DEUS EX CINEMA religion and film

A film festival with a space for reflection would be one way to define the Existensial filmfestival. Tomas Axelson, the organiser of the Existensial filmfestival in Falun 2008, sat down with Arni Svanur Danielsson and Arnfridur Gudmundsdottir and told us a bit about the festival. Listen to the interview on the website.

Gaye Ortiz co-authored the book Theology and Film. Challenging the Sacred/Secular Divide with Christopher Deacy. She participated in a seminar in Reykjavik in May and I got the chance to sit down with her for a brief chat about the book, the field and how we can approach film responsibly.

Niels Arden Oplev is the writer and director of the Danish film Drømmen. He was a guest of the Reykjavik International Film Festival in 2006 and I got the chance to sit down with him (and his wife) for a short interview on the film and its reception. We discuss some of the religious themes in the film, it's reception and some of the awards it has received.

Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens (F. W. Murnau: 1922) is the most famous vampire movie ever made and a German expressionistic masterpiece. It will be shown at the Dark Music Days in Iceland on February 3rd.

The Art of Crying by the Danish director Peter Schønau Fog received the Church of Iceland Film Award at the Reykjavik International Film Festival. This is the second time this award is given. Karl Sigurbjörnsson, bishop of Iceland, handed over the award to the director who was present at the festival.

The Deus ex cinema group was founded on July 4th 2000. Since that day the group has held weekly screenings. The Swedish film Såsom i en spegel (Ingmar Bergman: 1961) is the 500th film to be screened by the group. This will be an open screening and anyone interested in religion and film is invited to join us at the screening and participate in discussions afterwards.

Welcome to the English version of the Deus ex cinema website. We are currently in the process of setting up the site, but feel free to look around and enjoy what you see. If you happen to read Iceland you're also welcome on our Icelandic site.

The German film Vier Minuten was the recipient of the Church of Iceland film award last year. It is a great film that touches on many important existiensial questions. It will be released on dvd in late October according to amazon.de. I'm not sure yet if the film has English subtitles, but I'll keep you posted ...