Cinema Scandinavia August 2014 by Emma Vestrheim

CINEMA SCANDINAVIA News, analyses and reviews for Nordic films. Issue 5 | August 2014

Sacrifice versus damnation: salvation by the antithesis of the faith The films The Sacrifice, by Andrei Tarkovsky, and Songs from Second Floor, by Roy Andersson, relate to when talking about faith, hypocrisy and men in search of salvation, and an intrinsic need for change.

On transgressions in Ruben Östlund’s ‘play’ When Ruben Ostlund’s film Play premiered in Sweden, it became debated to an extent rarely seen for modern films. The provocative storyline has three white kids harassed and robbed by five kids who are a few years older than them and black.

Nymphomaniac: von trier talking about von trier In Nymphomaniac, it seems like von Trier makes comments on his career and the perception that people have about his work. Although the film has been widely publicised as a work bordering on pornography, this is far from reality.

CINEMA SCANDINAVIA Cinema Scandinavia is an online publication and news website dedicated to the films from Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden.

Welcome to the fifth issue of Cinema Scandinavia! After the release of our landscape issue, I decided to do some major changes to the structure of the magazine. Instead of having themes, the magazine now focuses on current Nordic film topics. There has also been greater emphasis on reviews of films being released internationally, as well as festivals. I hope you all like the new changes. The website has also undergone massive changes, and you can now find detailed information on films, festivals, and much more.

COVER DESCRIPTIONS. Film: Play Director: Ruben Ostlund

Being an Australian, it was hard to get involved with Nordic culture while editing this magazine. So, Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve packed up and gone to Bergen, Norway for the next three months. During August Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll be traveling through Sweden and Denmark, and will then explore Northern Norway and hopefully Iceland and Finland in September. During my visit, I hope to greater understand the culture and use this new knowledge in making the magazine better and better for the readers. This months issue has seen some of the best articles yet, and it seems the quality continues to improve. I hope you enjoy reading Cinema Scandinavia. - EMMA Bryggen in Bergen, Norway on the 1st of August 2014

www.cinemascandinavia.com @CineScandinavia facebook.com/CinemaScandinavia

Made in Bergen, Norway

CINEMA SCANDINAVIA

ANALYSES ON TRANSGRESSIONS IN RUBEN OSTLUND’S PLAY

P. 12

MOODYSSON: FOLLOWING IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF BERGMAN?

P. 16

THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS DANISH HUMOUR

P. 18

SACRIFICE VERSUS DAMNNATION: SALVATION BY THE ANTITHESIS OF THE FAITH

P. 22

HUMOUR IS A SERIOUS THING, AND THE SCANDINAVIAN’S KNOW IT

P. 26

A THOUSAND TIMES GOOD NIGHT

P. 28

NYMPHOMANIAC: VON TRIER TALKING ABOUT VON TRIER

P. 32

SCANDINAVIA AROUND THE WORLD: HUNGARY

P. 36

REVIEWS FILM OF THE MONTH: YOU, THE LIVING

P. 40

NORTHWEST

P. 42

THE KEEPER OF LOST CAUSES

P. 44

FLAME AND CITRON

P. 46

IN ORDER OF DISAPPEARANCE

P. 48

TELEVISION IN ANALYSIS: MATADOR

P. 50

TELEVISION IN REVIEW: HELLFJORD

P. 52

REGULARS NEWS

P. 4

FESTIVALS

P. 10

SCANDINAVIAN RELEASES

P. 11

CONTRIBUTE

P. 56

DOWNLOADS

P. 58

NEWSLETTER

P. 60 3

NEWS

MAJOR FILM FESTIVALS FEATURE SCANDINAVIA BIER, OSTLUND AND ULLMANN WILL APPEAR AT TORONTO, AND OPPENHEIMER, TRIER, AND ANDERSSON WILL BE AT VENICE.

Three Nordic films will screen in the Special Presentations sidebard for ‘high profile premieres and the world’s leading filmmakers’ at the Toronto International Film Festival in September. The festival program was announced mid July and features more than 300 films from 60 countries. Danish director Susanne Bier’s film A Second Chance, Norwegian actor-director Liv Ullmann’s film Miss Julie and Swedish director Ruben Östlund’s Force Majeure will be featured at the festival - both Bier and Ullmann’s entries will have world premieres at the event. Written by Anders Thomas Jensen and Susanne Bier - who also collaborated on the Golden Glob and Oscar-winning In a Better World (2011) - A Second Chance is about two police officers and best friends, Andreas and Simon, who are called to a domestic dispute between a junkie couple. When Andreas finds their neglected infant son, he is shaken to his core and reacts. Danish actor Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, who had his international break in Game of Thrones, plays Andreas, with Ulrich Thomsen as Simon.

A SECOND CHANCE

Twice Oscar-nominated as an actress, Ullmann herself has written the screenplay for her screen adaptation of Swedish playwright August Strindberg’s 1888 classic about the battle of the sexes, with US and UK stars Jessica Chastain, Colin Farrell and Samantha Morton in the leads. This is her first feature since Faithless in 2000. The updated English-language costume drama was shot in Northern Ireland in collaboration with Norway, the UK, France and Ireland. MISS JULIE

Östlund’s Force Majeure was launched at Cannes and went on to win the Jury Prize - it was his third entry in the festival after Involuntary in competition and Play in the Director’s Fortnight. He promised ‘the most spectacular avalanche scene in film history’ in the Erik Hemmendorff-Marie Kjellsen Plattform production. Starring Johannes Bah Kuhnke, Lisa Loven Kongsli, Clara Wettergren and Vincent Wetterfren, Östlund’s fourth feature follows a Swedish family on a skiing holiday. Owing to a trivial ‘state of emergency’, the family comes into contact with human mechanisms they have never had to confront before. The Venice Film Festival has also announced its lineup. Joshua Oppenheimer’s companion piece to The Act of Killing, The Look of Silence revisits the Indonesian genocide, this time telling the story from the victims perspective. The long version of Lars von Trier’s Nymphomaniac will also be there, this time part two as the directors cut. Roy Andersson’s first film in seven years, A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence, will have its world premiere and compete for top prize at the festival. Read more about the Toronto Film Festival 4

CINEMA SCANDINAVIA

A PIGEON SAT ON A BRANCH REFLECTING ON EXISTENCE

Read more about the Venice Film Festival

NEWS

FIRST BOLLYWOOD FILM TO BE SHOT IN LAPLAND When Amitabh Bachchan and R. Balki get together they always create something amazing. Now Shamitabh is on its way, and while there is not much known about this movie, we have come to know that it is going to be the first Bollywood film to be shot in the Finnish Lapland. First there was Cheeni Kum, with Big-B in the role of a grouchy Indian chef who lives in London and falls in love with a woman half his age. Then came Paa, where the father and son, Amitabh and Abhishek switched roles with the former playing a twelve year old schoolboy. The spokesperson of the film has confirmed that Shamitabh will be the first film to be shot in Finland. The cast and crew will soon be travelling to the Nordic country to shoot in the Arctic Circle and at Lapland, which is the biggest area of Finland. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Yes, Shamitabh will be shot in Finland covering locations like the Arctic Circle and Lapland that have never been shot beforeâ&#x20AC;? the spokesperson confirmed. The films unit will be shooting in Finland over a period of 10 days. The scenes to be shot in the Scandinavian Peninsula will be some of the most important scenes of the film, however details of the scenes are kept under wraps.

