CINEMA SCANDINAVIA
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Icelandic Cinema / TIFF / Stockholm / Nordic Film Days / Black Nights / Thessaloniki & more
Issue 11 - January-February 2016
Rams (2015)
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Cinema Scandinavia magazine Issue 11 - January/February 2016 Released 2 December 2015 Editor: Emma Vestrheim Contributing writers: Judit Hollos, Barbara Majsa, Kirsten Hayden, Tara Karajica, Erik Anderson, Lizzie Taylor, Liv Martinsen, Cleo Paraskevopoulou, Sandra van Draat, Ceri Norman, Lina Gordyshevskaya, Petr Platenik, Transcribing and translations by Shehan Vestrheim
Cover photo; Rams (2015) Circulation: Bimonthly Email us: hello@cinemascandinavia.com Printed in NSW, Australia
Important: From January 2016 Cinema Scandinavia will be a Norwegian publication printed in Bergen, Norway.
Cinema Scandinavia is a bimonthly magazine that promotes, discusses and looks at contemporary Nordic cinema as it screens around the world. The focus of our publication is Nordic cinema on the international stage.
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The Rams Oscars 2016 Twitter campaign
In this issue December-January 15-16
News and industry
Features
News 4 Industry 6
Contemporary Icelandic Cinema 8 Rams 10 Virgin Mountain 12 Life in a Fishbowl 13 Sparrows 14 Reverse 18 Albatross 19 Paris of the North 20 Creating A War with Tobias Lindholm 22 Americanised Norwegian Cinema 24 Cold Play: The Soundtrack of Nordic Noir 32
Festivals
Reviews
Black Nights Film Festival Halfdan E: A Somewhat Gentle Composer 34 Toronto International Film Festival Of Masters, Beasts & Fjormulas 36 The Stockholm Film Festival Daniel Dencik 42 The Winners of the Festival 47 In Pursuit of a Better Life 48 CPH:DOX CPH:DOX and the Refugee Crisis 52 At Home in the World 54 The Swedish Theory of Love 55 The Nordic Film Days Dagur Kari & Gunnar Jonsson 56 Søren Malling & Christina Rosendahl 58 The Thessaloniki International Short Film Festival A Selection of Shorts 62 The Oldenburg International Film Festival Interview with Linnea Saasen 64
A War 66 Børning 67 Flocking 68 Granny’s Dancing on the Table 69 The Idealist 70 Land of Mine 71 Lapland Odyssey 2 72 Sparrows 73 Rosita 74 Staying Alive 76 The Wave 77 The Visit 78 The Heavy Water War 79
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Headlines Louder Than Bombs title changed for French audiences
3 Things: Photo: Thomas Marot
New Danish film to begin production in December A new Danish thriller called Three Things is set to start production next month, with Nikolaj Coster-Waldau and Birgitte Hjort Sørensen playing the lead characters. Coster-Waldau is known for his work in Game of Thrones, and Sorensen is known for her leading role in Borgen. Coster-Waldau will play Michael, a highly gifted explosives expert who, along with a group of Serbian criminals, has stolen 60 million kroner. Looking for a quick escape, he goes into the wit-
ness protection program, where he must stay in a hotel. He also asks for three things in order to get his testimony: that PET brings him a woman named Camilla (placed by Sørensen), who he brought a certain box from a storage warehouse, and that he may receive takeaway butter chicken twice from a restaurant in Valby. The script is written by Jens Dahl, who will also direct. The film will premiere on the 27th of October 2016.
The French distribution company Memento Films Distribution has changed the name of Joachim Trier’s Louder Than Bombs due to a concern that the audience will link the film to terrorism. The new title for the film is Back Home – EkkoFilm reports. “It’s not a film about the attacks by the former title could lead people to believe, or a militant film, but rather a melancholy film. We would find a title that is gentler and, above all, more positive after Friday’s events, “says Alexandre Mallet-Guy, director of Memento Films Distribution, to ScreenDaily. The film follows a father and two sons who try to process the trauma around their mothers sudden death. The ‘bombs’ in the title refers to the deceased mothers work as a war photographer. Joachim Trier has told Ekko that the title is a loan from The Smiths’ famous album Louder Than Bombs (1987). Just as it was the British rock group’s first US release, it is the first time that Trier recording a movie in the United States.
