Gijs receives a phone call from his mother that reveals her troubled mental state.

Director’s Statement

For anyone who scrolled down in hopes of understanding what the title means, you will find no answer here. Our mysterious title doesn’t give the viewer any point of reference, so they are pretty much getting thrown into the deep – which as a filmmaker I kinda like. But what I will say is that the goal of our film was to get rid of the stigma and get people talking about mental health issues.

The story is based on the life of a friend of mine, who has a family member with mental issues. Although I don’t have any of those experiences myself, I do understand how hard it can be if one of your family members is in a situation where you are powerless to help.

Originally we developed the screenplay to apply for a 70k grant. We didn’t get it. We ended up making it for 10k. I guess the biggest lesson I learned was that if you really feel the need to tell a certain story, you will find a way to get it made.

Despite the low budget, we still decided to shoot in Iceland, which I felt had both the beautiful and the ugly side of nature. ‘Skogafoss’ for me is a story about love. Not just the beauty of it, but also how love can hurt and isolate you. To the point where you forget to see the beauty around you.

PS: ‘Skogafoss’ is the waterfall at the end of the film.