Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga (2020) is an American musical comedy directed by David Dobkin and written by Will Ferrell and Harper Steele. The film stars Will Ferrell and Rachel McAdams as Lars Erickssong and Sigrit Ericksdóttir, two small-town Icelandic musicians from Húsavík who dream of representing Iceland in the Eurovision Song Contest. After an accident removes the other Icelandic contestants from the competition, their band Fire Saga unexpectedly gets the chance to perform on the international stage. Dan Stevens plays Russian contestant Alexander Lemtov, while Pierce Brosnan appears as Lars’ disapproving father, Erick. The film combines broad comedy, romantic musical drama, Eurovision parody and sincere affection for the contest, using extravagant performances, cameos, fictional songs and the contrast between village life and international pop spectacle as its main comic engine.
Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga was filmed across Iceland, Scotland, England and Israel, with each location contributing to a different part of the film’s exaggerated Eurovision world. Húsavík in northern Iceland is the film’s emotional home base and appears as Lars and Sigrit’s hometown, with the harbour, town streets, church, cemetery and surrounding coastal landscape helping establish Fire Saga’s local identity. The Eurovision final is set in Edinburgh, and the production used many real Edinburgh locations, including the Royal Mile, Princes Street Gardens and the Ross Fountain, Calton Hill, Grassmarket, Victoria Street, Arthur’s Seat, the New Town and Newhaven Harbour. Glasgow also plays an important role, with The SSE Hydro used for the Eurovision arena material, even though the story presents the contest as taking place in Edinburgh. The production also filmed at the real Eurovision Song Contest 2019 in Tel Aviv, using Expo Tel Aviv and live contest atmosphere to give the fictional competition a connection to the real event. In England, Knebworth House was used for Alexander Lemtov’s extravagant party mansion, while Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden and other locations supplied controlled interior and production work. The film’s location identity is therefore built around contrast: the small Icelandic fishing town of Húsavík, the historic streets and skyline of Edinburgh, the arena scale of Glasgow, the real Eurovision setting of Tel Aviv and the over-the-top aristocratic glamour of Knebworth House.
Gullfoss
Gullfoss has appeared in films and television series including Land Ho!, Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga, Vikings and Lost in Space.
Ross Fountain
Ross Fountain appears in Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga (2020), where Edinburgh stands in for the host city of the Eurovision Song Contest.