Sightlines · reception
How 101 Reykjavik was received
2000 · Baltasar Kormákur · 101 Reykjavik on Sightlines
The arc
A festival hit on release — it took the Discovery Award at Toronto 2000 and helped announce Icelandic cinema to the world — and it's now remembered less as a standalone classic than as the film that launched Baltasar Kormákur's career before his Hollywood turn (Everest, 2 Guns).
Its footprint
The title did real cultural work: '101' — the postal code of downtown Reykjavik — became international shorthand for the city's boozy, boho, artsy quarter, an association the film (and the Hallgrímur Helgason novel it adapts) cemented.
Where it stands
A cornerstone of modern Icelandic cinema and a minor cult object for Nordic-cinema heads — the 'start here' film for anyone tracing Iceland's post-2000 movie boom.
Did you know? The score is by Damon Albarn of Blur together with Einar Örn Benediktsson of The Sugarcubes — and Albarn was famously a part-owner of Kaffibarinn, the downtown Reykjavik bar where much of the film's nightlife unfolds.