Hannes Þór Halldórsson was the goalkeeper for the Icelandic men's national football team for 77 games. He was also there when the team sensationally reached the quarter-finals of the European Championship in 2016. In March of this year he ended his professional career and is now devoting himself entirely to his second career as a director. His debut film “Cop Secret” celebrated its world premiere at the renowned festival in Locarno last summer. The crazy action comedy about two rival detectives who fall in love while solving a series of bank robberies has been on the air since June 23. also in German cinemas.
Mr. Hallórsson, directing a feature film parallel to a career as a professional soccer player is something not everyone does. Have you had this dream throughout your football career?
Let's put it this way: I shot my very first short film when I was 12 and when I was 16 I joined the video club at school.
The school actually had an economic focus, but until I graduated I was really only interested in what we did in this club: short films, videos, entertainment shows for an audience of 200 people.
Since then I have known that directing is my passion.
And anyway, I had long since buried my dream of football after injuring my shoulder badly at the age of 14.
Nevertheless, did you first take the path of an athlete?
After almost four years without playing, my old coach called me shortly after leaving school because he was desperate and needed a goalkeeper.
I used to be really good, so I thought maybe I should try again.
It would be a shame to waste his talent.
And lo and behold: the enthusiasm for football was still blazing in me.
Suddenly I wanted to know again.
But because I had to start at the bottom, I couldn't make a living from it for a long time and needed a job on the side.
So I went two ways for years, played football and staged commercials.
Only a feature film was not yet to be thought of, because football was getting better and better.
For a while it was important to focus on the national team and my respective team,
In the end you shot "Cop Secret" during your active career...
I really didn't think that was possible for a long time.
But when I rejoined an Icelandic club after many years and moved back home in 2019, things suddenly became more manageable.
Still ambitious, but no longer completely unrealistic.
I already had a first draft of "Cop Secret" in the drawer anyway, so at some point I started arranging the first meetings about it.
Then, when I met producer Lilja Ósk Snorradóttir, we decided to just give it a try.
We applied for funding from the Icelandic Film Center, who liked our idea - and that's how it all went.
It then became quite a feat because we had to shoot between championship and international matches in the summer, and therefore in the middle of the season.
But we pulled through.
Did your popularity as a soccer player help get the film off the ground?