Stark has produced over 20 feature films such as Jim Jarmusch's Down By Law and Mystery Train, Fridrik Thór Fridriksson's Cold Fever and Bent Hamer's Factotum which he co-wrote. Stark shares his time between the US (New York) and Iceland.
Can you remind us how and when you started getting involved in Nordic films?
Jim Stark: I produced Jim Jarmush's Mystery Train which was invited to the Reykjavik Film Festival in 1989. When I took the 20 minutes bus ride from the airport to Reykjavik, crossing the lava fields and the most amazing landscape I had ever seen, I thought "I want to do a local road movie in Iceland'. Somehow, the idea of a Japanese guy in Iceland came to me. I talked to the 12 Icelandic filmmakers working then and settled with one guy, Fridrik Thór Fridriksson who had only made one small movie, White Whales but went on to direct Children of Nature. We agreed we would do a low budget road movie together which became Cold Fever.
After that, I got a house in Iceland and spent a lot of time there. I produced a 40-minute silent movie called Skagafjordur directed by the famous photographer Peter Hutton. Then I met Bent Hamer and we decided to do Factotum together.
What are you currently working on?
I'm co-producing a new Icelandic film called Country Wedding. It is the first feature film directed by Valdis Óskardóttir who edited Festen, Finding Forrester, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. The film is shot by Anthony Dodd Mantle, DoP on Festen, Last King of Scotland and 28 Days Later. The actors are all from the Vespurport group who did Children and Parents. It's a very exciting project.
What is the status on the film and how was the financing put together?
The film is in the Icelandic language and was shot in eight days last May. Valdis Óskardóttir is editing right now and hopefully it will go to Cannes. The film is primarily an Icelandic production done with private equity money in Iceland, something quite new. The producer is Gudrun Edda Thorhanesdottir who used to work for the Icelandic Film Centre. This is her first feature film production. She asked me to help her on the foreign side of it, so I helped her put together a deal with the international sales company Fortissimo Film Sales.
This is not the kind of film you can pre-sell as it is a directorial debut, without a script, shot in Icelandic. But with the people involved, I have a high expectation that it can do very well at festivals and if the film is really good, Fortissimo will sell it well.
Finally, what do you think of the current films coming out of the Nordic region?
There are some interesting people coming out of Norway, but I must say I am more knowledgeable and always astonished about what's out there in Iceland. They have four great directors (Baltasar Kormákur, Fridrik Thor Fridriksson, Dagur Kári, Robert Douglas) and what I'm seeing is another three or four filmmakers coming up and making their first films, along with other talented names such as Ágúst Gudmundsson or Gudny Halldorsdottir.