Hlemmur (2003)

Run Time - 85 min.  |   Countries - Germany  |  
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Synopsis by Ryan Shriver

Icelandic filmmaker Olafur Sveinsson takes on the challenge of documenting one of his native country's social ills by focusing on the homeless people taking shelter in the capital city of Reykjavik's main bus terminal in his 2002 sociological documentary Hlemmur (Last Stop). Most of the people Sveinsson interviewed were either mentally handicapped or grappling with some sort of debilitating addiction, both conditions which obviously had tremendously negative impacts on the subjects' personal lives and resulted in their social marginalization. As each of the outcasts gathers confidence in Sveinsson, they open up to the filmmaker regarding their utterly miserable situation and the hopelessness that prevents most of the Hlemmur's inhabitants from turning their lives around. Hlemmur was selected for viewing at a handful of film festivals in 2002 and 2003, with its greatest exposure coming at the 2003 Gothenburg International Film Festival.