Black's Game

  • 104'
  • Iceland
  • 2012
Reykjavik, 1999. A man is interrogated by the police. He was arrested the previous night after a fight. Stebbi can’t remember a thing about it - blind drunk again. In front of the police station smoking a cigarette, Stebbi meets his childhood friend Tóti, a no-nonsense guy with an enormous tattoo on his bald head, a goatee and frightful eyes. 'If you have any problems, just give me a call,' Tóti says, handing him a card.
Then Stebbi finds himself in a world of tough guys, athletic drug dealers, stunning blondes, mountains of coke, truckloads of ecstasy and other designer drugs, robberies and slaughter. The frames are askew, sometimes in split-screen. The colour pallet of this adrenaline-pumping crime thriller is dominated by the black of the night, the white of the snow and the red of the blood that flows copiously. In a voice-over, Stebbi provides a dry commentary.
'Inspired by some shit that actually happened', it says at the start of Black’s Game, the feature debut by Óskar Thór Axelsson. Based on the bestselling Icelandic gangster story Black Curse by Stefán Máni, it was executive produced by Nicolas Winding Refn, director of the Pusher trilogy and the recent hit Drive.


Director
Óskar Thór Axelsson
Premiere
World premiere
Country of production
Iceland
Year
2012
Festival Edition
IFFR 2012
Length
104'
Medium
DCP
Original title
Svartur á leik
Language
Icelandic
Producers
Skuli Malmquist, Thor S. Sigurjonsson
Production Company
Zik Zak Filmworks
Sales
TrustNordisk
Screenplay
Óskar Thór Axelsson
Cinematography
Bergsteinn Bjorgulfsson
Editor
Kristján Lodmfjord
Sound Design
Ingvar Lundberg, Kjartan Kjartansson
Cast
Thorvaldur David Kristjansson, Johannes Haukur Johannesson
Website
http://www.zikzak.is
Director
Óskar Thór Axelsson
Premiere
World premiere
Country of production
Iceland
Year
2012
Festival Edition
IFFR 2012
Length
104'
Medium
DCP
Original title
Svartur á leik
Language
Icelandic
Producers
Skuli Malmquist, Thor S. Sigurjonsson
Production Company
Zik Zak Filmworks
Sales
TrustNordisk
Screenplay
Óskar Thór Axelsson
Cinematography
Bergsteinn Bjorgulfsson
Editor
Kristján Lodmfjord
Sound Design
Ingvar Lundberg, Kjartan Kjartansson
Cast
Thorvaldur David Kristjansson, Johannes Haukur Johannesson
Website
http://www.zikzak.is