an American doing a Japanese movie

As an Icelander, I thought it remarkable that the first thing Matthew thought of was Hiroshima, Nagasaki. It’s similiar to a Dane asking Icelanders to do a project and the first thing "we" (Icelanders) would think of was "we were under their rule for so long". You know that this is such old baggage that it is difficult to shed. I found the work interesting to observe from an Icelander’s point of view.

As an Icelander, I found it strange that five minutes earlier they [the American general] had been bombing them [the Japanese] to pieces and then they thank him oh so much

This was one of the reasons why I asked Will Oldham to sing. He is of course an American and even though he is from my generation and it is so long ago since these things happened, there is still this baggage. You know he was just born in some country called the United States and wakes up in the morning and starts to compose a song and in spite of this, he carries around all this baggage - strange.

Iceland Review, 10 august 2005