Gudrun Edda Thórhannesdóttir (photo) who produced last year's festival hit Country Wedding, is attending the upcoming Cannes Film Festival (May 14-24) as Iceland's Producer on the Move, with Fridrik Thor Fridriksson's Mamma Gógó as work in progress. She spoke to Nordiskfilmogtvfond.com about her new company Spellbound.
You've founded the new production outfit Spellbound with the ‘godfather' of Icelandic cinema, Fridrik Thor Fridriksson. How did this happen?
Fridrik and I first worked together in 1996 when he was artistic director of the Reykjavík International Film Festival. I really enjoyed working with Fridrik and we have been good friends ever since. I have always admired his work and it is an honour for me to be working with him, he is a pioneer and has done invaluable work for the Icelandic film industry. Shortly after I finished producing Country Wedding and moved back to Iceland from the UK, our paths crossed again. We decided that I would join him and we would produce his new film Mamma Gógó together. Our lawyer and mutual friend Tomas Thorvalddson played a role in this and we founded our company Spellbound Productions (Hughrif ehf.).
What type of projects do you want to make for Spellbound?Spellbound Productions will produce Fridrik‘s films which all are strong human stories with a wry sense of humour and genuine solidarity with the characters. Spellbound will also work with other filmmakers with emphasis on drama and comedy.
What's the status on Mamma Gógó and do you have a sales agent attached to the film?
Mamma Gógó is now in post-production and looks very promising. I have to say that I feel we have something special in our hands. The film is about a film director's personal journey experiencing his mother's disappearance into the Alzheimer disease, a film with all the essential Fridriksson's ingredients: humour, compassion and a strong visual style. We have a fantastic team and Fridrik is working with his old collaborator, cinematographer Ari Kristinsson (Children of Nature). They have not worked together since Devil‘s Island in 1996. We will show a rough cut of the film in Cannes and are in negotiations with several sales agents on the film.
Iceland has been badly hit by the world financial crisis. How do you still manage to raise financing?
I financed Country Wedding mostly with private funds and then the Icelandic Film Centre came into the project with a post-production grant. Our investors were fantastic and I‘m still working with one of them, White River. Iceland has been hit by the economic crisis and therefore at the moment we have to rely on the Icelandic Film Centre, European funds and co-producers.