Directors Of Glasgow Film Fest Winner ‘The Home Game’ Discuss Crafting A Feel-Good Doc About Icelandic Soccer Underdogs

When Icelandic directors Smari Gunn and Logi Sigursveinsson set out to make The Home Game, they couldn’t have imagined the response this small, local Icelandic documentary would gather on the festival circuit. The film, which follows a group of spirited underdogs as they fight for local soccer glory, is coming off the back of a rapturous reception at the Glasgow Film Festival, where it won the fest’s prestigious Audience Award. It previously screened at the Tromso International Film Festival, DOC NYC and Nordisk Panorama.

The Home Game follows the story of an impulsive Icelander, Kari Vidarsson, who wants to fulfil his father Vidar’s failed dream to get their small fishing village, Hellissandur (population 369), a home game on the unused football pitch he built. While Vidar managed to build a team in 1994, the side ultimately drew an away game and fell to a 10-0 defeat. Fast-forward to 2020 and his son Kari takes up the gauntlet, re-forming Reynir FC with a ragtag bunch of locals, including 15-year-old schoolboy rapper David Svanur Hafthorsson, 40-something big man in goal Gunnar Orm Arnarson, and former Iceland Women’s Team international Freydis Bjarnadottir, whose inclusion in the team threatens them with disqualification from the FA. 

Deadline sat down with directors Gunn and Sigursveinsson to talk about how they landed this charming, classic underdog tale, challenges they faced in making their first documentary feature and why, despite shooting during the pandemic, it was essential to keep Covid-19 out of the storyline. 

DEADLINE: How did you guys find this story and what compelled you to pick away to see if there was something there in the feature documentary space? 

SMARI GUNN: We both knew Kari personally