AMITABH BACHCHAN

Read more here 7

TOP DANISH ADMISSIONS OF 2014

(SO FAR...)

1. The Reunion 2: The Funeral(Denmark); dir: Mikkel Serup. 604,285 admissions 2. Frozen (US); dirs: Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee. 292,862 admissions (555,789, including 2013) 3. Father of Four: The Return of Uncle Sofus (Denmark); dir: Giacomo Campeotto. 285,786 admissions 4. The Wolf of Wall Street (US); dir: Martin Scorsese. 246,373 admissions 5. The Lego Movie (US); dirs: Phil Lord, Christopher Miller. 216,539 admissions 6. 12 Years a Slave[+] (US/UK); dir: Steve McQueen. 198,546 admissions 7. Rio 2 (US); dir: Carlos Saldanha. 172,217 admissions 8. Someone You Love (Denmark); dir: Pernille Fischer Christensen. 165,293 admissions 9. Waltz for Monica[+] (Sweden); dir: Per Fly. 159,414 admissions 10. X-Men: Days of Future Past (US); dir: Bryan Singer. 153,403 admissions

NEW POSTER FOR ‘THE ABSENT ONE’, THE SECOND INSTALLMENT IN THE DEPARTMENT Q SERIES AFTER ‘THE KEEPER OF LOST CAUSES’.

“In cases like Prometheus, Oblivion, and Christopher Nolan’s upcoming Interstellar, the black sand dunes become backdrop for alien planets or a post-apocalyptic Earth; in Game of Thrones the green valleys and barren mountains become the perfect spot to capture the parts of the fantasy world Westeros. But in these

”

cases, Iceland is merely a stand-in for a place that doesn’t exist.

- ‘Does Iceland Deserve a Better Movie?’ by Indiewire Read the whole article

Concrete Night won the Golden Arena for Best Film at the Pula Film Festival in Croatia. ‘For successfully creating a unique atmosphere in a poetic and visually impressive manner.’

CINEMA SCANDINAVIA

“Such is the penetration of Nordic noir into our consciousness that even driving the route [of the Oresund Bridge] on a summer day, with the five-mile structure glinting in the

the socially awkward Saga Noren and her Danish sidekick Martin Rohde. As the pair pursued a perpetrator whose killing spree put Hannibal Lecter in the shade, The Bridge explored extreme violence, political activism, and social dysfunction in

”

both nations.

- ‘Designing Out Crime in Scandinavia’ by The Guardian. Read the whole article

NORTHWEST IS NOW OUT IN THE UNITED KINGDOM

sunlight, you are thrust back into those bleak scenes featuring

FIRST LOOK AT ‘GOLD COAST’, A DANISH FILM ABOUT THE ILLEGAL DANISH SLAVE TRADE.

FIRST LOOK AT SERENA, A NEW FILM BY SUSANNE BIER.

FESTIVALS AND RELEASES IN AUGUST.

New Horizons Int’l Film Festival | Poland Aston’s Presents (SWE) Just a Little (SWE) Animal Friends (SWE) Baltic Debuts Film Festival | Russia Home (SWE) Sziget Festival | Hungary Undress Me (SWE)

Netflix UK: 01/08: The Killing (US Version) Netflix UK: 15/08: Thor: The Dark World (US Film)

Seoul Family Film Festival | South Korea Broken Hill Blues (SWE) We are the Best! (SWE) Love and Lemons (SWE) Good Luck and Take Care of Each Other (SWE) Casper and Emma: Best Friends (NOR) The Weight of Elephants (DEN, SWE, NZ) Guanajuato Int’l Film Festival| Mexico Bath House (SWE) Pleasure (SWE) Festival Int’l de Cine para Ninos | Mexico Eskil and Trinidad (SWE)

Melbourne International Film Festival | Australia

Michael Moore’s Traverse City | USA Syndromeda (SWE) Kalle Kran (SWE)

Concerning Violence (DEN, FIN, SWE) Concrete Night (DEN, FIN, SWE) Force Majeure (DEN, NOR) In Order of Disappearance (DEN, NOR, SWE) When Animals Dream (DEN) Of Horses and Men (ICE) Blind (NOR) Yes We Love (NOR) Bath House (SWE) I Hired a Contract Killer (FIN, SWE) Tresspassing Bergman (SWE) We are the Best! (SWE) Happiness (FIN)

DVD Release: 22/07: Insomnia (1997, Norway) - Criterion Collection USA Cinema Release: 01/08: The Almost Man (Norway) USA Cinema Release: 15/08: Ragnarok (Norway, Sweden) USA Cinema Release: 15/08: The Expedition to the End of the World

Australia Cinema Release: 31/07: The Keeper of Lost Causes (Denmark) Australia Cinema Release: 21/08: The 100 Year Old Man (Sweden)

10 CINEMA SCANDINAVIA

SCANDINAVIAN RELEASES. 01/08:

Summertime | Finland A story about best friends Iiris and Karoliina. Karoliina has been living abroad and upon returning home, the girls leave Helsinki for the summer. The dream starts to fall apart once they get there.

07/08:

In Real Life | Denmark A multi plot drama, created from three years of acting improvisations, the film follows three characters whose lives are woven together by internet dating and their persistent search for some kind of meaning in life.

10/08:

Life in a Fishbowl | Iceland Inspired by true events, the film describes three different worlds which collide violently.

13/08:

Børning | Norway For those who remember Cannonball Run, here is a modern twist on the subject. The longest, wildest, and funniest car race, ever. From Oslo to the North Cape. The only rule is getting there first.

15/08:

Concerning Violence | Sweden Based on the classic book by The Wretched of the Earth, it builds on the newly discovered and powerful archive footage of some of the most audacious moments in the struggle for liberation in the Third World.

15/08:

Force Majeure | Sweden Wealthy Swedes lose their dignity. Due to a trivial ‘state of emergency’, a Swedish family on a skiing holiday comes into contact with human mechanisms they had never needed to confront before.

28/08:

Race Walking | Denmark In a small town, 14 year old Martin is getting ready for one of the most formal transitions from boy to man; the communion. But in the midst his mother passes away and her death triggers a series of events that chang-

29/08:

Medicine | Sweden The film follows a lonely mother of two, Johanna, who finds it hard to say no. In a moment of weakness, she promises her children a holiday abroad, and to finance the trip she enrols in a project to test a new medicine.

