SMALL MALL (2004)
Documentary, Iceland, 67min.
Small Mall (Mjoddin) was a made
for TV documentary about employees at a run down shopping mall in the
suburbs of Reykjavik, the film follows five central characters as they
prepare the mall for Christmas. The film got favourable reviews in the
Icelandic press and although not widely seen outside of Iceland is
considered by many, including the director, to be Robert's best film do
date.
The film was selected for screening at The Toronto International Film Festival and The Miami International Film Festival.
SMALL MALL - Real to Reel section of The Toronto International Film Festival.
Director Róbert Douglas shot
Small Mall over a period of several months, following the lives of a
group of employees at a once-substantial mall that has been eclipsed by
bigger, spiffier buildings. However, he planted someone in his core
group, without telling any of his other subjects what he was doing, and
the film pushes the boundaries of what you might consider
"documentary."
The employees at the mall all
dream of getting jobs at the classier shopping centres down the road.
They're a decidedly eccentric group. The mall's assistant manager, an
aspiring actor-model, is desperately looking for his big break and he
will go to any lengths to get out. Another figure is a working-class
lout who has just been promoted to cashier, but bemoans his treatment
at the hands of the women shoppers (mostly because they rebuff his
advances). The woman who runs the pet store is also an amateur body
builder and, allegedly, the most tattooed woman in Iceland. A lonely
security guard nearing retirement is simply thrilled to talk to anyone.
Meanwhile, the manager of one of the biggest stores - the only one who
doesn't seem desperate to leave - witnesses his coworkers' shenanigans
with wry amusement, especially when the assistant manager decides that
appearing in Douglas's film isn't enough for him; he needs more
exposure and decides to get it by putting himself on the cover of the
grocery store's discount flyer.
Driven by a deadpan comic sense
and a well-developed appetite for the absurd, Douglas is both bemused
by, and affectionate toward, his subjects - especially their loopiest
ideas and ambitions. All of them seem strangely bewitched, a contention
supported by the shambling, deceptively casual rhythm of the film.
Best known internationally for
The Icelandic Dream - which followed a failed entrepreneur who suddenly
struck it big when he realized that the Bulgarian cigarettes he was
smuggling actually contained an herb Icelanders consider to have
medicinal properties - Douglas has a facility for finding and
developing characters trapped by their own wonky obsessions. Like him,
we're most sympathetic to his subjects when they're at their most
eccentric.
Steve Gravestock, The Toronto International Film Festival 2004.
