Dagur K ri's Noi the Albino (N i Alb n i, 2003) succeeded on the international festival circuit as a film that was both distinctively Icelandic and appealingly universal, tapping into perennial themes of teenage angst and escapism against an almost surreal backdrop Icelandic scenery. Bjorn Nordfjord considers the film's successful negotiation of the tensions between the local and the global.--Bjorn Nordfjord is assistant professor and director of the film studies program at the University of Iceland.