With the striking vista of volcano Katla looming large and ominously over the Icelandic village of Vík í Mýrdal, the town’s inhabitants have developed a relationship with the potentially dangerous volcano and set about using it as a lure for tourists, creating a source of considerable prosperity. The problem is that an eruption is way overdue. Or maybe that’s why the tourists are there in the first place…
Ischa Clissen and Dorus Masure’s documentary Heimaland follows three individuals living in the town all offering different perspectives on living in the shadow of Katla. The last time the volcano erupted was 1918, and it is – according to experts – supposed to erupt every 60 years. As elderly pilot and volcano watcher Reynir Ragnarsson notes: “As a boy we were told we must behave or Katla would come.”
He habitually flies over the volcano, which is covered by a huge glacier, to photograph any changes, and also takes water samples from the local river.
Elias Guomundsson runs a local hotel and comments: ”When Eyjafjallajokull erupted and stopped flights we all thought it would ruin tourism, but in fact it drew attention to the island. Katla is many times bigger and I think it intrigues people even more.” The town is now the third most visited place in Iceland.
Young Lithuanian Barbora Piscite is a cleaner at the hotel and also a student, having moved to Iceland her with mother. She says the locals are a little odd, that “they have strange traditions, they tell strange stories.” She has an Icelandic boyfriend, and the film sees them partying at a large bonfire, a metaphor/symbol for Katla, replete with “explosions” as a local throws on petrol and then lets off fireworks.
Each character interacts with the volcano in different generational ways. Reynir has lived in the community for many years, though eventually has to sell his plane after an oddball accident (he left the brake off and it rolled into his hanger and damaged the propeller); Elias and his expansion plans are linked to the volcano and tourist accessibility to ice caves, which involves driving over private land, while Barbora is simply getting on with her young life and spending time with her boyfriend…all in a town where everything is defined by living with a volcano.
Though engaging, Heimaland is relatively straightforward in tone and structure. Atmosphere is added with ominous rumbles on the soundscape, but there is little sense of real friction within the community. It is certainly ambiguous that the community, in its quest for wealth, becomes alienated from its own environment and becomes reliant on the thing that cause them harm, but the film skirts the surface rather than offering a deep dive into the dangers of aligning the town with a volcano that is due to erupt.
Belgium-Iceland, 2022, 67mins
Dirs/scr: Ischa Clissen, Dorus Masure
Production/International sales: Diplodokus
Producers: Barbara Dyck, Maarten Bernaerts, Bram Conjaerts
Cinematography: Dorus Masure
Editor: Pieter Peeters
Music: Ulfur Hansson
With: Reynir Ragnarsson, Elias Guomundsson, Barbora Piscite
