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The Documentary: Iceland: What Happened Next?

Iceland: What Happened Next?

15/09/2018 GMT

BBC World Service - The Documentary, Iceland: What Happened Next?

One small country and the legacy of a local crisis that went global

One small country and the legacy of a local crisis that went global.

Iceland is a small island nation of just 340,000 people but at the height of the global financial crisis in 2008 it was the scene of one of the biggest banking collapses in history.

Ten years on the economy has recovered, thanks to the millions of tourists who now visit every year. But what scars have been left on this close-knit island nation’s collective psyche? 
Iceland was the only country to jail its bankers after the crisis. We find out if that policy has helped heal the wounds of crisis that became a national embarrassment.

We also find out how Iceland’s once-quiet political scene is still experiencing the aftershocks of the crisis, and we hear from Icelanders who worry about the damage done to Iceland’s sense of trust and national pride.

From the remote Westfjords, where small fishing communities cling to weather-beaten fjords, to the financial heart of the capital, once trumpeted as the “Dubai of the north”, we ask what lessons have been learned from the crash, and ask if Iceland’s history of booms and busts is doomed to repeat itself in the latest explosion in tourism.

Edwin Lane speaks to the Icelanders hit hardest by the crisis, the small-town chief of police charged with pursuing the errant bankers, the new wave of Icelandic politicians agitating for change, and the Icelanders who fear that the lessons of the past haven’t been learned.

Image: Two people walk across a frozen lake in central Reykjavik (Credit: Christian Science Monitor via Getty Images)

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