Tears of Stone

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Hilmar Oddsson was born in Reykjavík in 1957. He comes from a theatrical family and was the founder of the classically trained pop group "Melchior". In 1980 he began studying film direction at the feature-film department of the München Hochschule für Fernsehen und Film where he graduated in 1985. His most interesting short film from Munich was IN THE SHADOW OF SCARTARIS -- on the mysteries of Snæfellsjökull glacier where Jules Verne had set his classic Journey to the Centre of the Earth. After he returned from Munich, Hilmar Oddsson's first full-length film, THE BEAST (Eins og skepnan deyr, 1986), was released. This psychological thriller dealing with the fate of two young people in a remote and bleak landscape was well received by the public and critics. Hilmar Oddsson directed, wrote the screenplay and composed some of the musical score as well. Between major projects, Hilmar Oddsson has worked as a freelance producer for both Icelandic TV channels, and as a newspaper critic. He was a co-founder of Nyja bíó Film and Video Production Company in 1989. It took director Hilmar Oddsson 13 years to realize the idea of making a film about acclaimed Icelandic composer Jón Leifs. Initially it was to become a documentary, but after Oddsson and his collaborators had started researching the project in 1989, going through the composer's personal diaries and letters, they discovered that they were forcing the right content into the wrong form. There was more drama in the facts than there is in most fiction. During the last few years interest in Jón Leifs' music has been growing, both in Iceland and abroad. It is more Icelandic than anything Icelandic, growing out of a nature both terrifying and magnificent, glaciers, volcanos, wasteland; with roots in traditional Icelandic folk music. Told in the movie by the father to his daughter, the legend, of the tear of stone derives from an Icelandic fairy tale about a troll who wanted to see the world outside his cave even though he knew the sun's rays would turn him to stone. In the tale, the troll escaped his cave for a while, but got lost finding his way home. Just as he began to cry, the sun came up: as he turned to stone, a single tear fell from his eye and onto the ground. Today some Icelanders carry a tiny "tear of stone" as a charm believing that anyone who possesses one will always be able to find their way home.