Hello Icelandic Movies!

The best Icelandic movies, series, and documentaries.

Jan 09, 2024

Iceland hits far above its weight of only 380,000 people.

Millions flock there to hike, ride the Ring Road, watch volcanoes, bathe in the hot springs, and eat herb-fed lamb hotdogs. Its alternate music and crime fiction delights. Their stand against corrupt bankers and for women is applauded. So is their standard of education and sexual liberation. Their geothermal engineering is the best. Their soccer surprises the world.

I love all of that except their soccer success (because I’m against fanatic sports), but one of the biggest reasons why this asthmatic wants to visit their lung-freezing country (that I cannot afford) is because of its great movies and TV series.

20 BEST ICELANDIC MOVIES

Lists are an opinion, and people differ, but none will doubt my first choice, ‘Beautiful Beings’ as one Iceland’s best movies. It shows a side to the country that adds a scar to everything beautiful I mentioned in my introduction. The director, Guðmundur Arnar Guðmundsson, made my second best choice too, but ‘Heartstone’ is more far more subtle.

I tend to favour intense and dialogue driven stories but ‘Life in a Fish Bowl’ and ‘Women at War’ are easy for anyone to dig into.

All links lead to trailers.

Beautiful Beings (child poverty drama 2022)
Heartstone (gender drama 2016)
The Sea a.k.a. Hafið (family dramedy 2002)
101 Reykjavík (coming-of-age dramedy romance 2000)
Angels of the Universe (biopic 2000)
Life in a Fishbowl (drama 2014)
Winter Brothers (dark drama 2017)
Metalhead (black metal teen grief drama 2013)
Rokland a.k.a. Stormland (loser narrative 2011)
Woman at War (dramedy 2018)
Lamb (fantasy grief drama 2021)
Virgin Mountain (dramedy 2015)
Of Horses and Men (dramedy romance 2013)
Godland (historical religious drama 2022)
Jar City (crime drama 2006)
Rams (family drama 2015)
Noi the Albino (coming-of-age dramedy 2003)
Agnes Joy (family drama 2019)
The Deep (adventure biopic 2012)
Volcano a.k.a. Eldfjall (Iceland drama 2011

Many English productions have been shot in Iceland. These include ‘Game of Thrones’, Tom Cruise’s ‘Oblivion’ and ‘The Secret Life of Walter Mitty’.

Icelandic director Baltasar Kormákur (‘Trapped’, ‘The Sea’) made the English hits ‘Everest’ and ‘2 Guns’.

Iceland stars include the pretty and talented Hera Hilmar (‘Life in a Fishbowl’) whose appeared in English series ‘Da Vinci's Demons’ and ‘See’.

BEST ICELANDIC SERIES

All are enjoyable but the first season of ‘Trapped’ is exceptional (and available on Netflix).

Trapped S1-2 (murder mystery)

Blackport S1-2 (corruption drama)

The Valhalla Murders (crime mini-series)

I’ve yet to see the fantasy ‘Katla’ but it looks fun, and you can also find it on Netflix.

BEST ICELANDIC DOCUMENTARIES

Unfortunately I haven’t watched many local documentaries but there are travellers who’ve given me great pleasure. The great and much missed Anthony Bourdain was there in 2005 to eat a hotdog for an episode of ‘No Reservations’.

Catch Ólafur Darri Ólafsson, one of Iceland’s biggest stars (‘Trapped’, ‘Stormland’) in the first episode of the docuseries ‘Rainn Wilson and Geography of Bliss’ (2023).

There’s great stuff from YouTube vloggers, starting with my favourite (which I found beautifully relaxing).