvin's first two feature films. His second collaboration with Birgir Örn Steinarsson, the feature film Let Me Fall, was released in 2018.
Known For

The body of a murder victim turns up in a small Icelandic village just as a major snowstorm cuts the region off from the rest of the world.
Trapped

A troubled police officer is forced back to her hometown. Confronting her abusive mother is inescapable but the discovery of a body changes everything. She's forced to search for a dangerous serial killer while stuck in a dark pit.
Black Sands

A dramatic thriller about a broken lawyer who seeks redemption through his investigation into the suspicious suicide of a teenage ballet prodigy.
Case

Three tales of three people who have a lasting effect on one another. A young writer whose career is skyrocketing finds himself in a stormy marriage. He divorces his wife after the death of their daughter, shuts himself from the outside world and drinks himself to death over a twenty-year period.
Life in a Fishbowl

A buddy love story about two men going on a road trip to reshape their longtime friendship. The journey takes an unexpected turn which forces them to face their own feelings, manhood, and pride.
Journey

When 15-year-old Magnea meets Stella, everything changes. Stella's no-holds-barred lifestyle drags them both into a world of drugs, which brings serious consequences for each of them, and their relationship. Twelve years later their paths cross again, and a reckoning between them becomes unavoidable.
Let Me Fall

An unexpected first kiss causes Gabriel to feel the electrifying "jitters" of love and lust with the free-spirited Marcus; a perfect way to end a Summer studying abroad. Realizing he is gay, Gabriel returns home and is immediately scrutinized by his family and friends who notice he’s different. But as the school year launches with Gabriel distracted with parties and his friends’ own dramas, Marcus returns, reigniting the hot, thrilling emotions of one’s first crush. Jitters fires head-first into the topsy-turvy world of first love with an attractive cast and pulsating soundtrack, making it a smartly refreshing journey into the queer, teen experience.
Jitters
A film about boys who bring the struggle for their lives onto the soccer field. Hope springs eternal but here hope is a struggle with oneself and with despair. The boys tell their story from within, the story of how the light pushes the darkness out of the way, without self-pity or evasion. They have exhausted every venue. Therefore the true facts stand naked. Marvelous people. Fascinating characters.
How to Win a Lost Game
The charismatic captain of a fishing trawler in the North Atlantic has just boarded young deckhand Hákon, who takes on the job to provide for his pregnant girlfriend. However, the sea soon turns into a nightmare after a crewmate commits suicide and the captain refuses to return to shore. As Hákon fights seasickness, and the crew’s bullying, his sanity begins slipping, until a life-threatening accident triggers a shift.
Dark Ocean

Three children take their grandfather to the graveyard to visit their dead grandmother. When they find out that granddad is tired of living and is actually waiting to die the children get confused, especially the youngest one. Granddad has to find a way to explain to her that death is not the worst thing in the world, which starts a chain of bizarre events. This becomes a learning full experience for the youngest one, even though it leads to a tragic ending.
Hotel Earth

The story of Reynir Örn Leósson, who became famous in Iceland in the 70's for being the strongest man in the world. With supernatural strength and his connection to god, Reynir achieved phenomenal things and his world records still stand today. But his harsh childhood shaped him into a man with dark secrets, an abusive alcoholic, desperately trying to get recognition from society all his life.
Reynir Sterki

A film by Baldvin Z & Ólafur Arnalds Island Songs is a unique audio-visual portrait of my home country, Iceland. In 2016 I travelled to 7 towns across Iceland and collaborated with 7 local artists to create, record and perform a new composition. For 7 weeks we released a brand new song and live video every Monday. Alongside the performances we made this film, Island Songs, where we explore what makes these artists tick, the influence the country has had on their lives and try to show a different side of this island we all call home.
Island Songs

From Oakland to Iceland: A Hip-Hop Homecoming is a documentary about Iceland native DJ Platurn, raised in California and his homecoming tour playing in Iceland where he has lived since the age of 7. The film explores his 3 week tour DJing for his native Icelanders, where he exhibits his talents as a scratch/trick DJ, among other things. DJ Platurn resides in Oakland, California.