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Helgi Svavar Helgason

Sound

Known For

The School of Housewives
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The School of Housewives is a documentary film about the self-image of the Icelandic housewife and how the role of this school has changed over the years. In the film, the past is reflected in interviews with senior students alongside old 16mm footage that show how important role the school played to expectant Icelandic housewives around the middle of the last century. At the same time, recent students are monitored showing how much change has taken place in the school, regarding the role of housewives today in terms of gender role and the basic values such as all kinds of efficiency, maintenance of clothing, protecting the environment and preventing food waste. The film is a unique contemporary documentary about the ReykjavĂ­k school of housewives, running since 1942 and still open for those students who are interested, despite the uncertainty about the future of the school and its possible imminent closure.

The School of Housewives

2020Movie
The Iron Cross at Mýrar Cemetery
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This is a documentary about a teacher from Reykjavik in search of her roots and interested in the preservation of old tales and history. Our story opens in the remote Mýrar cemetery in the West Fjords. The narrator is standing by her forefathers´ grave, which is overgrown and neglected and she senses her dead ancestors call out and implore her to do something. Beautiful irons cross lies on the grave of a young boy who died in the middle of the nineteenth century. Her curiosity aroused, the narrator discovers the story behind the iron cross memorial by talking to the archaeologist, Gunnar Bollason. She then goes on to discover similar iron crosses in cemeteries elsewhere in the southwest of the country. We visit the town of Þingeyri and watch as the broken iron cross from the family grave is repaired by the skilled craftsmanship of Kristján Gunnarsson at his engineering workshop, a workplace with an unbroken tradition going all the way back to 1913.

The Iron Cross at Mýrar Cemetery

2010Movie