Screening in Toronto as part of NXNE on Friday, June 19 at 2:50pm @ NFB Theatre

Filmmakers must salivate at the chance to marry their visual streams-of-consciousness with Sigur Ros’ music. The band, whose sound is nothing short of majestic, constructs epic narratives through instrumentation, piggy-backing the listener on fantastic journeys. For the director, it is a chance to recreate his own journeys on celluloid.

In Nick Abrahams’ Við Spilum Endalaust, the marriage involves a third entity: the band’s music, the filmmaker’s impressions of the band’s music, and, now, the personnel involved -- the band itself, and those affected by the music, the fans.

The film documents Sigur Ros on tour, though not necessarily on stage, realizing its raison d’être lies in solving the mystique that surrounds the Icelandic quartet and not reproducing by rote their live performances. The treat is witnessing the unveiling of a band that is largely enigmatic and the crystallizing of a music that was heretofore an abstraction. Shot appropriately in super-8, a format synonymous with home movies, the film joins the band backstage, exploring their colourful costumes, rehearsing material from their latest disc, Með Suð Í Eyrum Við Spilum Endalaust, and engaging with their fans. There are impromptu parades and naked frolicking on a beach at sunset. And all the while the theme of viewing life as being an amalgam of visceral experiences runs throughout. As one fan notes, “At first, years ago, when I started listening to them, I thought they were very serious people, very depressed even. Iceland seems to be a very depressing country.” Við Spilum Endalaust is a rebuttal to such claims, depicting the band as ambassadors for whimsy and creativity. It seems there is more to the band’s ethos than being “serious”.

It should be clear, then, why such a film needed to be made. The misinterpretation of Sigur Ros goes far beyond the language barrier. A band with such vivacity should not be hindered by glib evaluations of their “morose” music. Abrahams’ film bears witness to this spirit, a spirit seemingly lost on North American audiences. Is it any wonder the film’s title translates to “We Play Endlessly”?

--Gavin Crisp