Saving Iceland  And what a documentary can do to help Words by
Valur Gunnarsson Most of the major disputes of the past ten
years have now been settled. The War in Iraq was a terrible
idea. Neo-liberalism was a terrible idea. Privatizing the banks
was a terrible idea. However, the jury is still out on
Kárahjúkavirkjun, the colossal dam in the highlands. From a
conservationist point of view, the dam is an unmitigated
environmental disaster. That much is clear. The question now is,
what did we get in return?      The movie Dreamland criticizes
the project from both of these viewpoints. The book of the same
name is one of the most important Icelandic books of the last
decade or so. Its attention to detail, and the research
involved, put most local journalists to shame. It also,
incidentally, proved that a non-fiction work released in the
spring could sell a lot of copies.      The movie is more blunt.
The scenes of the area from the air are breathtaking, the scenes
of a mother duck trying to save her babies from