The most beautiful music film ever made

Sigur Ros have never done things traditionally. Why then, would one expect the same from a concert film of theirs? You wouldn’t. And in that respect, you are not disappointed. First off, “Heima” is as far from the traditional concert recording as you can get. No jump cut zooms, no pans across the screaming crowd, no cuts to call-and-response singalongs.

It follows the band in performance at seven concerts in Iceland in Summer 2006, and presents a non-linear, thematically-linked selection of their music. Each song is adjoined by minimal commentary from the band themselves : making clear that the band as individuals are frankly miniscule in interest compared to their ethereal, alien music. In many ways, “Heima” is a concert film in the same way that “Pink Floyd in Pompeii” is : it is a document of a group performing unusual music far removed from the usual enormodrome, crowd-pleasing way. No sign of Hamish Hamilton or Blue Leach here, and it can be more accurately described as a musical film.

In many ways, “Heima” looks as if it were funded by the Icelandic Tourist Board. Vast swathes of the live performance are in fact documented, not by prosaic shots of the band performing in an Icelandic arena, but by beautiful, engrossing, timelapse photography of nature, of open roads, dockyards, seafront, playing children, drying clothes, and the faces of the concert goers themselves. The focus is, as always, far from the band and the cult of personality itself. In this context, the music becomes a soundtrack to an internal meditation, a reflection upon the nature of the life we live, evoking the kind of self-examination that very few other artists ever achieve. In one segment, the band perform at a deserted school classroom, in another, at a local town hall dinner dance. In between this, the photography gently captures lapping waves, and rising sunsets. It evokes a sense of a way of life rarely captured in film - and it makes me want to go to Iceland and live there. The first DVD covers all the material in an encompassing, otherworldly fashion that somehow manages to be nostalgic for something as recent as last summer. The second DVD meanwhile, comprises of ‘deleted scenes’ - or, more accurately the full performance as featured in part in the film, whilst maintaining the same type of wonderfully evocative imagery and musical levitation that Sigur Ros have made their trademark.

“Heima” (translation : Home) is a new type of concert film and one that other bands would be wary of emulating as it is clearly an intensely personal vision of a way of life alien to many people in the Western World. It is unique, successful, haunting, and probably one of the best music films ever made.

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