29/08:

American Burger | Sweden A bus load of stereotypical American students are on a culture trip in Europe when they stumble upon a mysterious Hamburger stand in the deep European woods. The trip descends into a battle for survival.

29/08:

Boy Upside Down | Finland A tragicomedy about an 11 year old boy whose parents die in a car accident. The boy refuses to mourn; instead, he gets to know adults with deceitful lives. The boy changes all them and ends up with a new family.

29/08:

Beatles | Norway For Oslo boys born in 1951 and hooked on The Beatles, from the time they as seventh graders find themselves on the threshold of the adult world. The film is all about boyish pranks, hopes, etc.

29/08:

Fusi| Iceland Fusi is in his forties and yet to find courage to enter the adult world. When a bubbly women and an 8 year old girl unexpectedly enter his life, he is forced to take a leap.

In Real Life

Life in a Fishbowl

Concerning Violence

Race Walking

Force Majeure

Beatles

PLAY (2011)

12 CINEMA SCANDINAVIA

ON TRANSGRESSIONS IN RUBEN ÖSTLUND’S‘PLAY’

Play, by Ruben Ostlund, is remarkably beautiful and has received multiple awards for its style and narrative. It won the Nordic Film Prive that year, which cemented its place as one of the most significant Scandinavian films of the decade. But while the formalistic brilliantness was never in doubt, many took part in the debate over the films topic: white vs black kids.

When Ruben Östlund’s film Play premiered in Sweden in November 2011, it became debated to an extent rarely seen for modern films. The provocative storyline has three white kids harassed and robbed by five kids who are a few years older than them. And black. On November 18th, a week after the premiere, Jonas Hassen Khemeri published an article called “47 reasons that I cried when I saw Ruben Östlund’s film Play”, which listed instances where the film was apparently racist. A heated, month-long debate followed, back and forth, over whether the film was racist, anti-racist, about class, about abuse of power, or about the rawness of the life of children. What was rarely in dispute, though, was that the film, from an artistic perspective, was immensely well made. At the 2012 Guldbagge awards, Play won for Best Director and Best Cinematography, but lost Best Film to Lisa Aschan’s somewhat less known She Monkeys (Apflickorna). Play took revenge by being the Swedish nominee for that years Nordic Film Prize, which it won, cementing it’s place as one of the most significant Scandinavian films of the decade. But while the formalistic brilliantness of the film was never in

doubt, few of the participants in the debate over the film took its rigorous style into consideration. But by analysing the style of the film, rather than the dialogue or action, we can arrive at a surprising conclusion: The camera seems to be on the side of the black kids. What is immediately noticeable about the film is the duration of the shots, and how many of them are long shots. The first shot of the film follows two white boys – who we’ll never see again - in a shopping mall, moves over to a group of five black kids, back over to the white boys, who is approached by two of the black kids, back over to two black kids talking, calling the remaining black kids over, and then the camera follows as the black kids walk over to the white kids, bringing the seven kids together for the first time. The shot is six minutes long, and filmed from the second floor of the shopping mall, with the camera slowly zooming in on the kids on the ground floor. Second shot is of a train cabin, with announcements playing over the PA, which continues playing as the film cuts to acting credits. The third and fourth

ON TRANSGRESSIONS IN RUBEN OSTLUND’S PLAY

PLAY (2011)

shot constitutes a strange sequence, first of startled passers-by looking directly into the camera, then of what they are looking at: A pan flute band in full Native American regalia, which then begins playing and dancing in front of a statue. Then, cut to a crowd of people on a stairwell, shot in a way that we can only see them from their knees to half of their heads. After they move we see the point of the shot: Three kids standing in an adjacent room behind a glass door. Thus, after ten minutes of the film, are we introduced to the three main characters. Of course, after they leave down the stairs, the camera lingers for half a minute, filming an employee cleaning the glass door. What this long first section of the film is introducing is not just the principal situations of the film, but also an appreciation for urban architecture, as well as a willingness to play with space and time. And here’s the thing: this playfulness is shared only by the black kids – or the pan flute band. In the shopping centre, the black kids are playing, throwing balls at each other, running up and down on escalators, while all the white kids are always filmed with shopping bags or soft drinks in their hands. Like the camera, the black kids are re-purposing urban space for their own enjoyment, while the white kids are acting exactly like society wants them to: consuming. And while this might seem like a small thing, this kind of repurposing of urban space has a significant intellectual history. German critic Walther Benjamin wrote about the Passages of Paris, and how flaneurs like famous poet Baudelaire would walk around in these new spaces. French scholar Michel de Certeau wrote in his book The Practice of Everyday Life on how the use of space against its intended purpose could be seen as a kind of creative resistance. And scholars Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari wrote about the ‘Nomad’ of the world, who works against striations of space, with what they dubbed a ‘War Machine’. The Nomad with 14 CINEMA SCANDINAVIA

his War Machine, the flaneur, the Everyday Walker, these are disrupting forces in the modern world. And they are commonly seen as ideals. In the Swedish film Microtopia (Jesper Wachtmeister, 2013), a documentary on the need to think modern space differently, the nomad is invoked as someone good, able to use the city in a different, more efficient way. But in Play, the nomad-characters, the black kids, are annoying, loud and violent. A few of them seem to be psychotic. They are playing, but they aren’t playing with the Swedish world out of choice – the way a few white characters are playing with black culture, reggae, dreadlocks and African dancing – but out of resentment, anger and bitterness. There is therefore doubleness to these characters: They are acting in ways that theoretically has a lot of positive connotations, yet they are undoubtedly problematic. They aren’t subverting society in the ‘correct’ way, as told by French philosophers or Swedish architects. Or, they are showing, that subversion is fundamentally a violent and disturbing activity. But while there is doubleness to the black characters, it’s probably safe to say that the white characters in the film are portrayed negatively. Nobody among the white characters knows how to handle the black troublemakers. Once someone acts against the informal rules of society, they become completely paralysed. When the white kids ask for help from the threatening black kids in a café, they are basically told that nothing can be done until something really bad happens. Many of the confrontations in the film take place in crowded areas, yet nobody intervenes. After the traumatized white kids return home on a tram, without money or phones, they are ticketed by two moralizing attendants uninterested in the circumstances that led to the kids travelling without tickets. Two times are black kids confronted by white people, once by the older brothers of a former victim, and at the end of the film by the father of

ON TRANSGRESSIONS IN RUBEN OSTLUND’S PLAY

PLAY (2011)

another victim. Both times the confrontations are pretty violent, and both times the white people confiscate phones from the black kids, even though they admit they aren’t the phones that were stolen. The only logic the white people can handle is materialism or law. The final twist of the film feature two white adults in a heated discussion of the fathers earlier treatment of one of the black kids, and they can only refer to law: ‘He robs mobile phones’ ‘You acted like a vigilante.’ What the film shows is a Swedish society so normalized, that nobody knows how to handle transgressions of the norms, unless the law is broken, or valuables can be returned. It could be said, that the reception of the film showed the same thing: Society wasn’t ready for a film so transgressive, in style as well as content. Sidenote: I’ve used ‘white’ and ‘black’ as easy designators, even though the film is more complex than that. One of the ‘white’ kids is asian, and when the ‘black’ kids are playing on the phone, they call themselves ‘Muhammed’ and speak Arabic. Yet the complex backgrounds of all the characters are in their confrontation reduced to ‘white’ vs ‘black’, ‘Swedish’ vs ‘immigrant’, which of course is a point of the film.

