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Things are calm in Iceland right now.
Only 20 people maximum are allowed to come together.
Gyms and swimming pools have been closed.
No music, no entertainment.
Cinemas closed a few days ago.
Restaurants are not closed, but people just have to keep a distance.
Hospitals are not overflowing.
I think theyve managed to flatten the curve pretty well.
Were an island, and we have one border.
A lot of this was coming from skiing resorts in Europe.
They were ahead of the curve.
More than 50 percent of people with the coronavirus are already in quarantine.
Weve seen some bad days.
Afterthe financial crash of 2008, the country was really down in the dirt.
But then, after that, a tourism madness happened, and things started really swinging in Iceland.
No one could foresee that.
I watchedTiger Kingon Netflix last night.
I just got stuck in that quite trashy show.
I also rewatchedCome and See, by Elem Klimov, which is my all-time favorite movie.
Ive also rewatchedThe Favourite, andBorderfrom last year, andCold War.
AndReconstruction, the Danish film.
You know, Im checking out older films rather than new ones.
Such asSolaris, by Tarkovsky.
When I need inspiration, I go and check out the stuff that I liked in the past.
In the film industry, I think were all a little bit shell-shocked.
I think several weeks ago, nobody really knew what was going to happen.
Hopefully the project will stay on course.
Wed shot four days when we got shut down.
Its in a studio that I built, so its affecting me on all fronts.
We have continued to do some work, sticking to the no-more-than-20-people rule.
I work on sets with the art department.
Now, I get more time to prep.
I can work more on the screenplay.
I think a lot of people are trying to use the time to their benefit.
Lets put things in order on the shelves.
And maybe also look inwards and sort things out.
I have four kids.
But all of these things come back whether its a volcano eruption or a virus.
The Earth is telling us something.
Nature is telling us something.
Ive made a lot of movies about survival outside.
In a real way, whether youre stuck outside or inside, its not so different.
Because the danger is coming at you.
Even if you close yourself in, its coming at you.
Somebody asked me then, How do you deal with it?
I said, I just bow my head to the mountain and take what it gives me.
And recently, one of our doctors here said, The virus dictates it, not us.
We have to work with what the virus gives us.
We try everything to survive it and to do the right thing, but we cant control it.
So, we just have to get through it and bow our head to it.
Thats the scariest thing.
It has a way of surviving.
It changes its form and its shape, and it seems to have a mission.
