The Reykjavik International Film Festival

From a press release

"The Reykjavik International Film Festival is pleased to announce that Rúnar Rúnarssons short film, 2 birds (Smáfuglar), will be shown at this years festival. The film has been praised worldwide as one of the years best shorts. It was selected for the competition at the Cannes festival this year. Only 9 films out of approximately 5000 were selected. The list of prizes and nominations it has received is already truly impressive, for instance the film recently was awarded at the Dokufest festival in Kosovo.

2 birds is an unflinching look at the painful transition from childhood to the stark reality of adulthood. The story is simple in itself about a group of kids looking for some escapism, which has some terrible repercussions. Runar’s writing is filled with great observations and under his direction the teenagers turn out to be real characters, and not saturated by the nostalgic reminences of adulthood, as so often is the case. They drink, they long, they curse, have a rich and complicated inner life, yet they lack experience and the maturity to be fully independent individuals.

Although the surroundings and story are completely different, thematically it is a companion piece to Runar’s award winning and Oscar nominated short, The Last Farm (Síðasti bærinn í dalnum), where the main protagonist makes the ultimate sacrifice out of love. In that way, 2 Birds is a logical next step in the prolific collaboration between Runar and Zik Zak Filmworks and the second film in their Crossroad Trilogy.

RIFF considers it a great honour to be the first to show 2 birds in Iceland."

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