Awards wrap-up Thessaloniki Film Festival Best Film: Rams Artistic Achievement Award: Sparrows
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Nordic Film Days NDR Prize: Returning Home Audience Prize: Virgin Mountain Documentary Film Prize: Democrats Baltic Film Prize: Rams Childrens Jury Prize: Operation Arctic
Camerimage Silver Frog: Rams
CPH:DOX NORDIC:DOX: Return of the Atom
In brief... The film adaptation of Jo Nesbø’s novel The Snowman will be filmed in Oslo after the announcement of new funding initiatives by the Norwegian government. Nordic Noir TV series The Bridge III has debuted in the United Kingdom after receiving a large amount of success in Scandinavia. The fourth series remains unclear after Sofia Helin hasn’t confirmed her role. Virgin Mountain (2015) - RVK Studios
Virgin Mountain wins Nordic Council Film Prize Virgin Mountain has been announced as the winner of the 2015 Nordic Council Film Prize. The prize was announced at the Nordic Council’s annual autumn session, this year being held in Reykjavik. Virgin Mountain tells the story of an overweight loner who lives with his mother. He breaks out of his shell after being forced to attend a dance class, and from there meets this first love interest. The jury said Virgin Mountain is “A simple and visually inventive tale about preserving your goodness and innocence in a seemingly impenetrable
Danish actor Pilou Asbæk will be starring in Ghost in the Shell alongside Scarlett Johansson. The film follows special cyborgs who lead a task force. North American distribution company Magnolia Pictures has picked up the rights to the Norwegian adventure film The Last King. Directed by Nils Gaup, the film stars Jakob Oftebro and Kristofer Hivju as medieval warriors who embark on a journey through the harsh Norwegian mountains to bring their dying King’s infant son to safety.
world. Dagur Kári’s artistic ascent of a male virgin mountain results in a deeply moving and captivating film, offering a dignified portrait of its gentle giant of a man, as well as poignant depictions of the women around him.”
The Danish Film Institute last week announced a new streaming service called Denmark on Film, which provides historical documentary film footage from 19051965. The website is available for everyone around the world.
Virgin Mountain is part of what some are calling the ‘New Icelandic Wave’ of films winning numerous awards all over the world, such as Rams and Sparrows. This is the second year in a row that Iceland has won the top prize, winning last year for Of Horses and Men.
Susanne Bier’s six part series The Night Manager has been pre-sold to several key international broadcasters, the Nordisk Film and TV Fund reports. The English language series has been produced for the BBC in the UK and AMC in the USA, and has already been sold to the Nordic territories and Europe, Latin America, and Russia.
Stockholm Film Festival Best Film: Louder Than Bombs
Tokyo International Film Festival Best Acting: Land of Mine
Zurich Film Festival Golden Eye: Rams
Arras International Film Festival Best Film: Virgin Mountain
Valladolid International Film Festival Best Film, Youth Award, Best Director: Rams Best Actor: Virgin Mountain
San Sebastian Film Festival Golden Shell: Sparrows
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Industry Copenhagen doubles CPH Film Fund
Bergen, Norway
Norway announces new funding initiatives The Norwegian state government has announced its budget for 2016, and one of the highlights for Norwegian cinema is a new incentive scheme that will offer foreign producers a 25% refund of their costs when shooting a film in Norway. The Culture Minister Thorhild Widvey announced that she has allocated 45 million NOK for the new incentive which will be administered in the fjord gateway Bergen. “Norway has rich qualities for filming locations – in addition to a professional and competent film industry, we have a rich cultural history, and a unique
natural and cultural landscape. With the incentive scheme, we want to strengthen Norway’s competitive advantage,” said Widvey. Other highlights include allocated support for film regions to the sum of 8.8 million NOK, an attempt to draw international filmmakers to Norway. There is also a report underway to investigate how to organise the Cinemateque outside of the NFI, and that report will be completed during the first quarter of 2016. The NFI has been awarded a onetime grant of four million NOK to cover the establishment of a branch in Bergen.
