The Magician is a strong and personal story, about how one‘s imagination can help make unbearable situation bearable.

Filmed against the background of the mountainous north of Iceland with its magnificent scenery, this film shows the life of a lone farmer in an isolated fjord, whose inhabitants have slowly deserted it for the relative ease and comfort of the city life. This farmer, however, is too attached to his land and persist in remaining there, despite the difficulties he has to confront. Through his eyes and those of his peers, the trend of Icelandic society away from traditional agriculture towards industrialisation is viewed with sympathetic regret.

An elderly couple leave their retirement home to make one last journey back to their home in the Western Fjords.

Lisa wants to take a cruise, hubby Finnbogi schemes to make money. He buys a dilapidated bakery. They get lucky when Karolina, who bakes great cakes, offers to work for them. She's the mother of Marta, head of the area's largest bakery, and the two have quarreled. Marta can't abide mom's rebellion or the rival bakery's success, so she inveigles Finnbogi to invest in porn toys without telling Lisa. Where does he get the cash? From his son Bjartmar, who has promised Russian sailors he'll arrange the purchase of ten Landas. The Russians are coming to collect their cars, Finnbogi hasn't sold a single dildo, hard-bitten Marta plans one more nasty trick. How can Lisa get her cruise?

Ragnar has left his family farm and works as a taxi driver in Reykjavík in the early sixties. He's drawn to the beautiful but unhappy girl Gogo and hopes to build a better life with her. But she's a lost soul and their brief romance results in tragedy.

Various events of importance to the nation and to individual persons during the cold war and from about 1960 emerge as fragments of the memory of a little boy learning about life, about divorce, military occupation, the Beatles, little girls and death.

A young couple moves into an old house. She teaches deaf children, he is a musician, working on his own compositions. Their separate worlds, one silent, the other full of sounds, create a vivid pattern of contrasts, which affect their emotional lives and their living together. From the time they move into the house, they are strangely aware of something odd, especially she, while he concentrates more and more upon his work. A series of incidents adds to her growing uneasiness about the house. Its past seems to creep in on her. She feels as if some tragedy must have befallen the people that lived there before, but when she starts asking around she gets few answers. There is something about the house that seems to be on the verge of overpowering her - something that in an unexpected way is related to her origins and permanently affects her life and destiny.

Our hero is Umbi (an acronym for emissary of the bishop), sent by him to undertake an important investigation at Snæfell-glacier. In particular he is to look into the conduct and behavior of Jón Prímus, the old pastor at Snæfell. Fantastic rumors are rife: amongst other things it is said that a corpse is lodged in the glacier! Armed with his tape recorder and notebook, Umbi embarks upon his mission. He tries to question the weird locals, a weird lot, but gets evasive answers. Slowly he is dragged into a quagmire of strange happenings and his efforts to understand only make him confused. If at the beginning he is a chipper, a mere device, by the end of the story he is inextricably involved, a committed participant in the bizarre events.

The story of an Icelandic man and his slow descent into madness. Along his journey he meets Dagný, the initial cause of his breakdown. Other people he meets in the asylum have been committed for various reasons, such as signing cheques for Adolf Hitler and, believing themselves to be writing songs for the Beatles and telepathically transmitting to the band.

The smell of leather, whiskey and cigars: Two young girlfriends fall in love with the same man, an adventurous young businessman. Missing, forged documents wreak havoc on the lives of everyone involved.