Dir. Friðrik Þór Friðriksson
Cast: Keith Carradine, Margrét Vilhjálmsdóttir, Ingvar Eggert Sigurðsson
Falcons is Friðrik Þór Friðriksson's first English language movie, and also his first step into scriptwriting. He is a major player in the Icelandic movie industry with some ties to foreign movie companies, notably American Zoetrope. Although he has had some success in the international scene, with an Oscar nomination for Children of Nature in 1991, the majority of his work has been domestic with limited breakthrough to the foreign market. With Falcons however, he successfully produces a film that is likely to have appeal to both his followers domestic and those internationally who enjoy a more subtle aesthetic film experience.
It is a tale of redemption: following the last attempts of an American ex-con Simon, (Carradine), a jail bird and thus one of the tales 'falcons', to make some kind of atonement for his wasted life. Having returned to the place of his youth, he meets a fanciful radiant Icelandic woman Dúa (Vilhjálmsdóttir), colourful, bizarre and completely alien to him in philosophy (also one of the falcons: she is an air sign, is 'flighty' and likes to dress up as a bird and flounce around on a tightrope for audiences - the film's muse and the film's microcosmic personification).
They form an uneasy relationship, bonded by some kind of anti-chemistry, due partly to his belief that she is his illegitimate daughter. Having been entirely hopeless to the point of suicide, when events unfold that put her in jeopardy he is forced to save her. They must flee the country and escape to Germany .
There is persistent tension between the actions of these two protagonists. Simon considers himself down to earth and can't comprehend Dúa's eccentric 'spiritual' beliefs, as exemplified by her reduction of people into astrological star signs. Dúa prefers to dismiss him as a typical Scorpio and thereby avoid real intimacy with him (perhaps she subconsciously senses his paternity).
The actual Falcon bird that she has nurtured from ill health travels with them on their escape and has tremendous monetary value. To Dua it is the last remnant of her beloved life in Iceland . For the movie it represents life and Iceland . Dúa's fritters away their money and Simon tries to sell the falcon but he is cheated and the falcon is stolen.
Visually, the direction is perfect: still distant landscapes, contrasted with at times small, at others present but never melodramatic human activity. It is very reminiscent of the old cow-boy movies in this approach to the medium. There is a niche for films like this, appealing as it does to those who long to dispose of their own social inhibitions and revel in the care-free character of Dúa.
Deborah Nichols
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