The city of Copenhagen has doubled its funding for the Copenhagen Film Fund, a funding initiative to bring films to the Danish capital. The city has allocated €2 million in the 2016 budget for the fund to invest in attracting international film and TV productions in order to create further growth and jobs in the metropolitan region. “It is a lot of money, and it is a sign of respect for the good work the Copenhagen Film Fund has done to bring foreign films to the area,” said Copenhagen’s mayor of culture, Carl Christian Jeppesen. “The majority of the city council accepts that the support will return several times to benefit the whole capital.” Jeppesen is negotiating with other investors to provide another €2 million for the coming year. The fund has backed two major releases this year: The Danish Girl and The Wave, both of which were shown recently in Toronto. Since its beginning in 2013, the fund has also contributed to The Bridge, Wallander, and the UK series Midsomer Murders. A report from the Copenhagen Economics Research Institute has concluded that every euro the fund has invested in incoming productions has returned between €3.50 and €6.00 to the region, so far totalling between €13 million and €20 million.
Box office figures Denmark
Finland
Iceland
Klovn Forever: $6,823,934 USD number one 2-4 October 2015
Finland has had record breaking box office figures this year, with 2,385,000 tickets to Finnish films sold. The most popular film of the year is Taneli Mustonen’s The Reunion, a remake of a Danish comedy, with a staggering 506 000 admissions.
Sparrows: $26,650 USD (peaked number 10 on 16 October 2015)
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Everest: $673,644 USD (peaked number one 16 October 2015)
Steve Gravestock Toronto International Film Festival Nordic programmer
CS: How did you get involved with TIFF and the Nordic file in particular? SG: A lot of the programming department is organized geographically. I do Canadian features, Nordic features, and the Filipino features as well. At the time when Piers (Handling) suggested that I take on the Nordic file there was no one doing it, so it was a wide open territory. There’s a deep cinematic tradition in all of the countries. I had a long interest in Scandinavian cinema going back to watching Jan Troell movies on TV in the seventies when New Land and The Immigrants were first on TV. CS: What is the process for you in terms of deciding on the films? Are there a certain amount of slots? SG: I usually get about ten slots and we go from there. We try to distribute those evenly, but it will also depend on the year and what you see. Even though the program department is organized geographically it’s not super territorial. Often people will like the same film, so depending on the film and depending on the year I could do it or someone else could. It depends on who likes it the most and who can position it the best, in some ways. With ‘Platforms’ it’s different too. Land of Mine was done very well and it opened in the Platforms section and it has done quite well this year, which is nice to see because Martin (Zandvliet)’s a very interesting filmmaker and his producer has really done some cool work too. CS: So do you go to the Nordic festivals as well, to scout? Steve Gravestock Image: TIFF
SG: No, I go directly to the countries and we do private screening trips. It’s a great region to do because the institutes are incredibly well organized and they all have a connection to Toronto, so it’s fun that way. It’s not particularly onerous. The toughest part is which films to select because there are usually just too many good films for me to show everything that I like. You always have to make some tough decisions. CS: How many Nordic films do you usually watch? SG: Depending on the year, it’s usually around 60 or 70 but it’s been higher. It’s usually picking one in seven or one in eight.
