Heima: A Film by Sigur Rós

Thursday, January 10 @ Ciné

originally published January 9, 2008

When reading about Sigur Rós' music, one always encounters a rumination on the band's native Iceland. While anyone's music will inexorably be influenced by geography, in Sigur Rós' case, it's become a cliché, something as inescapable as the group's music is haunting. So when the band traveled across its little island, performing sets in some strange locales and contexts for the sake of Heima's posterity, it surely was done with the knowledge that the debt to Iceland would be deepened. From fisheries to the great outdoors (which does lend itself to Sigur Rós' cavernous angelicism), the half-tour documentary, half-visually breathtaking landscape collage looks to be essential for all Sigur Rós fans. And a new track, "Gitardjamm," makes an appearance in the film. A few acoustic sets sneak in as well, snuggling up warmly with the recent Hvarf and Heim EPs. Since the band is currently at work on the follow-up to 2005's album Takk…, the movie should be a nice warm-up, especially in this recent chilly weather. And although the film is already available on DVD, no one can deny the appeal of seeing huge music on a huge screen.

So yes, Sigur Rós is intrinsically linked to its environment in a way an Athens band never could be. Blame it on the drifting glaciers, vast tundra or jagged mountains, but the band's sweeping post-rock and classically gorgeous bombast lend themselves to the cold beauty and Nordic isolation of the group's home. Even a cursory glimpse on YouTube makes it obvious that the film's visuals match the albums' sounds.

A friend recently saw a screening of Heima in Cambridge, England, and after the film, he encountered an extremely elderly woman in a wheelchair who asked him if he'd just seen the movie. She barely had the strength to move the chair, but had attended alone. He said yes, and asked if she was a fan of Sigur Rós and if she enjoyed the film. She replied along the lines of "Yes, this movie and music are so different than all the cruelty and vulgarity in the world." And isn't that, much more than environment, what makes Sigur Rós' music valuable in the first place?

Heima screens at Ciné on Thursday, Jan. 10, at 4 p.m., 7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. for a reduced ticket price of only $5. Proceeds benefit the Athens Relay for Life Association.

Michael Wehunt