Jón Magnússon wrote a book called Píslasaga, a very unique document. He burned two men for witchcraft. He was afraid he would run into trouble, so to justify himself he wrote this book about his experiences. He shows really great skills as a writer and explains some fantastic things as if they were reality. I think Freud would have a difficult time if he read this. He wrote a description of his sufferings, the confessions of his victims and so forth. I got to thinking, how can you make a film about this man? To me, it's a little bit like the story of Osama bin Laden - like Bin Laden, Magnússon thought he was saving people by burning them. They share this similar mentality of trying to save the world by destroying it, saving it from a worse fate in hell. 40 years later, Magnússon was still convinced that what he had done was right.

When the Raven Flies was ten years of continuous work. If you see older Viking films, you notice that they're more or less like a Viking opera - people wearing chicken feathers, Valkyries screaming. Njalssaga certainly portrays the time period romantically. It probably wasn't until Snorri Sturlusson that we begin to see through the romance to the reality, which was that the axe would not sing. Those times were more cruel, the swords were like clubs. The Vikings who came to Iceland were political fugitives. Take Ingólfur Árnasson for example, who killed lots of people. The Vikings were actually descendents of nomadic farmers from the Asian steppes. I wanted to make a film that would portray them more accurately.

The problem you run into when you do a film that takes place in the past is you have to ask yourself, "How did they look? How did they behave?" You have to be able to see the whole thing. It's not enough to dress an actor.

I grew up in Breiðafjörður in 1952. Back then there was no electricity, and the seamen used to use the fat of seals and whales to keep themselves warm. The ships used to dock inside of caves. I used to think to myself, if I came here first, how would I survive?"

 

 

So the movie had to be authentic. When I saw the work of Karl Júliússon, I told him, "You have to work with me." He made some very authentic costumes - we were freezing behind the cameras but the actors in the costumes were fine.

I think the reason why we Icelanders began writing is because of the Irish blood. The Irish women who were taken as slaves became the mothers of the house.

The inspiration behind doing When the Raven Flies came from two forces. First, I was brought up by my grandmother, who used to tell me these stories to get me to fall asleep. As I grew up, my father helped me read them. I lived in a world of Vikings when most kids were thinking of Batman. To me they were more real than Donald Duck. I had seen all these stories in my head. I wanted something stronger, some fantastic story. The stories that my grandmother told me, I wanted to give other people this vision, to tell what I discovered. I went to Sweden and was there from 1974 to 1976 and saw these old Viking movies. I wanted to find out why we looked ridiculous. Although it took a great effort and passion, I eventually came up with When the Raven Flies.

I think the similarity between the westerns and my movies is that in both cases, we're talking about a pioneer society in unsettled lands. It's easy to draw parallels and impossible to tell a pioneer story without looking to the westerns.

This movie was a fairy tale. It has nothing to do with that time, just as spaghetti westerns have little to do with the actual west. They're entertaining. Why pretend otherwise? When the Raven Flies is my approach to this time. I'm not sure it's the right one - maybe someone else would approach it differently. The Berlin Festival seemed to think it was authentic. The accuracy of my story was based on fantasy and instinct. I actually had to sell the rights to the film just to be able to finish it.

In terms of the role of the director: in the year before shooting, I wanted an actor to know exactly what to do before the cameras rolled. Sometimes the weather was so terrible that there was no time for discussion - you have to finish the discussion before you get on the set.

I had to contact different countries in order to get it translated into the different languages. It has been dubbed in the Eastern European languages, and was translated in some cases by institutions that no longer exist. I hope this new version will help to contact people.

I think an artist can be thankful for any controversy they cause. You have to show things in a different light, sometimes even in a dim light. It creates a discussion to give people a different perspective. For example, about three years ago I did a film called "Reykjavík in another light." Here I put forward the idea of expanding the city into the islands around the penninsula and to move the Reykjavík airport to Skerafjörður. Now we see these plans underway, although I wanted tunnels going to the islands; not bridges. I think these were ideas people had to get used to. Caviar might taste awful at first, but eventually you grow to like it, like red wine when you're a kid - it tasted terrible the first time you tried it, didn't it? But now you probably like it. Of course, the initial reaction from these politicians was like they had a block in their heads, following this hippy mentality that we shouldn't have any buildings taller than a certain limit, as if we're still living in turf houses. I knew all these guys back when they had long hair and were smoking hash. I've always been an anarchist. There's a saying in Iceland: "Frelsis skal verja með bóðum." I think it's an Icelandic contradiction that you can have more freedom with more supervision. When the Raven Flies was a sort of nostalgia to a time when there was nobody controlling anything.

The difference between Iceland and Norway is, in Norway things are forbidden if they're not allowed, but in Iceland things are allowed if they're not forbidden. Whether you're talking about the possibility of an Icelandic army, or how to deal with immigration, whether parliament can do this is not the question. The question is, how can the government reflect the nation? Every election reflects the nation in a way. If there's a better way to do things than democracy, we haven't found it yet.

I never think of a work that I'm proud of. If I did When the Raven Flies now, it would be totally different, because it would be reflecting what I'm feeling now. When I look in the mirror I say to my reflection, "You look a lot like me."

I think the one movie that would serve as the best example of my work would be When the Raven Flies. But I'm finished with film. It's too big a wheel to turn, trying to get money, finding the time and so on. You can drown in the machinery. If someone gave me the opportunity to concentrate solely on my art I would take it. Making a film is a lot like being in the military. If you're not there at 8 in the morning, ready to shoot for the next ten hours, you'll be stuck in editing. I quit years ago. Although I still have a lot of stories in my head, like this one Viking film I still have:

It's winter. There's an enormous cold, white landscape. Then from out of the whiteness we see mountains, broken trees, smoke coming from þúfur. In this whiteness we see men, riding starving horses, traveling enormous distances just to kill each other. If I ever make this film it will be my last one. But I know the enormous challenge of this task. This would be another sacrifice, another endless pain leading to the greatest joy. In Myrkrahöfðinginn there was terrible weather, a landscape with no forgiveness.

We used real testicles in Myrkrahöfðinginn. The testicles of a young horse, that is.

My creative outlet now is travel. It gives me inspiration and peace. When I went to India and saw how people were surviving there, all my problems were suddenly a joke. I'm very thankful for being an Icelander. The more I see the world the more I see what I have to be thankful for. I'm also thankful that film gave me the opportunity to travel.

I'm not looking for fame. I'm looking to tell a story. I'm a storyteller. That's my passion.