Jar City (film)

Jar City (Icelandic: Mýrin – "The Bog") is a 2006 Icelandic film directed by Baltasar Kormákur. It is based on Mýrin, a 2000 novel written by Arnaldur Indriðason and released in English as Jar City.

Jar City
Directed by	Baltasar Kormákur
Written by	Arnaldur Indriðason
Produced by	Agnes Johansen Lilja Pálmadóttir
Starring	Ágústa Eva Erlendsdóttir Ingvar Eggert Sigurðsson
Cinematography	Bergsteinn Björgúlfsson
Edited by	Elísabet Ronaldsdóttir
Music by	Mugison
Release dates	20 October 2006 (2006-10-20) (Iceland) 21 October 2007 (2007-10-21) (London Film Festival) 20 September 2008 (2008-09-20) (UK wide release)
Running time	91 minutes
Countries	Iceland Germany Denmark
Language	Icelandic
Box office	$748,315[1]

Kormákur is in the midst of producing an English-language remake, also called Jar City, which will be set in Louisiana.^[2]

Plot

A world-weary cop comes to believe a recent murder of a middle-aged man is linked to a case of possible rape three decades earlier by a group of friends and a corrupt cop. Working through, he finds it linked to neurofibromatosis, a rare disease among Nordics. One thing leads to another and he puts the pieces together. A geneticist father loses his child to neurofibromatosis and his search for answers leads to his degenerate father and unravels many missing person cases during the decade.

Like the book on which it is based, the film is implicitly a semi-critique of the gene-gathering work of the Icelandic company deCODE genetics.^[3]

Cast

• Ingvar E. Sigurðsson as Erlendur
• Ágústa Eva Erlendsdóttir as Eva Lind
• Björn Hlynur Haraldsson as Sigurður Óli
• Ólafía Hrönn Jónsdóttir as Elínborg
• Atli Rafn Sigurðsson as Örn
• Kristbjörg Kjeld as Katrín
• Þorsteinn Gunnarsson as Holberg
• Theódór Júlíusson as Elliði
• Þórunn Magnea Magnúsdóttir as Elín
• Guðmunda Elíasdóttir as Theodóra
• Walter Grímsson as Handrukkarar
• Sveinn Ólafur Gunnarsson
• Magnús Ragnarsson as Lögfræðingur
• Rafnhildur Rósa Atladóttir as Kola
• Jón Sigurbjörnsson as Albert

Soundtrack

The score was composed by Mugison.

Track listing:

1. "Til eru fræ"
2. "Sveitin milli sanda"
3. "Bíum bíum bambaló"
4. "Erlendur"
5. "Elliði"
6. "Á Sprengisandi"
7. "Fyrir átta árum"
8. "Áfram veginn – Nikka"
9. "Áfram veginn"
10. "Halabalúbbúlúbbúlei"
11. "Malakoff"
12. "Bí bí og blaka I"
13. "Myrra"
14. "Kirkjuhvoll"
15. "Bí bí og blaka II"
16. "Dagný"
17. "Heyr, Ó Guð raust mína"
18. "Lyrik"
19. "Nú hnígur sól"
20. "Sofðu unga ástin mín"
21. "Ódur til Hildigunnar"
22. "Svefnfræ"
23. "Fræsvefn"
24. "Svefnfræ, söngur"
25. "Nú legg ég augun aftur"

Incidental music: Extract from George Frideric Handel's "The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba" from the oratorio Solomon

Prizes

The film was awarded the 2007 Crystal Globe Grand Prix at the 42nd Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.^[4] It also won the Breaking Waves Award at the 15th Titanic International Film Festival in Budapest with a €10,000 prize; the film was screened with the title Bloodline.^[5]

DVD

A Blockbuster Exclusive Region 1 DVD was released in the U.S. and Canada. Otherwise, the film was not released commercially in America. It has also been released on DVD in Europe and is available on iTunes.^[6]