This high-budget documentary talks about Icelandic musical scene, analyzing the phenomenon of a small people with plenty of creative musicians, all of them strong individualists: from internationally recognized talents, such as Björk, Sigur Rós i Mum, to those less known, but not less interesting, such as Apparat Organ Quartet (who have special love for old electronic instruments, faulty synthesizers, progressive rock and old Italian horror film soundtracks), lyricist Mugison, or teenage attraction Nilfisk. A group of reputed academicians, journalists, historians and artists answers to the film’s main question: where are the foundations of Icelandic music and why Icelanders are so infatuated with it. It should be mentioned that the film contains plenty of the concert recordings of the said musicians.
Ari Alexander Ergis Magnusson
Ari Alexander Ergis Magnusson was born in Reykjavik, Iceland, in 1968. ‘Screaming Masterpiece’ can be considered his first feature-length film, because his earlier works include only ‘making of’ films about the works of Fridrik Thór Fridriksson; he was also a producer of video clips.
General sponsor
Gargandi Snilld
Denmark, USA, Iceland
2005, color/bw
Directed by:
Ari Alexander Ergis Magnusson
Screenplay by:
Ari Alexander Ergis Magnússon
Cinematography:
Bergsteinn Björgúlfsson
Edited by:
Jón Yngvi Gylfason
Music:
Amína, Apparat Organ Quartet, Björk, Jóhann Jóhannsson, Mugison, Múm, Nilfisk, Quarashi, Sigur Rós, Steindór Andersen, The Sugarcubes, Trabant, Vinyl
Producers:
Ari Alexander Ergis Magnússon, Thor S. Sigurjónsson, Skúli Fr. Malmquist
Produced by:
Palomar Pictures, Ergis Filmproduction, Zik Zak Filmworks
