8/14/2019 Looking for Grandma by Eirkur Orri lafsson, English Script

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Looking for grandma/Ammamma

By Eirkur Orri lafsson

Length: 13:08Original language: IcelandicConsultance: Tim Hinman

This piece was produced as part of the radiofeature/documentary project RANA.RANA is funded through EUs Lifelong learning program. More information about theRANA project can be found on http://www.this.is/rana

Kristn Bjrk:

(mumbling) Mom..heh..this was...anyway..(mumbles)..in either of these albums.Theyre so

cool these old photo albums.you never know... this wasnt ever written in the annals of history...

Mom and dad...getting married...incredibly cute...and heres mom outside the farm in1968...a good nine years before I came into the world..

You know..its just presidents and kings that went into the history books...

..Ill be darned...no picture of grandma...

And then theres these real people that...just some tragedies...

there I am - in a pink dress..

..that are just..still in the dark. ... And in the movies this is the reason for...there beingghosts.

Okay...lets see..Now this is a bit sad,

They didnt get their justice in their living times..

...finding out that.. there isnt a single picture of grandma in the photo album. .

they...come back to make things right and...uh...

Now weve found that out...

..make peace with the world..

wow...

(whispers)..yes...

http://www.this.is/rana/http://www.this.is/rana/

8/14/2019 Looking for Grandma by Eirkur Orri lafsson, English Script

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Sound of dictaphone

The house that I live in is cream white with a grass green roof and a chimney thatdoesnt work. The house number is eight, but its called Minni-Vogar. The stairs area little raggedy, but were going to fix them up soon.

Dictaphone stops

See, I actually...its not more than one or two years since I got told what happened toher...and I...dont know if it was because I never asked...or if I simply imagined thatshed always been like this...She could, I mean she cooked food and functioned in thatsense, and there were moments where she was clear.

Music starts

Uhm...my grandmother on my mothers side lost her mind at age sixteen, she fell off a

horse, so I never knew her except as a woman who was always mentally absent and,for example, she tore the sleeves off her dresses into shreds...and it was a bit either/orif she recognized my mother and was aware of her surroundings (turns pages). Mybrother..in a pirate outfit. No, what is it, Sinbad?And her destiny was...well, simply put, dramatic, because she goes on this horse-riding trip with a bunch of some boys and...and Ive never bought this thing that shesimply fell off a horse and came back like this, I think maybe something...somethingmore sinister happened on this trip.

Music ends. Dictaphone.

And here is the paradise...where all my instruments live; and actually all the

instruments Im borrowing...hehe..

Dictaphone stops

Once she got a horse and was going to go to the next farm for a visit. And you canimagine the isolation, just being somewhere. I mean, put me in a place for a weekwhere I cant go anywhere, and Im always being watched - I think Id go crazy withoutbeing free to go where I feel like. So, as soon as they discovered that shed gonesomeplace, theyd go and pick her up. Just picked up and put back home.

My pancakes are not written down on paper; theyre just..improvised, theres a..

..dash of this and a dash of that (music starts).Theres that is, a dash of whole wheat, a dash of baking soda..

..a little dash of lemon.....fresh...

a little tear of coffee,just filtered coffee...

mmm..a little salt...

...just like, between two fingertips.just like, between two fingertips...

...Two eggs,

and butter..... Vanilla essence.a dash of vanilla liquid.

8/14/2019 Looking for Grandma by Eirkur Orri lafsson, English Script

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Music stops

I wonder if this has occurred to mom..that she doesnt have a picture of hermother...perhaps I dont have a lot of pictures of my mother, but at least a few. [goesthrough drawers] Here it must...right? (turns page)...Yes, I uh...maybe this issomething that parents dont tell their children withouth them asking. And maybethey felt that I was old enough to handle the information when I eventually asked. Justwhat happened, if she had been born like that or what had happened. Then she had

just been perfectly fine...just a healthy, happy young woman that went on a horsetrip...and came back...just like...traumatized.

Hey! There she is! Theres grandma - grandma lf - and they all. Mom is inpink...phew! I kind of have to enlarge this picture and put in a frame, right? And giveit to mom. Hey, there they are dancing! Grandma and mom, in the kitchen! Oh how Ilike seeing this picture. Theres been fun in there, thats for sure! Mom is singingsomething. Well...it hasnt all been tears and sorrow. There I am in a jumpsuit thatsays are you cute? Okay, this ended well, I was just like, isnt there any picture of

her, I cant believe it!I dont know, I...I...the way I look at it, you cant be digging up some skeletons now,but you can remember her and, acknowledge her existence and here...kind of strugglewith existence...and somehow, I think, if theres any consolation in it .. .for her,wherever she is today (laughs) then...then its better to acknowledge, okay, like,somebody obviously was bad to her, thats for sure. She didnt just hit her head. AndI think thats much more healthy that just...keeping your mouth shut and making upthat...nothing happened...or somehow, if theres any...kind of...cosmic justice, then itsnot such a big reckoning, but...god takes care of his own...

The End

2008 RANA/Eirkur Orri lafsson