User Reviews

Having seen last year's "Screaming Masterpiece", when I first came up to "Huldufolk102" I was already amazed! Only by the trailer, you can understand the quality of the film and how far it can lead you with the magnificent picture it gives! Iceland is a cold and sometimes frightening place! But Nisha Inalsingh gives out the warmth of icelandic people and the beauty of this enormous country by combining the unbelievable beauty of the landscape with the myths of elves,living in harmony with the real residents! The icelandic people are very different than any other population in the world. Sometimes you will think that all these are just an imaginary game but these people do believe and they live peacefully by having some superior beings helping them in their everyday routine! And these beings are the "HIDDEN PEOPLE"!!!The music of Sigur-ros, Mum and other bands just give you a tour in a place that you don't believe that it does really exist! The direction was just amazing and it never gets you bored!

Just lay back and travel in Iceland with the company of the "Huldufolk" people who live in the rock No 102!!!

already intrigued by iceland, i found this film a welcome addition to what i already know about the country. i saw it the first week of this year's (2006) Seattle International Film Festival and as of that showing, it still hadn't acquired a distributor, unfortunately. besides an interesting concept (to document the nation's opinion about whether gnome-like "hidden people" exist alongside the humans, plants and other animals albeit mostly secretive), i really enjoyed the icelandic music that accompanied the documentary. artists such as Mum, Sigur Ros and others greatly added to the general ethereal atmosphere of the cinematography and subject matter. i was hoping to find (on IMDb) more information on the soundtrack or even if one exists (does it?).. well, if you get a chance to see this film, i highly recommend it.

This sensitively crafted film tells a story that is important at a time where the world is too bogged down in the material. It is the immaterial, the consciousness, the ability to believe and dream that leads to growth. Inalsingh crafts a film where the captured sights and sounds leads one to a realisation that perhaps there is life in everything and a greater beauty to be found if every individual would just make the effort to open their minds.A first time documentary filmmaker, I am astonished by the fluidity of this film and the manner in which the form of the story and the landscape of Iceland meld together. The music score is well chosen as are the wide range of people interviewed.We should look forward to more from this young producer and director and I for one will be keeping watch. Not surprisingly I understand that it has now been officially selected for the Australian Film Festival. Go to see this one and enjoy it.

Kiran Shiva Akal President Infinite Worlds Inc.

Lyrical, stunningly beautiful, and delightfully otherworldly, HULDUFOLK 102 expolres the relationship between traditional folk culture and modernity in its examination of the Icelandic belief in "hidden people," the huldufolk of the film's title. Vestiges of the country's Scandinavian and Celtic forebears, the huldufolk occupy a niche somewhere between Tolkien's elves and contemporary neopagan nature spirits. The interviews with Icelandic natives range from transportation department officials (road construction and maintenance take the huldufolk into account), journalists, university professors, politicians, priests and a sorceror. At the screening I attended, the SRO crowd gasped at the gorgeous, eerie footage of Iceland's's natural wonders -- glaciers, volcanos, seascapes -- but also laughed delightedly at the ultimate strangeness and sheer wonder of a world of belief that defies our own mundane preconceptions of the supernatural.

This fascinating documentary by a first-time filmmaker begins as a rather sweet tale of some Icelanders who profess to believe in fairies despite all physical evidence to the contrary. But gradually, as the film progresses through the narration of intelligent, articulate people going about their daily lives in a beautiful, rugged land insulated from the rest of the world, we are drawn into their vision of the unity of all things living and dead, seen and unseen. There is much more to this deceptively simple film than first meets the eye -- or the mind. It is well worth the effort you might have to make to find it in a local theater.

Has to be seen to fully appreciate the genius and uniqueness of this film. Unlike anything I have seen before . Ms. Inalsingh remains an unbiased storyteller leading us on a journey into a hidden side of Nordic life. Every participant in the film from farmers, priests, sorcerers and children offer another slice to an already full plate of wonderment and discovery. As you embark on this journey you are introduced to eerie landscape of ice and rock where Icelanders must share their lives with this landscape in more ways than one. The plethora of characters and commentators add even more layers to the story until we arrive at conclusion that may not be as concrete as we presume. Thought provoking and challenging. Can't wait to see more from this talented director and producer.

I've seen this film at several festivals and highly recommend it as both a beautiful study on the idea of belief and a provocative look into the collisions of nature, science, perception, and human nature.

Iceland's hidden people and elves have been a source of curiosity to foreigners as well as Icelanders and have been been covered in both literature and film for years (and I'm sure years to come). However, in this documentary, Nisha Inalsingh delves deeper into the roles of religion, history, and science to explaining the belief in hidden people. She also skillfully integrates the geographic influence of the island on the cultural and social traditions of its people--something not lost on Iceland's own Nobel Laureate in literature, Halldor Laxness, in books such as Independent People and Under the Glacier.

It is Ms. Inalsingh, as both writer and director, who brings in and then deftly covers these themes, folding them into Huldufolk 102. The film is beautifully shot, edited and more importantly directed by Ms. Inalsingh. I question the motives of anyone who would state otherwise. Perhaps it's just ignorance and a lack of understanding of the collaborative art of film making.

I agree with all of the previous reviews. They eloquently detail the historical and cultural context of the story as so beautifully told. I would add that the relationship to nature is a subtext. Do we view ourselves as apart or as part of what we see around us. This is the essence of animism in that rather than seeing ourselves in a struggle to pacify and shape a hostile environment we instead consider ourselves at one with it. Therefore we avoid disruption and seek harmony for selfish not altruistic reasons, viewing balance with nature as essential to maintaining calmness and tranquility. We view despoiling the environment as a disruption of our own lives and that of those around us in a more profound way. That children, before "corruption" by our taught values and by maturity see this in a more concrete and less abstract manner is appealing and speaks to our understanding of our place in a larger ecosystem. The belief in elves is an anthropomorphism of a more basic concept that we affect the environment, but it too shapes and nurtures us.

I just loved this film, and every time I see it, I learn something new. At first I thought this would be about children's stories, but the doc evolved into so much more. I loved learning about the importance of nature to the Icelanders and how that manifested into respect for both paganism and Christianity. And then, when the story line moves into, "just because you can't see something, doesn't mean it doesn't exist", it pushed everything to a whole different level. It reminded me a bit of the film "Contact" with Jody Foster. There's science, nature, and faith -- three things that are undeniably intertwined. Anyway, I think this is a must see ... it will open your eyes on so many different levels!!

Writer/Director/Producer Nisha Inalsingh in her quiet yet thoroughly thought-provoking film, Huldufolk 102, transports us to a far-away land filled with wizened, salt-of-the-earth characters, otherworldly natural phenomenon, and...fairies?...angels?...or merely people quite like us living in another dimension?

But this is not a fairy tale, it is a documentary. The place, the "characters", and (one can only assume) the Huldufolk are all very, very real. By allowing the locals to reveal themselves and their shared belief through personal stories and anecdotes within their very distinct individual surroundings, we discover how far-reaching and diverse is this population of believers. The fanciful stories of local children combined with observations by elders of different levels of education, profession, life-experience, and world-weariness makes the belief they all share impossible to ignore or dismiss. It is entirely touching to witness civic planners and authorities completely and willingly deferring to their neighbors' shared belief, especially in our world of eminent domain.

Beyond charming, Huldufolk 102 may prompt one to question the concept of shared belief only to conclude that the most powerful connection between people may be their mutual faith in what is beyond understanding, explanation, or human comprehension.