Cine-concert The Phantom Carriage | Barði Jóhannsson & Kælan Mikla

Part of the Nordic Focus, The Phantom Carriage cine-concert is an original production of the festival, which invited Icelandic artist Barði Jóhannsson to compose and perform, together with the female post-punk trio Kælan Mikla, a new score for this classic of world cinema, voted the best Swedish film of all time by FLM (Sweden's leading film magazine). The Phantom Carriage has a special place in film history because of its artistic innovation and major influence on directors such as Ingmar Bergman and Stanley Kubrick. The event will take place on June 16 at 9:30PM at the Evangelical Lutheran Church and is supported by the Swedish Film Institute and the Icelandic Film Center.

Based on the novel by Swedish Nobel Prize-winning author Selma Lagerlöf, the film stars David Holm (played by director Victor Sjöström) as an alcoholic forced to reflect on his past mistakes on New Year's Eve. The film has been praised for its mastery of technical processes and its revolutionary use of camera and special effects to heighten the drama of the scenes and the intensity of the atmosphere, for its innovative narrative structure with flashbacks within flashbacks, and for its social commentary, political underpinnings, and moral themes. The Phantom Carriage has left an extensive legacy in cinema, having a significant impact on Ingmar Bergman's work, from his use of the figure of Death in The Seventh Seal (1957) to the production of The Image Makers (2000), which presents a fascinating fictionalisation of Sjöström's film production. Another admirer of the film was Stanley Kubrick, with stylistic and thematic reiterations found in The Shining (1980). 

Icelandic composer, musician and writer, Bardi Jóhannsson is familiar to Transilvania IFF audiences thanks to his success at Bonțida in 2016 with the Haxan cine-concert. He is famous for his work with the Bang Gang, Starwalker (a collaboration with JB Dunckel, one half of the iconic French duo AIR) and Lady & Bird (a project with Keren Ann). An acclaimed composer of original soundtracks, Jóhannsson has scored numerous films, and was awarded Best Original Score at the Edda Film Awards for Reykjavik Rotterdam (d. Oskar Jonasson, 2009). 

Kælan Mikla is an Icelandic post-punk band known for their unique blend of eerie sounds, angelic vocals and dance beats. The band has been supported by Robert Smith of The Cure and has opened for famous bands such as Placebo and Alcest.