Frederik Bové has studied history, film and

culture at University of Copenhagen and University of California, San Diego. Currently residing in Copenhagen.

PLAY (2011)

16 CINEMA SCANDINAVIA

WE ARE THE BEST! (VI ÄR BÄST!, 2013)

MOODYSSON: FOLLOWING IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF BERGMAN?

One could argue that the trajectory of Ingmar Bergman’s career has been characterised by the deliberate defiance of expectation at pivotal moments - an impetus, perhaps, for continued creative renewal and a desire to circumvent categorisation. Upon receiving rapturous praise by Jean-Luc Godard (1974), for example, for the wild, free-flowing and improvisational-like qualities of Summer with Monika (1953), Bergman delivered something of a misanthropic sucker-punch with follow-up film: Sawdust and Tinsel (1953). Rejecting the youthful idealism of the former film, Sawdust and Tinsel is instead a more meticulous and ‘unflinching examination of the human condition’ (Stone, n.d.). Similarly, when Bergman came to be associated predominantly with ruminations upon death and existentialism, as featured prominently throughout both The Seventh Seal (1957) and Wild Strawberries (1957), he chose to eschew this reputation and instead examine the essentiality of art as an illusory medium, yet one capable of exposing substantial human truths. To this end, The Magician (1958) constituted a major new era for Bergman’s cinema), paving the way for perhaps his most experimental work, Persona (1966), which would go further still in exploring the nature of representation in cinematic narrative. It could easily be argued that this endeavour to constantly reinvent oneself artistically and pursue novel creative challenges is not only the hallmark of a great artist, but is a necessary prerequisite for the kind of lengthy and decorated career that Bergman enjoyed. Whilst not considering Bergman to be a primary source of inspiration, Lukas Moodysson nonetheless acknowledged his ‘formidable presence’ as an inescapable and perhaps unconscious influence. Despite showing greater concern for the socio-political than for the metaphysical, Moodysson has been hailed as ‘Sweden’s most praised filmmaker since Ingmar Bergman’ and has thus far demonstrated a comparable propensity for creative risk-taking. After building his directorial reputation largely as a purveyor of social realism - in the process, ironically, being heralded as a ‘young master’ by Bergman himself, Moodysson made something of a stylistic U-turn. Following up the acclaimed neo-realism of Lilya4-Ever (2002), Moodysson produced the infamous and highly experimental A Hole in My Heart (2004) - a film that had ostensibly had little in common with its predecessor and contained highly explicit visuals throughout. Whilst somewhat divisive with respect to critical opinion, Moodysson won praise regardless for his bold, daring approach, displaying a willingness to court controversy comparable to that of his Scandinavian compatriot, Lars Von Trier. His next film, Container (2006), would again break new territory,

stripping away cinematic convention with reckless abandon and leaving only a stark, enigmatic and haunting monologue accompanied by tenuously related visuals. Subversive, ‘imperfect and nonsensical’, the unabashed experimentalism of Container (2006) nonetheless won acclaim for its inventiveness and visual style. By contrast, Moodysson’s two most recent works, Mammoth (2009) and We Are The Best! (2013) constitute something of a return to his earlier cinematic style, characterised in part by much more typical narrative structure. Yet, even Moodysson’s latest film retains what has thus far been a unifying theme of his cinematographic trajectory: a focus upon lonely and somehow marginalised protagonists, existing, to varying degrees, outside of mainstream society. Similarly to Bergman, Moodysson has developed an idiosyncratic modus operandi, recognisable across a plethora of differing formats and visual styles. Through his cumulative cinematic output, Moodysson has demonstrated the same desire to push boundaries -both his own and those of his audience - as Bergman did before him. In a recent interview, Moodysson spoke of an expression coined by his wife: ‘light brown’, denoting a colour that’s ‘not really something… sort of average’. Promisingly, his catalogue suggests a healthy aversion to ‘light brown’ - a willingness to be adventurous and risk spectacular failure rather than be content with mediocrity. It is to this mentality that Moodysson owes his reputation as a worthy successor to Ingmar Bergman, and his continued status one of the most promising contemporary directors, not just in Scandinavia, but globally.

Tim Metcalfe is a MA Psychology of Music student and prospective PhD student (investigating auditory emotion perception in cochlear implant users). He has a passion for both classic and contemporary Scandinavian and Eastern-European cinema. Recently completed an online course in Scandinavian film and television, offered by The University of Copenhagen.

THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS DANISH HUMOUR. Danish Comedy films, it seems to be an exception, but they really do exist. Fact is we don’t see these more mainstream and light/ease movies in cinemas in the rest of Europe. The rest of Europe, or maybe the world, is familiar with the profound dramatic art house films like Jagten or Festen or with series as Borgen and Forbrydelsen/The Killing. Danish movies and series seem to be equivalent about deeply dark drama (Nordic Noir), Nordic black humour, feelings of depressions and mourning, and always dealing with topics like incest, alcohol problems or brutal killings. I never saw the more funny and humorous Danish films in cinemas in the Netherlands or Germany (two countries where I’ve lived).

However, Danish comedies certainly do exist and are popular among the Danish population. The best example, and immediately the most seen film in Danish cinemas since 1990, is the romantic comedy of Susanne Bier Den eneste ene (The One and Only -1999) with lead roles by Sidse Babett Knudsen (a.k.a. Birgitte Nyborg in Borgen), Sofie Gråbøl (a.k.a. Sarah Lund in Forbrydelsen) and Paprika Steen (Festen). Furthermore, this film marked the big domestic breakthrough from Susanne Bier and Sidse Babett Knudsen and made them one of Denmark’s biggest director and actress.

Coincidental the newly divorced Sus and the newly widowed Niller met each other at Sus’ house. Niller is the handyman from the company where they purchased their new kitchen. You can guess what happens next. I won’t give you further details or more spoilers. I can only tell it has something to do with love at first sight, overcoming some problems and living happily ever after. Exactly what you can expect from a typical ‘Romcom’.

