Production company: Vidsyn ehf

Writer/Director: Steinthor Birgisson

Camera:  Steinthor Birgisson

Editing: Steinthor Birgisson

Duration: 53 min.

© Vidsyn ehf.

John and

Reverend John

All but two of the 44 inhabitants of a remote and isolated community in northwest Iceland declare a vote of no confidence in their parish priest and he is ordered to leave his post by the bishop. He obeys but seeks permission to stay at the farm where he has lived for 12 years, but is refused and is told to move away.

He is accused of a good deal; collecting all kinds of rubbish around the refectory farm, allowing the place to deteriorate and general incompetence as a farmer. In addition, he is said not being able to control his temper, to have isolated himself from his flock and because of his oddness and idiosyncrasies his sanity has also been questioned.

Is Reverend Jón an incompetent priest? If so, why isn’t he allowed to stay at his farm?  Is it because he underfeeds his sheep?  Or is it because members of the congregation want to get their hands on his eider down farm for themselves?  Or is it simply his appearance, contradicting the accepted notions of what a pastor should be, that has triggered the hostilities

towards him.

This documentary does not however examine the justice or injustice of the

accusations   against Reverend Jón.  Instead, it follows his story and focuses directly on the man himself, his personality and life-style, and how he strives to keep his dignity through the enormous difficulty of being rejected by the small community in such a remote place, torn in his own mind between self-accusation and bitterness against those who have succeeded in having him dismissed and deprived him of his home and the existence he has chosen.

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John and Reverend John is produced with the support of Icelandic Filmcentre and MEDIA+ , the EU support Programme