Dagur Kári's offbeat and award-winning debut feature tells the story of Nói, an odd-looking 17-year-old who just doesn't fit into his remote Icelandic village. A former student of Lone Scherfig (Italian For Beginners), Kári is currently working on a Dogme film in Denmark.

Where did the idea for the character of Nói come from?

It all started with the name Nói Albinói - in Icelandic it rhymes. From there I invented this character who was almost like an alien in his surroundings, totally different in personality and appearance. This was when I was 17 and had not decided to become a filmmaker yet. At one point I considered making a comic book or short story, but then I went to film school and by the time I finished I had more than enough material for a film. I really wanted to make my first film in Iceland, and I really wanted to close this chapter because [the idea] had followed me since I was a teenager.

The casting of Nói was crucial. Was it hard to find the right person?

I've known Tómas Lemarquis for years, his father was my French teacher, and plays the French teacher in the movie. Iceland is a small country, my family knew his family... but definitely my biggest concern was whether I would be able to find a young talented actor who had this striking appearance. When I was piecing the script together, I realised he was probably the only guy in Iceland who had these qualities.

What qualities does Iceland itself bring to the movie?

The whole middle part of Iceland is just deserts and glaciers - you have moon landscape and green landscape and it's like a catalogue of visual impressions. For this particular film, of course it was important to have isolation and claustrophobia, so I chose to shoot it in one of these small villages at the end of the world, surrounded by mountains and ocean. I had never been to the place before shooting because we went into production very quickly, but we needed snow and this was the part of the country where it was most likely to snow. I think it was useful to not have a relationship to the place, not to know it, because then you are able to see it with fresh eyes, through your story, and make your own world.

Do you think the film and its humour is particularly Icelandic, or would that be pigeonholing it too much?

I think that is pigeonholing. I was not interested in making a realistic account of life in Iceland. I'm not so interested in depicting social issues. I am interested in making a cinematic universe that belongs to this film. If you go to a small town like this in Iceland, it basically revolves around the fishing industry, but in this film I don't show the harbour, ships or fishermen. That is a deliberate choice because I was not interested in making a realistic account of Iceland.

You've said it was important for you to make your first feature in Iceland, but you now live in Denmark. Will it be a long time before you work in Iceland again?

The film I am working on now is taking place in Denmark, and the film I want to do after that will take place somewhere in Europe, I don't really know where. I feel comfortable working abroad, it's easier than working in Iceland in many ways. Maybe for that reason it was very important for me to make my first film in Iceland, to establish where I come from, because I want to have an anchor in Iceland - so that I would be referred to as an Icelandic director rather than Danish or whatever.