27/01/2026 - We sat down with the filmmaker to discuss his newest work amidst the landscape of a burgeoning Faroese film culture and industry

(© Simen Salomonsen Hjelle)

Sakaris Stórá’s sophomore feature, The Last Paradise on Earth [+see also:
film review
interview: Sakaris Stórá
film profile], was the first film to be shot in the Faroe Islands’ southernmost island, Suðuroy, which has a population of fewer than 5000 inhabitants. The Faroese filmmaker has undoubtedly paved the way for future generations of directors with his deliciously languorous visual style and compellingly warm thematic throughlines. The Last Paradise on Earth also snagged the Nordic Council Film Prize in 2025, becoming the first Faroese film ever to do so. At the Tromsø International Film Festival, we sat down with the filmmaker to discuss his newest work amidst the landscape of a burgeoning Faroese film culture and industry.

Cineuropa: You mentioned that last time you were in Tromsø for the festival, you were developing the story. How did you approach the seed of this idea? Is it from a more visual perspective or script perspective?
Sakaris Stórá: I don’t consider myself a very good writer, so when I develop stories, I base them not on scenes but more on moments in a person’s life. The inception for the idea was to portray the culture and the environment from the fish factory like this. These small factories have been a driving force in a lot of places in the Nordics and all over the world, but they are dying out and instead becoming more centralised. Everything that I’ve worked on before has been about longing for the bigger world. In Faroese, we have a word for ‘longing for the bigger world’ that I don’t think other languages have. That says something about how essential it is.

With this film, I wanted to do the opposite of this type of longing. I wanted to create a family story about a home that is not working because people don’t see and hear each other. I wanted to have a character who didn’t fit into this world where you have to be something and achieve something all the time. I made up the story and then developed it with two Danish authors – someone from abroad to add a perspective and to make it understandable for people who are not from the Faroe Islands.

Do you find that you also rediscover things about yourself during the Q&As at the festival?
Absolutely. There are many elements that are intentionally left open for interpretation, and there are so many themes that are underneath the surface of the film. The Q&As are always fun. You can’t really prepare for the questions. It’s also very interesting to hear other opinions, because I come from a tiny country of only 50,000 people. It’s very nice to hear how other people see the film.

Can you talk about Faroese reactions to the film?
We don’t have a long tradition of film. There have been very, very few feature films, so we are not used to seeing our own country and our language in cinema. I’m very aware that people have to get used to it, and we all are very aware of the effort to try and build up a film culture. Everywhere else, you see your own culture and your own language in cinema. At home, the things people see in the film are different. For some, it’s the personal story, and for others, it’s more about society shutting down. Some people also really connect with the grief element of the family.

This film is the first to be shot on the island of Suðuroy. What was it like during the shoot?
I was prepared for something worse. Everyone was very happy to be there because we knew this town and stayed there for a month. I think everyone had a very positive experience, but I was afraid that people, especially those from abroad, would get island fever. Everything was also shot on location; we didn’t take helicopter rides to fancy places. For the production, it was really nice because everything was basically within walking distance. I also think that shows how the film uses nature, that nature is just a part of the story and not something superficial that’s added to the imagery. The factory in the film is an actual factory. We had to train the actor to prepare the fish, which he found very funny. It’s the same kind of factory that I worked in myself for three years.

Your film notably won the Nordic Council Film Prize. Do you feel like you have a personal connection to traditions of Nordic cinema?
In the Faroe Islands, we watch a lot of Danish films because we get the [geographically] topmost part of Danish television. I also studied in Norway, in the Lofoten Islands. Icelandic films have always been inspiring in seeing what’s possible to do. It feels right to do something that feels a bit like Nordic cinema. It’s a buzzword to use, but it is the honesty towards the environment that it portrays that became Nordic to me.

It’s based on vibes and feeling, an atmosphere. The sound part of the film was something we started developing before the script was done. I didn’t know how all the scenes were going to look, but I had a feeling of how they should sound. We based a lot of that on the main character and how he experiences the world. That was the same with the tempo of the editing.