18 CINEMA SCANDINAVIA

THE ONE AND ONLY (DEN ENESTE ENE, 1999)

This movie has two little storylines. The first one is about Sus (Sidse Babett Knudsen) who is married to the Italian Sonny (Rafael Edholm). Together they’re trying to become pregnant and remodel their kitchen. When Sus gets pregnant she finds out that Sonny is cheating on her and leaves him. The other storyline is about the couple Niller (Nils Olsen) and Lizzie (Søs Egelind). They are trying to get pregnant, but find out that Niller is infertile. They decide to adopt a little girl, Mgala (Vanessa Gouri). On the day when they can finally close their daughter in their arms, the mother dies in a fatal car accident.

THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS DANISH HUMOUR

BORGEN

Despite that this movie is directed by Susanne Bier, one of the biggest directors in the Danish Film industry (She won an Oscar and an Golden Globe for In a Better World (2010) and makes movies in the US) it isn’t sold to other countries, other than the Nordics. And even in the other Nordic countries this movie wasn’t as big of a success as it was in Denmark. According to Ib Bondebjerg, Bier is known as a more mainstream filmmaker who uses mainstream narratives, characters and a more mainstream style in her psychological and social dramas in her movies. The Danish audience do love her movies and especially this one. Reruns of this 1999 movie on television always achieve high audience ratings. Probably because the Danes love comedies and humour.

Danish Humour

This brings me to the topic of Danish humour. While Bier’s movie Den eneste ene is a typical mainstream romantic comedy. It reminds me a bit of Notting Hill (1998), I won’t use this movie as an example for the typical Danish humour. Instead of using a movie, I’ll use the more dramatic series Borgen (2010, 2011, 2013) as an example to clarify the way Danes makes fun of themselves. Because in profound Danish drama, humour is also present. The Danish humour is like the Dutch humour, and I assume also like the English humour. Danes are known by the way that they use irony, sarcasm and the fact that they making fun of themselves before someone else can. Danes seem to enjoy it to criticise themselves in an ironic way. According to the Danish writer Klaus Rifbjerg Danes laugh even if it hurts and they use humour as a disarming trait which often turns out to be a good weapon in a difficult situation. Danes will use irony or humour especially in uneasy situations in which they want to criticize someone, without hurting their feelings. The Danish/Dutch 20 CINEMA SCANDINAVIA

philosopher Stine Jensen says that irony belongs to the Danes. They use it as a form of shame where they hide behind with humour. Danes do say the opposite of what they mean and that is meant to be funny. With irony you do say something while you mean the total opposite. According to Jensen the Danes are proud on their irony, self-irony and sarcasm. By being ironic you always keep a certain distance, you do not speak clearly and you can always hide yourself behind a joke. “The Danish irony is an unspoken cultural phenomenon you have to grow up with it to understand it,” wrote Jensen in her Dutch book Licht op het Noorden (Light on the Nordics). Like me, Jensen thinks that the United Kingdom and the Netherlands both do have the same kind of irony. Her clarification for this: three countries that once was a world empire and now have become three small countries. Jensen thinks irony comes from this degradation.

Danish Humour and the Jante Law

You can trace the Danish humour and irony much further back. In 1933 the Norwegian/Danish writer Aksel Sandemose wrote the novel En flyktning krysser sitt spor (A fugitive crosses his tracks). This novel portrays the small Danish town Jante (in real life the small Danish town Nykøbing Mors) as it was in the beginning of the 20th century, where nobody could be anonymous. In this book Sandemose presented the Janteloven (Jante Law) as the ten rules of life. Anno 2014 these rules are still recognized in the modern Nordic way of life. Every Dane knows these rules and is raised this way. In the law of Jante dominates the idea of group behaviour towards individuals within Scandinavian communities. Individual success and achievement are seen as unworthy and inappropriate.

THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS DANISH HUMOUR

BORGEN

As an individual you are worth nothing. In short are the ten rules: 1.You’re not to think you are anything special. 2.You’re not to think you are as good as we are. 3.You’re not to think you are smarter than we are. 4.You’re not to convince yourself that you are better than we are. 5.You’re not to think you know more than we do. 6.You’re not to think you are more important than we are. 7.You’re not to think you are good at anything. 8.You’re not to laugh at us. 9.You’re not to think anyone cares about you. 10.You’re not to think you can teach us anything. These rules mark why Danes are known as humble people and irony and self-deprecating fits in this behaviour. Especially rule number eight “You’re not to laugh at us” has something to do with humour and in my opinion this might be the rule where the Danish irony does comes from. No one should make fun of the Danes; they will make fun of themselves before another person can. And this is what I see for example in the series Borgen, a political series about the first female prime minister of Denmark, Birgitte Nyborg (Sidse Babett Knudsen). When Birgitte Nyborg (Episode 1, Season 1) prepares herself for the TV election debate, she finds out that she doesn’t fit in her skirt suit anymore. She is forced to wear an old dress that looks less professional. She will make fun of herself before the media can do it. In her improvised speech after the election debate she refers to the dress she is wearing and the clothes she was supposed to wear for this television debate: “I upset him [her spin doctor] by not wearing the right clothes too. The trouble is I’ve got a bit too fat for them.” A laughing audience follows this confession. It makes her a person of flesh and blood, just like the other Danes.

On the other hand you may be able to read the Jante Law as ironical rules by itself. What if you have to read them in the opposite way, like irony is meant to be? Then individual Danes are anything special or could be good in anything. It is just something to think about. If you would like to trace the Danish irony further back, you can maybe read Søren Kierkegaard’s dissertation about irony (On the Concept of Irony with Continual Reference to Socrates -1841). I will end this article with Kierkegaard’s words: “As philosophy begins with doubt, so also that life which may be called worthy of a human being begins with irony.”

Birgit de Bruin is a Masters student Media Studies and Art Policy and Art Management at the Utrecht University in the Netherlands. Currently she is completing research why Danish drama series are so popular in Europe. Birgit is interested in representation of Danish culture, gender and also in writing and production processes of Danish public service television drama. Birgit’s previous work is mainly about representation of gender or cultural minorities in Dutch television series from the Dutch public broadcaster NPO. Furthermore has Birgit a broad interest in culture and media policy of the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark and the European Union.

