Hafdis Bjarnadóttir

No description available.

On her weekly trips to the swimming pool, Neema, a young immigrant to Iceland, stads out so much that she melts into a puddle. As she strives to stay solid, she realises that she is not the only one struggling with loneliness and grief.

The title of Gústav Geir Bollason’s first essay in feature-length filmmaking is bewitchingly matter of fact: Mannvirki means structure or building – it’s composed of two parts, where the first means person, and the second fortress. And this is exactly what Mannvirki is about. It shows people in a once-sturdy, now derelict building that could have been anything from a scientific research station to some army structure.

‘On The Surface’ is a 4mn animation about a young Black woman who goes swimming in the Icelandic sea and reflects on her experience of having a baby in a country that feels nothing like home. As she enters the freezing water, she relives her traumatic pregnancy and postnatal depression. Soon her swimming eases. Being in the wild and facing her fears is helping her heal.