"Sálarkvøl" wins annual movie award

The judging panel, the live audience and TV viewers across the country were in full agreement: "Sálarkvøl" (“Agony”), directed by Eir í Ólavsstovu, is the best movie of the year.

This became clear after the tenth Geytin movie awards – the Faroese Oscars – were held last night at Tórshavn’s Nordic House.

Six short films were nominated for two awards – the main award, the Geytin, and an audience award – and “Sálarkvøl” won them both.

Elin Josefina Smit

Caption: 

A scene from “Sálarkvøl”

Along with the honour of winning the award, Ólavsstovu netted cash prizes totalling DKK 70,000.

“Sálarkvøl” is a documentary about artist Elin Josefina Smith. She and the director were good friends when they were younger.

Suddenly one day, Elin became ill and moved to Denmark. Her friends were never told what happened to her.

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The documentary, a quest journey back in time to figure out what happened, reveals how the great taboo surrounding mental illness 40 years ago contributed to ruining a young girl's life.

Despite moments of bitter grief, we also get to witness Elin overcoming the anger she has been harbouring in her soul all these years.

KvF broadcast “Sálarkvøl” in 2021. It has undergone extensive edits since then, but the old version is still worth a watch. Unfortunately, there are no English subtitles.

Read the Faroese version of this article here.

More Faroese News in English.