Icelandic writer-director and actor Álfrún Örnólfsdóttir presented her feature film debut, Band (through Compass Films), at the Tromsø Film Festival, as part of the Films from the North series, presenting films from across the Arctic areas.

A hybrid documentary/mockumentary, Band is a portrayal of an all-female band, comprised of three women just shy of turning 40, told through the lens of Örnólfsdóttir, and based on the real experiences of her band, The Post Performance Blues Band. In it, she highlights the challenges and failures of trying to become successful against a cascade of errors, and does so with humor and sensitivity. We see the struggles she and her bandmates, Hrefna Lind Heimisdóttir and Saga Sigurðardóttir, endure, and how they juggle their day-to-day responsibilities of motherhood and personal relationships. 

Örnólfsdóttir not only accepts failure in her work but embraces it head-on.

During a meeting in the course of the festival, she shows herself to be self-effacing, unassuming and quietly charming.

This film has the feeling of being a mockumentary, but it’s actually a documentary?

Yes. It’s a real band and it’s a true story. Some parts of it are re-enacted because I staged moments from the band’s life that were not originally captured on camera, but it’s all based on the truth. As far as it being a documentary in a traditional way, maybe we are bending that kind of genre a bit. It is playful in a sense, but it is still not a mockumentary as Spinal Tap is, which is just a made-up band and a made-up story. Band is a real story.

What prompted you to make the movie?

Well, this is my band, and being 40 years old with a career, in my case, I’m an actor in film and theater, and all the members of the band have a body of work behind them, and then to find ourselves on stage in this band that we love, performing to maybe ten people in the audience, and we’re not getting paid to play, is what I wanted to show. It’s agony in a way. And so, it was a kind of survival mechanism to think about this as a film. I thought to myself, to trick myself into just staying alive in this situation, “This would be hilarious if a camera was present,” or, “This would be very dramatic in a film.” Real life was painful. And the film is also quite humorous, even though it’s kind of about failure, rejection, disappointment, and all of that but I wanted to find a way of dealing with all those emotions without it being painful. I wanted to find beauty and humor and a way of sharing that with an audience because I think those are kind of universal feelings. Life brings all those moments of feeling like a failure again and again, so I wanted the story to be about that.

In general, do you deal with moments of failure with a sense of humor?

I do, because I tend to feel miserable some of the time, I guess I’m a sensitive person. And I have to find a way around it and that’s through stories and through staging my life in a way, or telling people about difficult things in a humorous way or in a way that I can process them and turn them into something that is beautiful or fun rather than painful and full of sorrow.

Were the other members of the band receptive to the idea of documenting everything on film?

They were on board, but the thing is that our band is also on board this train of transforming failure into a piece of art, because all the lyrics of The Post Performance Blues Band are about disappointing moments in our lives, and we kind of use failure as creative fuel.

You’ve been acting since you were a child, but this is your first time as a feature film director.  How was the experience?

I’ve been a professional actor since I was a child. I’ve also directed theater and I’ve written things. So, for me, it wasn’t like I used to be a lawyer or something, and all of a sudden, I made a film. It’s something I know very well. But having said that, I was definitely a newcomer and I had to learn things on the way. Sometimes it’s just good to be ignorant because then you don’t know all the hard work that goes into it, because I had this kind of urge to tell the story, and that just drove me to make good decisions, I hope. But I did surround myself with good people who had more experience than I did.

Are you interested in what goes on in Hollywood? Are you very up on the latest films?

I think I’m more into just the art itself. If somebody is making amazing work, I will try to follow that director or that actor. It’s not about the glamour or about being a fan, but it’s more just about the good work that’s done. And for me what’s exciting is the opportunities and having the funding to make what you want to make.  But then again, when I was a kid I would think maybe, “Okay, could I possibly become a movie star in Hollywood?” I did actually audition for Star Wars when I was 13, but that’s probably the closest I’ve gotten to that part of the world.

What’s your next film?

It’s called Shit Balls. It’s not a swear word in Icelandic. It is the name for a beautiful, very rare plant in Iceland, but the word in English is directly translated as shit ball. The film is about a woman who is better connected with the plant world than with other humans. And she decides to save the plant species, shit ball, but in order to do it, she needs to reconnect with other people to help her.

With so many positive reviews for Band, is it almost disappointing that the film is in fact, not a failure, but a success?

No! I love it! I’m so happy to be here and to be traveling with the film, because that’s kind of the whole point. I have a deep fear of failure. I’m such a perfectionist, and I’m always battling that in myself. I’m never going to be over it, but I’m trying to hone how I deal with failure. For me, this film being a success means that it’s possible to make a failing project, or rejection, or disappointment, into something beautiful. It’s creative power, or creative fuel, maybe. So, I think there’s always something to learn when life is shit.