Kaffibarinn (Reykjavik, Iceland)
Kaffibarinn (Reykjavik, Iceland)
One of the oldest bars in Reykjavik, Kaffibarinn has been “Serving thirsty people since 1993”. A cozy café during the day, it turns into a cool party place with an impressive DJ line-up and the crowds spilling out into the courtyard until early morning.
Located in a red little house in central Reykjavik, the bar is most known for its representation in the cult film 101 REYKJAVIK (2000) by Baltasar Kormákur, featuring Hilmir Snær Guðnason as the antihero with a compelling, confused, and often hilarious sexual universe, and Victoria Abril as the passionate Spanish flamenco teacher.
It took a while for Iceland’s national cinema to shift its gaze from the countryside to the capital. Indeed, Reykjavík wasn’t turned into a genuinely dynamic setting for film narratives until the 1990s and it took Baltasar Kormákur’s 101 REYKJAVIK (2000), based on Hallgrímur Helgason’s popular novel of the same name, to firmly establish the urban lifestyle of young people as a pertinent thematic paradigm for contemporary films. In one way, Kormákur’s film channelled promotional discourse aiming to market Reykjavík as a hotspot for cool alternative music (think Björk and Sigurrós) and as the “party capital of the world”, populated by beautiful blonde women and characterised by an unhinged drinking culture. In another, it turbo-charged that very image and central to the hedonistic imaginary of the film is Kaffibarinn, the smallest, sweatiest and coolest night-spot of central Reykajvík, and the location of several of the film’s key scenes. In what constitutes a charming nexus of fiction and reality, Helgason, author of the novel, and several of the actors in the film, along with Kormákur, who actually owned Kaffibarinn at the time (with, reportedly, Damon Albarn of Blur), were known to be bar regulars. Kaffibarinn would go on to play an important role as set and setting for films and music videos for the next two decades and still stands as one of Reykjavík’s coolest spots and a popular venue for unhinged partying.