Norway Norwegian films hit a new record in September thanks to several new kids films and the disaster movie The Wave (Bolgen). During last month Norwegian films had a 67.7% market share, with 715,000 admissions. This is a huge increase in Norwegian film admissions when you compare it to the 3.8% market share that was recorded between January and July 2015. The Wave currently has 825 259 admissions
Sweden En underbar jävla jul $896,826 USD LasseMajas Detektivbyra - Stella Nostra $2,179,549 USD (peaked number one 16 October 2015)
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Contemporary Icelandic cinema 2015 has easily been the year of Icelandic cinema. The small island country of 320,000 people has had a remarkable number of success stories over the past twelve months. Benedikt Erlingsson’s Of Horses and Men took out the Nordic Council Film Prize at the end of 2014, and this year we have seen Grímur Hákonarson’s Rams win the Un Certain Regard at the Cannes Film Festival, Dagur Kári’s Virgin Mountain winning three awards at Tribeca (Best Narrative, Best Screenplay and Best Actor), and Baltasar Kormákur’s Everest opening the Venice Film Festival. Icelandic cinema has been making its way all over the international festival scene, and the small nation has become a staple of world cinema. Historically speaking, Icelandic film production has been rather limited. The first critically acclaimed film to be made was Ágúst Guðmundsson’s Land and Sons (1980). The film is based on a novel by Indriði G. Thorsteinsson, which is set in a remote valley in the north of Iceland in 1937. Sheep disease is crippling farming and young people are hurrying to the centres of urban expansion. This film not only marks the beginning of contemporary Icelandic cinema, but also indicates many of the popular trends and themes that most frequently appear in Icelandic films: the relationship between man and nature, the clash of two values and lifestyles, rural and urban, loneliness, alienation, and the desire to escape. Commercial cinema started to grow with the main representative being Hrafn Gunnlagsson. His 1984 film When the Raven Flies (the first of the Viking/Cod Westerns Trilogy) was a great success at least nationally. Set in the Middle Ages, the film tells the story of the revenge of Gestur, an Irishman who as a child witnessed the murder of his parents by Norwegian Vikings. Gestur follows their trail to Iceland and incites their mutual distrust and hatred. The real breakthrough came from Children of Nature (1991), directed by Friðrik Þór Friðriksson, an Oscar nominee and the first Icelandic winner at many of the most prestigious international film festivals. The film is kind of a modern myth, a moving story about being stuck in between – living close to nature and modernisation, between past and future, between life and death – as it follows an old man living by himself who gives up farming and ends up in an old peoples home.
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The contemporary Icelandic cinema we are seeing with the new generation of filmmakers covers similar subjects, but they also portray Iceland as a claustrophobic island that they can’t escape. At the time of its release, Baltasar Kormákur’s 101 Reykjavik (2000) broke many taboos of the Icelandic
culture. A story of a strange love triangle between a mother, her son and their lover created controversy among Icelanders. However, the film is more significant as it was one of the first Icelandic films to portray life of young people in the big city. The film moved away from endless landscapes and concentrated on the intimate lives of its main characters. Yet despite the attempt to break from established clichés, it still talks about the inseparable bond between Icelanders and their place of birth, and about the closed society they form. At its time, Noi the Albino was one of the handful of Icelandic films to have travelled around the world, receiving praise from critics. The film takes place during the winter and follows the teenager Noi as he lives throughout daily routines and dreams of a summery paradise. The hero is an outsider and loner, and the small village represents the desire to beginning a new and different life. Noi the Albino succeeded overseas as a film that was both distinctly Icelandic and universal. The films successful negotiation of the tensions between the local and global contributed to the films status as an Icelandic classic, and its place within Icelandic film highlights the problems this small nation faces. Another contemporary Icelandic film that highlights problems in the small nation is Jar City. Regarded as one of the Nordic Noir films, Jar City follows the murder of a petty criminal and suspected pedophile. His murder sparks a search for a long-gone hoodlum and an investigation into a rape case from more than thirty years ago. Parallel to Inspector Erlendur’s life, a separate story shows a man, Orn, grieving for his young daughter and investigating her death from a rare brain condition. He appears to work in some secrete lab, and this reflects on Iceland’s controversial programme to form a DNA database: as a uniquely isolated community they want to make sure that future couples aren’t incest, and this becomes a theme that Kormákur manages to fit in. The contemporary Icelandic films released over the past twelve months attempt to break this image of Iceland as an idealistic wonderland, and instead portray the various flaws but in a humanistic way. They ask uncomfortably questions about their country, explore complex social and family relations, and observe not only the beauty of nature but also its destructive side. They form a critical voice in Iceland that shows other dimensions. But not only that, they tell Icelandic stories to the world and many agree that is the key behind their success.
Icelandic cinema in 2015
Land of Sons (1980)
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