Taken from "POEMS: A Journey through Icelandic Poetry" documentary, out now on STAGE+: https://stage.plus/Poems
In POEMS, we follow Icelandic composer Viktor Orri Árnason and soprano Álfheiður Erla Guðmundsdóttir on a musical road-trip through Iceland, where they set out to discover more about the poetry that inspired their latest album ‘Poems, released via the iconic Deutsche Grammophon label in late 2023. Árnason wrote the album together with Guðmundsdóttir in Berlin and Reykjavik in a series of intimate recording sessions. The lyrical component of the album; carried beautifully on the ethereal waves of Guðmundsdóttir’s voice, is built on the foundations of Icelandic poetry; most of which may be little known outside of Iceland. In an effort to remedy this, the pair embark on a musical pilgrimage to explore the cultural heritage of their native Iceland and to shed light on some of the country’s most eminent poets, both past and present. It is a journey through landscapes both physical and emotional; through fjord and fog, through words and dreams. It is a story of enduring emotional strength; of voices guided by an unquenchable thirst for beauty and grace in the face of great hardship, illness and poverty. In a series of live and unbroken one-take shots, we see the duo performing the poems/songs, whether in the most intimate locations; a tiny wooden house where the poet Ólöf Sigurðardóttir spent most of her hard life writing, or in the breathtaking fjord of Snæfellsnes, as a glacier lurks in the mist behind them. With each chapter and each performance, they are paying their respects to the poets for their toil and their craft; to the landscape for its breathtaking beauty and seemingly endless inspiration. Each chosen location, from windswept cliffs to serene valleys, holds a deep resonance with the poets who once roamed these lands, drawing inspiration from the very same vistas that now set the stage for this musical homage. A kind of magic happens when Árnason and Guðmundsdóttir perform together, and it is this magic – infused with the nostalgia, vulnerability and spirit of Icelandic poetry – that the film strives to capture.
