Raquela Rios in The Amazing Truth About Queen Raquela Courtesy of Poppoli Pictures

Is there a strong LGBT culture in Iceland?
Absolutely not. The one [transsexual] you see in the film is one of two or three who are openly out.

So based on the subject matter, did you have to jump through hoops to get this production started?
This was somewhat difficult to finance. When you want to make a transsexual film, I guess with your experience, you have a way for it. People are going to categorize that as pretty standard and financially narrow. But the good thing is that we have the Icelandic Film Centre here, which supports Icelandic films. Mainly we're doing local films. I guess I'm among the few who are traveling the world in each film. I was also fortunate that... do you remember the documentary about Brandon Teena?

Sure, which was later adapted as Boys Don't Cry.
Exactly, very good. One of the women who did that documentary is Icelandic. They won a Teddy as well. She was at the Icelandic Film Center when this was being sponsored, so I was fortunate that she was there. But this is definitely not a typical Icelandic film. It was pure hell trying to raise money for it in Europe because I didn't get anything from Europe. I got something from Scandinavia, Iceland, and that was pretty much it.

Have you had a chance to show the film to LGBT audiences?
Yeah. There is a support group in the Philippines which [consists] only of transgender girls in Manila. They're pretty hardcore and very strict. So I showed them the film before it went out, they put a lot of comments on it, and I fixed everything that they were not okay with. That was the strongest test. They liked it very much and thought it was very realistic, [emblematic], and something they hadn't seen before, because we were not exploiting the main character in a bad way. Probably the most severe comment we got was for the use of the terms "ladyboy" and "she-male," which we took out of the film for the most part because these names come directly from the porn industry.

One last question. Why aren't you in Austin, Texas drinking Lone Star beer with the rest of us?
I don't have the money to travel around, and secondly, I'm finishing a feature that I shot here [called The Higher Force]. It's an Icelandic comedy, with an international cast: we had Michael Imperioli from The Sopranos in it, and Yu Lu from Woody Allen's Hollywood Ending. I am basically ducking into [the sound studio] right now. So that's the main reason. I mean, you can always work around the money thing if you're a filmmaker. You just figure out a way.