SACRIFICE VERSUS DAMNATION: SALVATION BY THE ANTITHESIS OF THE FAITH

THE SACRFICE (OFFRET, 1986)

In his innermost isolation, unheard by the excess of empty actions and words, abandoned in the middle of a dragging reality as they struggle to stay afloat, every man tries to find a meaning to his life. Dead tree watered every day, that is the image of the modern life he says “to live” - a more appropriate verb for the luxury market, a car advertise or a tempting chimera. He dreams of being the master of himself and his own time in the eternal wait for the future to come, time when there will be finally enough time, when arrives the time to go to another world under the earth, joining the crotchets and worms. Only a miracle could save him from this damnation, the imaginary jackpot that gives him the strength to get up out of bed every day. Only in the inexplicable the tranquillity could be reach, faith as salvation against the irremediable annihilation. Faith, miracle, salvation and despair are common elements of The Sacrifice (Offret, 1986), by Andrei Tarkovsky (1932-1986), and Songs from the Second Floor (Sånger från andra våningen, 2000), by Roy Andersson (1943-). They are films that talk about men in search of redemption, the hypocrisy present

22 CINEMA SCANDINAVIA

in their struggle for survival and an intrinsic need for a change: self and reality. In the first film, these items appear as an existential shelter; in the second, as a mean of earning a living: “Life is a market,” says one character. In both movies the reality reached its bearable limit and there is nothing to expect from the future. Something fatal to mankind is foreseeded in The Sacrifice, an intangible apocalypse is intuited through the elements of an oppressive atmosphere. Something ominous too is about to come in Songs from the Second Floor, and some desperates try to save themselves through the trade of faith. In Tarkovsky’s film, the faith in the salvation of is perceived by planting a tree, in setting the house on fire and by making love to a witch. I see the tree as a promise of a miracle, the initial act that can succeed in conversion; the burning home as the consummation of a past wanted to be forgotten, and the witch as a sign of exorcism of a personal faith that comes when a disaster is imminent; therefore it is a hypocritical belief, which springs from the seed of selfishness. Tarkovsky said the scene of the burning house had

CINEMA SCANDINAVIA | SACRIFICE VERSUS DAMNATION: SALVATION BY THE ANTITHESIS OF FAITH

SONGS FROM THE SECOND FLOOR (SÅNGER FRÅN ANDRA VÅNINGEN, 2000)

no special meaning, which was just a whim, though he has done it twice. According to the Russian director, the important is one’s inmost, not the facts shown. “Beloved is the one who sits down.” This parable of the poet Cesar Vallejo opens Songs from the Second Floor, and appears as a leitmotif throughout the film. The faith in salvation points to something we do not see, but it is significant through the golf clubs, owned by all those who “sit” and reflect some concern about the essence of which we do ignore. These objects, taken away from their function as part of a game, remain as a symbol of who was elected to a better life, the “beloved ones”, those who stablish the rules and can aspire to the second floor. We do not know what’s there, or if it exists indeed.

THE SACRFICE

In The Sacrifice, Alexander is moved from himself as he foresees him as a fraud or that his life makes no sense - a state of depersonalization. Thanks to Otto, the postman and messenger of truth, he heads to Mary, his Shangri-la. Mary is an Icelandic (foreign) housekeeper (servitude) at Alexander’s home and she’s a witch (crazy and pagan). If Mary is the solution, then we have to admit that the opposite is the damnation: the Christianity, the family, the bourgeois marriage, the rationality. The insanity is marginalized in both films. “In the eyes of all, there’s no doubt he (Alexander) is lost. But what is absolutely clear is that he saved”, says Tarkovsky (Andrei Tarkovsky: interviews. John Gianvito, University Press of Mississipi, 2006, p. 180).

CINEMA SCANDINAVIA | SACRIFICE VERSUS DAMNATION: SALVATION BY THE ANTITHESIS OF FAITH

To challenge the representations is another convergence point between the two works. The supposed meaning of something is exorcised by an action, as if reality was a scene of drama, believable but false. At The Sacrifice, the sound of the flute in the background seems, initially, to integrate the film’s score, and yet Alexander pulls out from a drawer a tape recorder playing that music. In Andersson’s film, the doctor of the asylum is an impostor. He is a patient who, thanks to the white coat, seems to be a priest of medicine. We are surprised when the nurses remove impatiently his white clothes, clipboard and stethoscope, revealing his identity. The stereotype is convincing. The children, the future, are silent. In both films there is only one child. In Tarkovsky’s film, the boy is mute due to an accident that prevents him from talking. In Andersson’s, the girl is murdered in a wicked way, in a public ritual that deflowers decency. The girl is sacrificed “for reading too much”, being thrown from a cliff over the rocks, precisely placed to disembowel her. She dared to “prepare herself for the unpredictable”, challenging “the elders experience”. Her eyes are blindfolded as she is driven to the altar of sacrifice, on the top of a mountain in front of the masters of the church, and the many powerful people, the blessed ones we see drunk after, in a place that could be the hall of hell, while others from the same group are running away from the city, carrying golf clubs in huge bags. The son of Alexander is mutilated, speechless, but in the end, he managed to stammered the biblical phrase: “Why, Daddy?”. He asks for the reasons of being abandoned. But the father is no longer there to answer the question that falls in a vacuum, as the knowledge founds no echo. Only a miracle could make everything different. The pain we feel for the boy is not welcomed by Alexander; he sets the house on fire, living everything behind, even his beloved son. An ambulance, an indicator of illness, takes him away. We don’t understand him. It is curious how his obsession for changing the state of the things, even if it’s necessary to take his heart away, is not as understood as his resignation to what was previous established. When the girl is thrown over the rocks, in Sounds …, the institutionalized indifference paralyzes us, everyone is constantly drying with a white handkerchief, as if their hypocrisy sweat. The future is scarified to keep everything as it is, and faith is part of this agreement, otherwise the punishment will come. The hypocrisy of Uffe, a seller of Jesus symbols, began at a trade show, where golf clubs compete with wooden crosses for the attention of the customers. The character says that Jesus “is the product” that can “add two more zeros” on Kalle’account, a businessman who lost everything and now must find a way to survive at any cost. “This is the year of Jesus, “he says to Kalle, “because the boy will make his two thousand birthday”. The opportunism of Uffe aims to save his money by exploring the people’s despair, at the expense of faith which he guarantees to be a good market. His belief in the “product” comes to an end when Uffe 24 CINEMA SCANDINAVIA

