IS, DE, DK | 1994 | 82 min

reż|dir Fridrik Thor Fridriksson pro|pro Peter Aalbæk Jensen, Fridrik Thor Fridriksson, Peter Rommel scen|wr Fridrik Thor Fridriksson, Einar Guðmundsson zdj|ph Ari Kristinsson muz|mus Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson mon|ed Steingrímur Karlsson ob|cast Örvar Jens Arnarson, Rúrik Haraldsson, Sigrún Hjálmtýsdóttir, Orri Helgason, Jón Sigurbjörnsson

A return to the director’s childhood and the exciting 60s, where westerns, Adolf Hitler, Russian spies, Jesus Christ and Coca-Cola all mix together. Because of the summer vacation, 8-year-old Thomas must leave Reykjavik, and with it his beloved cinema and incredibly important football games, and replace his carefree life in the city with a stay at his uncle’s countryside estate. It does not, however, mean the end of adventures, as it will turn out that traditional folk tales and Icelandic ghosts can occupy the imagination just as much.

As Fridriksson says, “The film is completely autobiographical, the actors are even wearing my family’s clothes and have been cast on the basis of their resemblance to the family members.” The title is a reference to Woody Allen’s “Radio Days” and has a similar nostalgic potential. The black humour of the director becomes the time machine to the times when the everyday rhythm was marked solely by magical discoveries.