THE SWAN, an Icelandic novel, adapted from Guðbergur Bergsson’s celebrated novel, will world premiere at Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), Toronto in Discovery Programme and would highlight sophisticated coming-of-age drama from Iceland, Europe, media reports said.

THE SWAN is a tale of Sól, a nine-year-old girl and her attempt to come to terms with a new- found adulthood as she spent her summer on an isolated landscapes and remote Icelandic farmland, during childhood to mature — an Icelandic tradition that only recently began to fade — and become independent.​

​’The Swan is an exploration of the human heart, and the wild territory that is the life of our emotions. It’s a story about human beings lost (and found) in nature; the actual nature around, and their own heart’s nature. Our guide is Sól, a vulnerable 9-year old girl from the sea, whose arrival on this remote farm unlocks far more drama than she can imagine,’ says writer/director Ása Helga Hjörleifsdóttir, an Icelandic writer and director, born in 1984 in Reykjavík.

​The story THE SWAN, uniquely told from Sól’s perspective is a complex, tale of a child’s growth that also indirectly points to a nation’s maturation.  

The Synopsis of the story is as follows:

Set in contemporary rural Iceland, THE SWAN is the story of 9-year old girl, Sól, who was sent to distant countryside relatives for a summer to work and to mature. 

The nature extended endlessly there with the animals soulful but the people harsh, except the mysterious farmhand Jón, with whom she had an instant inclination.

During her struggle to understand the nature and life on the farm, she finds comfort in a new friendship with a mysterious farmhand, Jón. 
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When the farmer’s rebellious daughter Ásta claims Jón as well, Sól becomes entangled in an adult complicated drama which she did not anticipate.

Writer / Director: Ása Helga Hjörleifsdóttir

​​Asa Helga Hjörleifsdóttir, an Icelandic writer and director did her BA in Comparative Literature from the University of Iceland and La Sorbonne – Paris IV Université. She worked for a while as a book critic for the Iceland National Radio before she decided to move to New York City and pursue her true love, filmmaking.

She graduated with honors from the Columbia University Film MFA program in 2012. Ása has written and directed a number of short films, most notably the award-winning films Ástarsaga (“Love Story”), a 2013 finalist for a Student Academy Award, and Þú og ég (“You and Me”). Her first feature film, “The Swan”, an adaptation of the critically acclaimed Icelandic novel of the same name, will have its world premiere at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival. 

​Producers: Birgitta Björnsdóttir, Hlín Jóhannesdóttir

Cast: Gríma Valsdóttir, Þorvaldur Davíð Kristjánsson, Þuríður Blær Jóhannsdóttir, Katla Margrét Þorgeirsdóttir, Ingvar E. Sigurðsson

(Report by Asha Bajaj)

The text in this post is is reprinted with attribution from Canadian Media.