THE SWAN wins Distribution Prize in Naples
The Swan, writer/director Ása Helga Hjörleifsdóttir‘s debut feature, won the Distribution Prize at the Napoli Film Festival in Italy. The prize secures cinematic distribution for the film throughout Italy. This is the film‘s fifth international award.
The jury‘s motivation reads as follows:
"Thanks to the elegant, sophisticated use of the cinematic medium, the film manages to communicate very complex emotions and concepts and to make the young protagonist's perspective truly felt. There is an almost surreal synergy between the narrative threads, the actors' performance, and the exceptional quality of the light, the colors, the Icelandic landscapes. In THE SWAN we hear the inner monologue of the soul, that which we have never written down but protectively, jealously even, kept within us. Ása Helga Hjörleifsdóttir has managed to recount and visualize a certain period of our lives so that it moves our very core and calls for the audience's empathy. The Swan expresses the merciless yet maternal call of nature in man, with a story of existential growth on the lonely passage of life. We are invited into a dialogue with the visual narratives of Iceland, narratives that are easy to get lost in. And as adults, we cannot but take Sól's courage as an example when we again enter into our everyday lives".
The Swan had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2017. Shortly after its world premiere it won the Best Film award at the Cairo International Film Festival in Egypt, Ása Helga Hjörleifsdóttir won for Best Director at the Kolkata International Film Festival in India and it screened at the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival in Estonia. In 2018 it has won a Special Mention at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival and a Special Mention at the Skip City International D-Cinema Festival in Japan.