Fjallferð — a week inside Iceland’s réttir

Fjallferð is a short documentary made under the collective banner Caution Media by directors Jesse Smolan, Ollie Maine Smith and Josh Mitchell Jimayu Fairmont, according to Directors Notes. The film follows Iceland’s réttir — the annual sheep round‑up — and, as the filmmakers tell Directors Notes, aims to show the warmth of the people who live in a famously dramatic landscape.

They shot the film over just six days with a three‑person crew, and worked with three cameras (Sony FX3, FX6 and A7S III) and a DJI Mini 3 Pro drone, all on a modest production budget of $6.5k USD, Directors Notes reports. The team split up with different farmers each day to capture concurrent action and wide coverage, a tactic they say was essential to the film’s immediacy.

“I think the challenge of not having Ragnar on the trip ultimately benefited us as filmmakers and shaped the way we interacted with the farmers.”

— Jesse Smolan, in Directors Notes

That Ragnar Axelsson appears only remotely — via photography and voiceover — helped the filmmakers keep the focus on the farmers, they tell Directors Notes. The edit likewise resisted turning Iceland into mere spectacle: archive and aerial material were used sparingly so the landscape would serve the farmers’ story rather than overshadow it.

“From the beginning, we knew the réttir and the landscape were incredibly visual, but we didn’t want the film to become a collection of beautiful images of Iceland.”

— Jesse Smolan, in Directors Notes

The directors also say Fjallferð has enjoyed a strong festival run, including screenings at Oscar‑qualifying festivals, and that the project has opened doors for them. Fjallferð is premiering on Directors Notes; see the film and the interview on Directors Notes.