Janus Bragi Jakobsson

Iceland is the smallest nation ever to qualify for the World Cup, and the team and its incredible story have caught the attention of the entire world. But is it possible that the same forces that turned these boys into heroes also got the nation into trouble during the 2008 financial crisis? Through the players themselves and others, we learn what Icelanders hope for and what they fear.

In 1967 Sigurður Skúlason acted in his first film - the short Paradox - but it was never finished due to the primitive state that filmmaking in Iceland was at the time. But the memory of the film haunted Sigurður for years, and now almost fifty years later, the film is finished.

They speak of past achievements, challenge their guitars and form a band. The whole time equipped with smokes and beer. - A portrait of a generation.

Amateurs Paradise is a heartfelt and humorous film, that dissects humanity’s impulse to document through four men across generations. Using personal archives and modern reflections, it explores the tension between memory and performance, asking whether we film to preserve truth or to rewrite it. From a father’s decades of home videos to an influencer’s curated digital life, the film examines how we connect, reflect, and shape identity through the act of recording. Blending the private and the public, Amateurs Paradise reveals what it means to hold on to life’s fleeting moments—and why it matters.