SKÁL
Dir. Cecilie Debell & Maria Tórgarð, 2021
Faroe Islands/Denmark, 75 mins.
In Faroese with English subtitles.
TUESDAY, APRIL 16 – 7 PM, accompanied by reading & discussion
ONE NIGHT ONLY!
This April brings Fog Swept Islands: Faroese Culture Days, a celebration of Faroese literature and culture in New York City. The Faroe Islands, a wind-battered archipelago in the North Atlantic and an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark, are a harsh and breathtaking environment that have for centuries fostered self-sufficient attitudes, innovative knitwear, and a literary culture with roots in the Old Norse oral tradition, the romantic nationalism of the 19th century, and more recent concerns with the impact of globalization on small cultures and the looming threat of climate change.
In collaboration with FarLit, the Spectacle is pleased to host the Faroese poets Marjun Syderbø Kjelnæs, Kim Simonsen, and Rannvá Holm Mortensen, and their translators Matthew Landrum and Randi Ward, for a reading alongside a screening of the documentary SKÁL, a look at the ardency of youth, the desire to make art, and the relationship between people and nature, via a portrait of young Faroese poet grappling with questions of individualism and social pressures.
In SKÁL, which had its World Premiere at CPH:DOX in 2021, a young poet struggles to balance her Christian faith with her curiosity about the world and appetite for self-discovery.
21-year-old Dania, who grew up religious in the Faroe Islands’ Bible belt, has recently moved to Tórshavn and, unbeknownst to her parents, begun to date Trygvi, a young fellow-poet as well as the national sensation hip-hop artist Silvurdrongur (Silver Kid). As Dania movies between her cozy, stifling home, Tórshavn nightlife, and the wide-open spaces of the Faroese countryside, working to reconcile the different sides of her personhood in a scandalous poetry collection titled SKÁL (“Cheers”), this wry and tender film becomes a microcosm for the rural and hardy Nordic nation itself, and its struggle to reconcile treasured traditions, nurtured against the wind through generations, with the twinkling promises of global urban modernity.
The screening will be accompanied by a reading and discussion with:
Marjun Syderbø Kjelnæs (b. 1974) is a well-known and active voice on the Faroese literature and drama scene, and has published a wide range of works since her debut in 2000. Her youth novel Skriva í sandin, 2010 won the Nordic Children’s Book Prize and was selected for the White Raven in 2011, and her latest youth novel Sum Rótskot was nominated for the 2021 Nordic Council Children and Young People’s Literature Prize. Her literary double work Karmagetin ans Gentukamarið was nominated for the 2023 Nordic Council Literature Prize. Marjun is a trained nurse, holds a master’s degree in language and literature and works as a full-time writer. Her works have been translated into the various Nordic languages as well as into English, French and German.
Kim Simonsen (b. 1970) is a Faroese writer and poet. In 2014, he won the M.A. Jacobsen Literature Award for his poetry collection What good does it do for a person to wake up one morning this side of the new millennium? A translation will be published in the US in 2024 by Deep Vellum. Simonsen completed his PhD in 2012 at the University of Roskilde and has published five poetry collections as well as numerous essays and academic articles. He is also the managing editor of Forlagið Eksil, a Faroese press that has published over 20 titles.
Rannvá Holm Mortensen (b. 1950) is a Faroese poet and versatile visual artist. Her art ranges from paintings, prints, installations and text to sculptures. She studied Fine Arts in Metafora International Workshop, Barcelona in 2014. In recent years, she has also worked with textile, writing, book illustration and interior decoration. Rannvá Mortensen regularly exibits in the Faroe Islands and internationally. In 2018 Rannvá made her debut with the poetry collection Suntaste which won her the M.A. Jakobsen Literature Award 2018. Her second collection Spring Milk was published in 2022. Suntaste has been translated into English and published in the US.
Thanks to Jóhanna H. Wolles (FarLit) and Christina Alsing (Made in Copenhagen).