The 2024 Book and Film Festival opened at the Town Cinema.
The 2024 Children's Book and Film Festival begins today; it is a cultural festival for children in Hafnarfjörður. Mayor Rósa Guðbjartsdóttir opened this year's festival this morning. Pupils in Year 4 at Hafnarfjörður's primary schools enjoyed watching a scene from Fíusól and considering how a book becomes a play.
A cultural festival for children in Hafnarfjörður
„Welcome to the book and film festival, held for the eighth time,“ said Mayor Rósa Guðbjartsdóttir on stage at the Town Cinema. There, pupils from the fourth years of Hafnarfjörður's primary schools sat excitedly, waiting for scenes from the play. Fíusól never gives up which is being shown at the City Theatre.
Kristín Helga Gunnarsdóttir, author of the books about Fíusól, and Þórunn Arna Kristjánsdóttir, the director, then, with the help of two of the show's young actors, explained how a book becomes a stage play.
A festival that promotes a love of reading
The purpose of the book and film festival is to foster children's interest in reading and literacy in a broad sense, thereby supporting the town's nursery and primary schools' literacy project, 'Reading is the Game of Life'.
The books about Fíusól are in fact eight in total, and a new one has just been released. Kristín Helga told how the characters, Fíasól and Ingólfur Gaukur, were based on her daughter and her friend. The children listened attentively and enjoyed the actors' singing, as the original music by Bragi Valdimar Skúlason accompanies the play.
There were two events at Fíusól this morning. One at 9 a.m., the other at 10 a.m. With them, this year's Book and Film Festival opened. Each primary school in the Borough of Hafnarfjörður will have its own focus over the next three days to remind everyone of the importance of reading, so that it is not forgotten during the winter holidays.
Yes, Hafnarfjörður is the children's town of culture.