Out of Thin Air
directed by Dylan Howitt, Island/ UK 2017, 85'
This case rocked Iceland in 1974. In a country of just over 200,000 inhabitants, two mysterious disappearances occurred within a short space of time. After many months, the investigation, led by a foreign specialist, finally produced answers. Members of a youth gang confessed to the crimes. Local papers dubbed the gang’s leader, who had the exotic-sounding name Ciesielski, Iceland's Charles Manson. The trial ended with a number of lengthy sentences—and the country could breathe a sigh of relief. Only the police never managed to find any evidence, and the charges were based solely on the confessions of the suspects. In his fascinating documentary thriller, Dylan Howitt argues convincingly that the confessions were coerced through enhanced interrogation techniques such as sleep deprivation, water torture and long-term isolation in solitary confinement. Under such conditions, the suspects quickly lost confidence in their own memories. In addition to archives and interviews, surreal reconstructions play a substantial role in Howitt's film. Just how flexible is our memory? Can you be convinced of your own guilt if this is what an investigator really wants? Forty years after sentences were handed down in the most famous criminal case in Iceland's history, the case opened once again.
- 2017 Hot Docs
