Huldufolk 102

THURSDAY 5 OCTOBER AT 1PM

Country USA/Iceland   Running Time 75 mins Format  Beta  Director/ Producer/              Screenplay Nisha Inalsingh   Director of Photography Sean Kirby  Print Source Nisha Inalsingh Email nasi1104@yahoo.com  Website www.huldufolk102.com

Set against the backdrop of Iceland’s breathtaking rural landscapes, Huldufolk 102 explores the country’s incredible attitude towards a supernatural phenomenon most of us associate with Walt Disney, JRR Tolkien and five year old girls. Entitled, quite literally, ‘hidden people 102’, Nisha Inalsingh’s film debut tackles parallel universes, fairies, elves and all things three feet tall.
This unique documentary, containing interviews with farmers and academics, politicians and priests, the young, the old, the superstitious and the rational, bears testament to the survival of ancient folkloric traditions in all segments of Icelandic society. Once a widespread phenomenon all over Europe, such folklore is now mostly limited to old Nordic ladies and young Irish kids. Yet here, men in suits talk very seriously about the huldufolk’s invisible houses inside rocks and stones. The matter is taken so seriously, in fact, that parliamentarians agree to divert roads around potentially ‘inhabited’ rocks! It’s not, the interviewed invariably stress, that everybody believes in these invisible beings (though 10 percent of the population do admit to it), but rather that most refuse to deny the possibility (80 percent, to be sure).
Sceptics expecting a cheap laugh will be disappointed to find an intelligently constructed documentary that explores how centuries of geographical isolation and proximity to nature have created an open minded and mature people who still have a respect for the vast outdoors and the unknown that we can only envy. Thoroughly charming.    UG   

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