Strákarnir okkar
Óttar Thor is the undisputed star of Icelandic premier league football team, KR. All hell breaks loose one day when he innocently tells reporters about his homosexuality. Moreover, not only did he neglect to inform his ex-beau ty queen wife and their teenage son about his decision to come out, it also completely slipped his mind to tell even his fellow team-members. The ensuing crisis is the final straw for a family already beset with problems and, at KR, Óttar suddenly finds himself on the list of substitutes. For this reason, the much-celebrated star decides to quit. But it is not long before he finds himself the centre of attention again, this time for a team of gay amateur football players, whose games he has been invited to watch by an old friend. The gay team’s new celebrity intake soon makes them talk of the town, but the club’s sporting abilities are in sharp contrast to their popularity. Most other teams refuse even to play friendly matches with them, so worried are they of being considered gay. Óttar’s son is also having trouble accepting his father’s homosexuality. In the end, KR’s manager decides that he simply can’t do without his star player. After much deliberation, Óttar agrees to return to his old club – on one condition: that KR play a game against the gay team. Róbert I. Douglas: “My film shows what it means to be gay in a society that values machismo, such as Icelandic society with its stereotypical image of men as hard-working, hard-drinking fishermen.”
>>> Watch trailer on YouTube
details
-
Runtime
90 min -
Country
Iceland, Finland, Great Britain -
Year of Presentation
2006 -
Year of Production
2005 -
Director
Róbert I. Douglas -
Cast
Björn Hlynur Haraldsson, Helgi Björnsson, Arnmundur Ernst, Lilja Nóttþórarinsdóttir, Sigurður Skúlason, Björk Jakobsdóttir, Þorsteinn Bachmann, Pattra Sriyanonge, Lilja Guðrún Jónsdóttir, Hilmar Jónsson, Felix Bergsson, Nanna Ósk Jónsdóttir, Stefán Jónsson, Björgvin Pétur Einarsson, Elli Jóhannesson, Damon Younger, Erlendur Eiríksson, Valdimar Flygering, Maríus Sverrisson, Víðir Guðmundsson -
Production Company
Icelandic Film Company -
Berlinale Section
Panorama -
Berlinale Category
Feature Film
Biography Róbert I. Douglas
Of Northern Irish-Icelandic descent, Douglas has spent a considerable part of his life in Northern Ireland, where he studied Media Studies for two years at The University of Ulster. Douglas was born in Iceland, in a small village Mosfellsbær just outside the capital Reykjavik. He would spend his summers with his grandparents in and around Coleraine, Northern Ireland.
When it comes to film, Douglas is for the most part self-taught. His mother is Icelandic and is a civil servant. and his Irish father is a geologist and teacher who has lived in Iceland for many years. As a young boy, his father would let him use his 8mm camera and later on, the family video camera, to make numerous short movies.
Douglas has been a regular prizewinner at the annual Reykjavik Short Film Festival, in all taking five prizes for four movies. In 1998, he received several awards for his twenty-minute short movie entitled Iceland is the Dream, which was to be the inspiration for his first feature film. The Icelandic dream went on to break all box office records in Iceland and was invited to various prestigious film festivals including Toronto, Edinburgh and Pusan. Robert Douglas has made three feature films and one documentary, his latest film Eleven Men Out was released in over 20 country's around the world including North America, France and Germany. It competed in the Panorama section of the 56th Berlin International Film Festival, the film was invited to over 100 film festivals including The Toronto International Film Festival and MoMA New Directors New Films in New York. Robert Douglas is considered one of Icelands most exciting young film directors.
Robert has been living in Beijing since 2007 preparing and working on numerous film projects. A feature film about the ex-pat community in Beijing will be released in 2013.
- IMDb Mini Biography By: filmdouglas