realize that faith can no longer find buyers. He uses insulting words, calling Jesus a cheater, to be a “waste of time” in a scene that certainly would shocked the Christian world as he throws crosses with Christ crucified on a mountain of garbage. His attitude is charged with contempt and anger; something that certainly only in a Scandinavian film could occur. At a certain point, the box with wooden crucifixes bursts, the vilified objects fall to his feet and he kicks them with hatred. Finally, Uffe gets into the car, running over many crucifixes. We can hear the cracks as the wheels smash them. Kalle arrives shortly after with his cross but could not throw it away because the dead reappeared, as if asking for a cause of their own death. He tries to justify himself telling them that he had done everything for the cause “to put bread on the table”. In these films, faith emerges in individuals only as an escape to despair, in capsizing under their own distress and impending tragedy, as an action in self-interest, an act of cowardice and hypocrisy. The Sacrifice and Sounds from the Second Floor pointed to the modern plague of the human emptiness, even more infected nowadays because of the so-called daily rush, the excess of important inutilities and the darkness of the consciousnesses in a world where knowledge is considered as a fault that needs to be concealed in order to the mediocrity to breath and criticism replaced by a proactive attitude. Values before considered crucial to the development of sensibility and character are in less demand, and we need above all to save the “self”. The Sacrifice as presented by Tarkovsky is a miracle. A concrete choice that cuts you in half. Is taking life into own hands. It is unthinkable, an incomprehensible act and absurd to others and even to himself. Sacrifice is to save us from what is killing us. It’s pain, loss, transformation, confluence of life and death. Is to die to reborn. These two films make very clear that we only turn ourselves to what really matters - our most intimate and vital needs - when faced to the apocalypse, the tragic, the disaster: the end. We believe, however, that wasting time with the elusive or dive in the depths of our inner self to find out what’s there, is not only boring, but can be harmful. And even facing the concerns for the truth, we learn that it is advisable to do as the devil and always keep an eye open because, as one Andersson’s character says, “society does not like losers - see what they did to Jesus Christ.”

Simone Marques is a Brazilian journalist and

writer. Born in Porto Alegre (Brazil), wrote for 10 years for cultural magazines in Brazil and also for Deutsche Welle, for which has an exclusive interview with filmmaker Wim Wenders. Also was manager of audiovisual projects on a foundation of cinema, with initiatives like a Scandinavian film festival in your town. Is a columnist for cinema and has a blog about contemporary Scandinavian cinema, the Zukino. Currently writes for Index on Censorship, an international organization for freedom of expression. Wrote a fiction book (Infinite Fjord), chronicles and stories.

26 CINEMA SCANDINAVIA

THE MAN WITHOUT A PAST (2002)

HUMOUR IS A SERIOUS THING AND SCANDINAVIANS KNOW IT

First it was Man without a Past. It knocked me out. Then I cried with laughter. Please note that I rarely cry at films except for profound love stories set in wartime or movies with animals. This followed by Drifting Clouds, The Match Factory Girl, Ariel and the zany voyages of Leningrad Cowboys. Experiencing cinema should be always radical in the constant change of the perspectives, both optical and cerebral. Aki Kaurismäki’s visual stories involve characters, often with a hard-to-maintain hairdo, facing hardship; minimal language and some technicolor feeling resembling the Golden Hollywood. Wacky existential atmosphere that, above all, is awfully funny. Humour refers to a territory still to be explored. However, there is one thing certain – the comic does not exist outside of what is strictly human. Even though Kaurismäki claims his cinema is dreadful, it is not necessary for us to be highly sensitive to get the warm humanism bursting out of these cinematographic pieces. Being isolated and completely alone, Kaurismäki’s people are mainstream dropouts; the hidden ones or the ugly people, as some critics have called them. Garbage men, miners, factory girls, amnesia sufferers, mediocre talents, refugees and the worst rock’n’roll band from the Finnish tundra, all of them - losers in search of a new life. Still it is impossible not to like them. Messed up and wretched, they don’t have any vague inclination for dramatization or complaints. Faces remain serious; life is accepted as it is and happy endings are sought amid the gray surroundings. Cinema is a straightforward affair. No mumbo jumbo. No ornamentation; the basis for all art is reduction, says Aki Kaurismäki, you go from an initial idea or narrative that you progressively reduce until it is sufficiently bare enough to be true. Then, and only then, are you finished. If the film is tuned on a minimalist level, even the sound of a cough will be dramatic. The rule is one and simple – no shouting, no laughing, no extra information. And this is how humour works here. Indifference is its natural environment, for laughter has no greater foe than emotion. All you need is a mixture of desperate situations, nonsense dialogue and some Baltik pop music. Aki Kaurismäki has become proficient in the deadpan and sardonic techniques to go straight for the heart. Life is short and miserable. And let’s at least die laughing.

Stefka Benisheva has a degree in Cultural Studies

from the Sofia University, Bulgaria. She watches movies regularly and from time to time she writes about them.

28 CINEMA SCANDINAVIA

A THOUSAND TIMES GOOD NIGHT

Erik Poppe’s latest film, A Thousand Times Good Night is another cinematic study of personal sacrifice. It is an attempt to understand the nature of it and to experience the stages a person goes through, while dealing with dilemmas and setting priorities in life.

From the very first scenes it is apparent how compelling and emotionally intense the film is. Even the viewers who go to watch it without knowing the plot will find themselves captivated much sooner than they would expect. In the opening scene, Rebecca (Juliette Binoche), a photojournalist, is standing between a group of women who pray around an open grave, silently observing through her camera lens. A funeral is taking place, of a woman not yet dead, of a person who won’t be there to be buried after her “duty” is done. The funeral of a suicide bomber. While photographing every stage of the preparation, Rebecca witnesses the fear and agony behind the paralyzed faces of both the girl and her relatives, as she is getting ready to follow her “destiny” and fulfill her duty. A few minutes later, after a premature detonation of the bomb, we see Rebecca injured in the hospital and her husband Marcus (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) arrives to take her back to their home in Ireland. From that point and on a series of questions arise. How will she make up for the time she has lost with her family? How will she react to the confrontation of Marcus and her older daughter, Steph, who force her to decide whether she values more her role as a war photographer or as a wife and a mother? “I am here now” she tells her husband. “Just like that?” he asks and her response is affirmative.

Who are these words supposed to convince? You have probably already guessed that part of the movie’s message is the need for violence to be documented, in order for people to be informed and therefore inspired to take action against the wrong and the unfair that’s been happening in the world. That story, important as it may be, has been told before. What’s standing out here is the focus on the emotions of the main characters, the conflict between commitment to a cause and the effect of the latter on one’s personal life, and finally, the tough process of making life-determining decisions. This focus is achieved masterfully with Poppe’s spot-on direction and the lead actors’ devotion to their roles. Strong parallels, close-up shots and artistic frames-interludes, all of which are also found in Poppe’s earlier work, are once again a vital part of his filmmaking. Parallels are implemented both visually and thematically. Injured Rebecca’s close-up when she opens her eyes in the hospital is identical to the one of the girl opening her eyes inside her own grave, at the start of the film. While this happens on screen, it generates another comparison in the viewer’s mind, that of both women having to make a personal sacrifice in aid of what is regarded as the greater good by themselves or someone else.

