Somehow I’ve already gotten used to almost exclusively stylized, artistic films intended for festivals with a strong author’s flair arriving from Iceland, so this action comedy was already a certain refreshment. One of the reasons for this completely different approach is that the author of this parody is not a “real” filmmaker, and as soon as I saw his name, I thought that I knew Hannes Por Halldorson from somewhere. And I was not wrong because Halldorson was the goalkeeper of the Icelandic football team for years, and after he decided to end his football career, he devoted himself to his second love, film.
Even before becoming a professional and building a career in Norway, the Netherlands and Denmark, Halldorson was involved in directing, shooting mostly videos and commercials. Now he has finally found time to create his debut full-length film, and “Cop Secret” premiered at the Locarno festival and later won the European Comedy of the Year award. Unfortunately, it wasn’t really my style of humor, although it’s obvious that “Cop Secret” is an undisguised parody of Hollywood action spectacles that has been dressed up beyond all absurdities. The story is intentionally silly and stupid, so we have two celebrity police officers from Iceland and they are competing to solve crimes in a more spectacular way.
We have the impression that Reykavik is a more dangerous place than Los Angeles or Tijuana, and while Bussi is in charge of the capital, Hordur is in charge of the neighboring territorial unit. But when the criminal mastermind Rikki Ferrari appears, who is a true caricature of those villains from Hollywood action films, and he speaks in English with a voice like those villains from superheroes, Bussi and Hordur will have to become partners. And not only in the police sense, but also in the literal sense, because they will end up together, no matter what Bussi tries to suppress his homosexual tendencies. While Bussi is kind of withdrawn and interested in work, Hordur is a real celebrity. Nabildani is a polyglot who speaks 15 languages and is bisexual, at the same time a policeman and a supermodel. And at the beginning, it all even seemed humorous and fun, but quickly it all deflated and remained just silly and even a little tiring.