AND BREATHE NORMALLY selected for Sundance
The Icelandic feature And Breathe Normally by Ísold Uggadóttir has been selected for the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, this coming January. The film will screen in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition, which is dedicated to the discovery of new films and new voices from around the world. This will be the film's world premiere and is only the second time that an Icelandic feature has been selected for one of Sundance's main competitive sections.
And Breathe Normally tells the story of the intimate bond that forms between two women – an Icelandic mother and a refugee from Guinea-Bissau – whose lives briefly intersect in Iceland due to unforeseen circumstances.
Ísold Uggadóttir both wrote and directed the film, and it stars Kristín Thóra Haraldsdóttir and Babetida Sadjo. It was produced by Skúli Malmquist for Zik Zak Filmworks and coproduced by Inga Lind Karlsdóttir, Lilja Ósk Snorradóttir, and Birna Anna Björnsdóttir, along with Diana Elbaum (Belgium) and Annika Hellström (Sweden).
And Breathe Normally is Uggadóttir's first feature film. She previously wrote and directed the award-winning short films Family Reunion, Committed, Clean and Revolution Reykjavík, and she graduated from the Columbia University School of the Arts in 2011 with a master's degree in directing and screenwriting.
Sundance was founded by veteran actor and director Robert Redford and is one of North America's and the world's most prestigious film festivals. Notable directors that have taken their first steps at Sundance include Paul Thomas Anderson, Jim Jarmusch, Steven Soderbergh, Wes Anderson, Darren Aronofsky, Quentin Tarantino, and the Coen brothers.
International sales for the film are being handled by The Match Factory.
In 2004, the American/Romanian/Icelandic coproduction One Point O, directed by Marteinn Thorsson and Jeff Renfroe, and coproduced by Fridrik Thór Fridriksson, was selected for Sundance's U.S. Dramatic Competition.