Olaf de Fleur (real name: ''Ólafur Jóhannesson'' born 1975) is an

Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...

film director A film director controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfilment of that vision. The director has a key role in choosing the cast members, p ...

, scriptwriter and

producer Producer or producers may refer to: Occupations *Producer (agriculture), a farm operator *A stakeholder of economic production *Film producer, supervises the making of films **Executive producer, contributes to a film's budget and usually does not ...

Early life

Fleur was born in

Búðardalur Búðardalur () is a village situated on the Hvammsfjörður in the north-west of Iceland. The village also lies at the north-eastern end of the Snæfellsnes peninsula and is part of the municipality of Dalabyggð. Búðardalur had about 270 inh ...

, Iceland. He founded the independent production company, Poppoli Pictures, in 2003. Poppoli’s first production, '' Shining Star'', brought him Best Documentary Feature award at the

Icelandic Film Awards Icelandic refers to anything of, from, or related to Iceland and may refer to: *Icelandic people *Icelandic language *Icelandic alphabet *Icelandic cuisine See also * Icelander (disambiguation) * Icelandic Airlines, a predecessor of Icelandair * ...

(The Edda) in 2004. ''Shining Star'' is an autobiographical story of Icelandic rock icon Bubbi Morthens. He won the award again in 2005 for the feature documentary '' Africa United'', which follows the formation of a football team of immigrants from all over the world who intend to take the Icelandic 3rd division by storm. It is an enchanting journey into the dreams and aspirations of a football-crazy coach and his colorful ensemble of players who have to overcome their egos for a true team spirit. His third documentary, entitled '' Act Normal'', saw release in 2006. It is a film about a

Buddhist Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...

monk who in the 10 years that took to film the project, disrobes, marries and divorces before becoming a monk again. Olaf commenced that project years before founding

Poppoli Pictures Olaf de Fleur (real name: ''Ólafur Jóhannesson'' born 1975) is an Icelandic film director, scriptwriter and film producer, producer. Early life Fleur was born in Búðardalur, Iceland. He founded the independent production company, Poppoli Pi ...

, when as a young man he was exploring the

way.

Film career

Olaf wrote and directed his first feature film, ''

The Amazing Truth About Queen Raquela ''The Amazing Truth About Queen Raquela'' is a 2008 drama film directed by Olaf de Fleur Johannesson. Premise Raquela, a Filipino transsexual prostitute dreams of making a new life in Paris. She becomes an Internet porn star and meets Valerie, ...

'', which won him the Teddy award for Best Feature at the Berlinale (Berlin International Film Festival) in 2008 where it was presented in the Panorama section of the festival. The film travelled the festival circuit for over two years, has won numerous awards internationally and received the Best Nordic Council Film Prize nomination in 2009. It received the Grand Jury Prize in the 10th 2008 Cinemanila International Film Festival at Malacañan Palace's Kalayaan Hall. Furthermore, it has won “Best Feature” and “Showtime Vanguard Award” at the New York LGBT International Film Festival and as well as the “Special contribution to cinema language” award at Cinemacity in Serbia in 2008. The film depicts the life of Raquela, a Filipino transgender girl, born in the wrong male body. She dreams of escaping her life of internet porn and hustling in Cebu, Philippines, for a fairytale life in Paris. But first she must take an unexpected detour. Olaf released his second feature, '' The Higher Force'', in 2008. It is a comedy that was well received by the national audience. '' The Higher Force'' premiered internationally at the AFI Film Festival in November 2008 and shortly after it was included in the official selection at the

International Film Festival Rotterdam The International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) is an annual film festival held at the end of January in various locations in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Since its foundation in 1972, it has maintained a focus on independent and experimental fi ...

and traveled to several other international film festivals. The film tells of a low-life debt collector becomes the main man in his gang through twists and turns where he makes his fellow gang members believe there is a newly returned crime lord coming to take back his territory, when in fact this mystery person is a mere lonely and deranged school teacher. In 2011, Olaf and his producer Kristin Andrea released one documentary called

Adequate Beings {{Short pages monitor