For his impressive sophomore feature, Icelandic director and writer Gu?mundur Arnar Gu?mundsson returns to the subject of his prize-winning debut Heartstone (MSPIFF 2017): fraught adolescent friendships and difficult family lives. In Beautiful Beings, a savagely bullied youth forms a tentative rapport with a trio of tough outsiders. Together, the boys experiment with aggression and violence, but also learn about loyalty and love. In contrast to the uniformly toxic adult masculinity that surrounds the boys, there’s the caring, clairvoyant mother of Addi (Birgir Dagur Bjarkason), the film’s narrator, warmly and sympathetically played by the excellent Anita Briem. As someone who relies heavily on intuition and gets guidance from his dreams, Gu?mundsson is interested in further exploring the uncanny element. He says, “In general, people in Iceland believe in interpreting their dreams and fortune telling. It’s ingrained into our culture even if it is not something we talk a lot about.” Winner, Label Europa Cinemas, Berlin; Special Jury Prize, International New Talent, Taipei. –Alissa Simon
Director Biography
Born in 1982 in Reykjavík, Guðmundur Arnar Guðmundsson graduated from the Icelandic Art Academy and studied screenwriting in Denmark. His short films include “Whale Valley” (2013), which was a selection of that year’s Cannes Film Festival, and his debut feature, Heartstone (2016) was a 2017 MSPIFF selection.