''The Importance of Being Icelandic'' is a 1998 documentary film by the filmmaker

Jon Gustafsson ''Jon Gustafsson'' is an Iceland born film director and photographer. The Icelandic spelling of his name is Jón Gústafsson. Best known for directing the Canadian documentary film Wrath of Gods, starring Gerard Butler, Wendy Ord, Sarah Polley, ...

(born in

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 ...

and living in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

) that traces the steps of three Icelandic Canadians on a different quest of discovering their Icelandic heritage by going to

. In addition to their time in Iceland, he returns with them to Canada and captures their reactions of the Islendingadagurinn celebrated each year at Gimli. The contrasts in perspective between his viewpoint on Canadian culture and that of three Icelandic-Canadians on a quest for their ancestral heritage is at the centre of the documentary.

External links

* Icelandic-Canadian culture Icelandic-Canadian culture in Manitoba Icelandic short documentary films 1998 films 1990s short documentary films Canadian short documentary films 1990s English-language films 1990s Canadian films {{short-documentary-film-stub