KP. Your film, Those Who Dare, tells the story of Iceland’s involvement in the independence movements in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania prior to and following the coup in Moscow in 1991. What makes you want to tell this story and why is this important to tell now?
OR. In our minds, at the time, this was about our local way of telling this story to Icelanders. It was a sense of pride for one thing and the belief that a small nation could make some sort of difference in the international political arena, even if that was really debated in Iceland. There are people saying what we did there or what Hannibalsson did… was because it was very personal, you will note this from the film. It was debated whether we had anything to say really… if what we did was important at all. Some people said we are such a small nation that nobody listens to. The big guys make all the decisions anyway and so it doesn’t really matter. So that was what was in our mind at the time, to tell the story and to tell it to the world and to the younger generation.
KP. There is a strong biographical aspect to it with the foreign minister.
OR. Yes. And that was one of the aspects that interested me. Hannibalsson was really the driving force behind the Icelandic interests. You can see in the film there was very little connection between Iceland and the Baltic countries historically. Each foreign minister brings his personal touch very heavily to the ministry.
KP. Your minister of foreign affairs was the chairman of the Icelandic Social Democratic Party at the same time. Can you say something about the Social Democratic Party and what kind of support he had when so few Europeans were working with him?
OR. Since Iceland has had such a short time since we got independence… The consular independence is really more important to Icelanders than others. That may have something to do with it. Only our mothers and fathers lived in a free country, our grandparents did not. It’s such a young democracy.
KP. How long has Iceland been a democracy?
OR. Officially since 1918. We are not part of the European Union. There is a lot of sense in Iceland that we will lose our independence if we join the European Union. Every time that is mentioned people start shouting that we have lost our independence. ¤
