Cold Fever DVD

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This road movie, set in Iceland, was the first film by Friðrik Þór Friðriksson to be made in English. It depicts the journey of a Japanese man who visits Iceland.
It forms a trilogy with Friðriksson's other films, "Children of Nature" and "Movie Days."

The reason a Japanese person was chosen as the main character is because the film is based on the death of three members of a geological survey team from the University of Tokyo in Iceland in August 1984.
Friðriksson came up with the idea for the film after watching news footage of the accident. Several years after the accident, the bereaved families came from Japan and crossed Iceland to the scene of the accident, where they performed a memorial service, pouring sake and rice into the river. He was drawn to the ceremony to console the souls of the deceased. Friðriksson said that both Japan and Iceland are volcanic islands, that they live in coexistence with the sea, and that people are fascinated by spiritual beings and spiritual things. Masatoshi Nagase, who played the main character, said in a newspaper interview that Icelanders, who still seem to believe in the existence of spirits, may have felt a spiritual connection to the Japanese memorial service. Spirits also appear in the film.

The film's producer, Jim Jarmusch, was also the producer of the film "Mystery Train," in which Nagase appeared. Friðriksson saw the film at the Reykjavik International Film Festival and became interested in Nagase, contacting him through Jarmusch.

The film was shot in January and February 1993 because winter scenes were needed in the film, and it was the first film to be shot in Iceland in winter.
In 1995, the film won the Best New Director Award at the Edinburgh International Film Festival.