INTERVIEW ROBERT DOUGLAS

Synopsis: A sports star’s career takes a sudden roller coaster ride when he makes a very unexpected announcement in this comedy from Iceland. Ottar Thor (Bjorn Hlynur Haraldsson) is a well-known soccer player whose life off the field isn’t as successful as his career in football. One day, while talking to a reporter after a game, Thor mentions that he’s gay without really thinking about what might happen, and suddenly his world is turned upside down. The owners of Thor’s team, as well as his fellow players, turn against him and kick him off the squad, while his family is more than a bit taken back. Still eager to play, Thor takes up an invitation to join a semi-pro team coached by a friend, which already has a few gay players.

Esta2.com: Tell me a little bit about yourself, about your life? Why did you choose this particular line of work (director)?

Well, I’ve always wanted to be a film director … at first when I was very young I wanted to be an animator since I was always good at drawing. But when my father bought a home video camera he lent me and my sister his old super 8mm camera and I started to make very short movies with friends, around the age of 13 or 14. I was never very interested in school since I’d told everybody I was going to make films, so I dropped out of college and started working in restaurants and video stores. Making short movies on weekends or whenever I had time, then in my early twenties I made a short film called Iceland is the Dream, which won some prizes and became the start of my first feature film The Icelandic Dream, which I directed at the age of 26. So that’s basically how I got into this.