JAIME AND GIRL IN A THOUSAND TIMES GOOD NIGHT

The narrative is neither fast nor too slow, while the action is often interrupted by wide-angle, landscape shots as well as close shots of faces and objects. It is particularly interesting that those scenes have worked so well with the script that they actually feel like essential parts of the story, like an optical representation of everything that couldn’t be said with words but had to be spoken. As for the dialogue, it is sharp and efficient, highlighting the tense atmosphere and underlying pressure between the members of the family. This is Poppe and co-writer’s Harald Rosenløw-Eeg’s third collaboration, after Hawaii-Oslo (2004) and Troubled Water (2008). Having presented quite a few similarities with Poppe’s previous films, let’s take a look to what is different. A Thousand Times Good Night is the director’s first English-language feature film, produced by the Norwegian Film Institute and the Irish Film Board and shot mostly in Ireland and Morocco. Taking also into account that the leading actress (Binoche) is French and her on-screen partner (Coster-Waldau) is Danish, one could say that this movie appears to be quite a multinational production. Speaking of the actors, it needs to be mentioned that they did a terrific job. Binoche looks absolutely immersed to her part throughout the film. She has given a versatile performance, showing the internal conflict that her character undergoes with a palette of contrasting details and subtle facial expressions. Lauryn Canny’s portrayal of Steph was strong enough in her supporting role, while Coster-Waldau’s presence was surprisingly rich and extremely realistic.

A THOUSAND TIMES GOOD NIGHT POSTER

A Thousand Times Good Night tells a story that rings true to everyone, regardless of the viewer’s own experiences. Poppe’s background as a photojournalist appoints to the film an autobiographical character and has surely played a major part in the director’s ability to communicate such emotional complexity. Even if you are not interested in the storyline this is a film worth watching and a fine example of filmmaking craftsmanship.

30 CINEMA SCANDINAVIA

Cleo lives in Thessaloniki, Greece. She’s studying to become an electrical engineer but what she actually does is watch and discuss films as much as possible, hoping to someday make her own. She has a soft spot for all things art, travelling, Nordic languages and english accents.

NYMPHOMANIAC: VON TRIER TALKING ABOUT VON TRIER

NYMPHOMANIAC (2013)

Nymphomaniac is the third movie of the trilogy created by Danish director Lars von Trier to cope with his own depression (preceded by Antichrist and Melancholia). It was divided in two volumes for its theatrical release because the running time was too long, but it is impossible to analyse them as separates, because in watching it is clear it was idealised as one movie only. However there is a rupture of style and a change of tone in the narrative displayed in each of them. Sex and religion are recurring themes of the author. Here again they appear as protagonists. Professor Peter Schepelern, University of Copenhagen, in his lecture on the filmmaker, says that the protagonists of Von Trier are martyrs in a world ready to judge their sexuality. This is exactly what happens to Bess in Breaking the Waves. Her sin is believing in people and in believing, have sex with strangers to save her husband. The Christian community rejects her for her acts, although they come from the purest infantile praise to the deity of her belief. Bess is punished and isolated from society because she makes sex wanting to do good. Interestingly, she says that

32 CINEMA SCANDINAVIA

everyone is born good at something and she is good at it, But she is never shown enjoying or having any form of pleasure from the sexual act, even with her husband. Although it she is considered good, she is just a receptacle of the desire that come from others. But in Dogville Grace is punished by and through the desire of others. In Antichrist, the female protagonist (unnamed) deals with the guilt for the death of her son, as if it was a direct consequence of her sexual desire. In a simplification, she believes that women are equivalent to nature and nature is the source of all evil. Sex is once more used as punishment. The mirror of Venus is the T in the word Antichrist in the credits. It is hard to see in these works the martyrdom caused by sexual freedom and not plain and simple punishment. In Nymphomaniac, it seems like von Trier makes comments on his career and the perception that people have about his work. Although the film has been widely publicised as a work bordering on pornography, this is far from reality. Joe (the younger version played by Stacy Martin) deals with sex in a

CINEMA SCANDINAVIA | NYMPHOMANIAC: VON TRIER TALKING ABOUT VON TRIER

NYMPHOMANIAC (2013)

natural way. She decides to get rid of her virginity without making a big deal about it and therein lies her first disappointment: she’ll find that men saw her as a vessel of desire, as well as Bess. (Early in the film, even her red vinyl shorts are the same that Bess uses). This becomes clear when remembering the number of times that Jerome (Shia LaBeouf ) penetrated her without worrying about her pleasure. Would her actions, like “fishing” men on the train, be perceived as odd if she was a man? Certainly not. Thereafter she acts almost by necessity and need, seeming only make sex for pleasure after the death of her father (Christian Slater). His death is actually the only moment when it seems that von Trier wants to shock the public and it disconnects from the rest of the first part of the film. By the way, her father was always sympathetic to her. He did not admonish her when she was playing in her childhood (as her mother intended him to do) and he showed her the beauties of the world, teaching her to explore her senses: see the trees, feel the wind, understand life is delightful.

NYMPHOMANIAC (2013)

Still, she is her own greatest critic: when she was found injured and unconscious by Seligman (Stellan Skarsgård), she goes on telling him about her life filled with guilt and judging herself wrong several times.

CINEMA SCANDINAVIA | NYMPHOMANIAC: VON TRIER TALKING ABOUT VON TRIER

NYMPHOMANIAC (2013)

The conversation with Seligman demonstrates again (as in Antichrist) that von Trier faces the dichotomy man versus woman as Nature and Culture. This is also the dichotomy largely used in anthropological studies. The man in question punctuates the narrative with knowledge about religion, music, literature and even fishing, while the woman speaks of instincts and experiences and ignores everything he explained. The narrative, as in his previous films, is divided into chapters, but von Trier calls attention to this act to highlight it as artificial: Joe is shown naming the chapters observing objects on Seligman’s room and relating them to her history. This is not the only time in which the author lets it clear that it is all fiction. At one point he even shows Seligman seem to defend him of the accusations made towards him, as the character speaks: “Being anti-Zionist is not being anti-Semitic.” In another moment Seligman highlights the unlikelihood of something reported by Joe, to which she replies that it does not matter, it is just a story, noting that in the end, in spite of how deeply we analyse the work, it is all cinematic language and inventions. The girls club that Joe attends to has the motto “mea vulva, mea maxima vulva” and the message is clear subversion of Christian guilt (which she absolutely does not have), as a cry for freedom of those young women about their own bodies. But somehow Joe is punished for her actions, and we already know it as we see her hurt, laying in a street at the beginning of the film. In the first volume it does not really seem to come from a deep desire of the director: the narrative seems to absolve the sins 34 CINEMA SCANDINAVIA

she sees in herself. They are actually marker by the society around her. The first volume of the film has an impressive lightness in the way the subjects are dealt and even certain sense of humor (especially the participation of Uma Thurman as Mrs. H). Just as the actress is changed (to Charlotte Gainsbourg), it seems that Joe changes her personality in the second volume. When watching the first one, we do not see a nymphomaniac, but rather a woman open about her desires regarding sex. In the second one it seems that in fact she was a functional addict , but starts to have trouble controlling the way to express these desires. The need to be beaten with increasing frequency by dominating K (Jamie Bell), neglecting her child in a dangerous way, does not follow the sense of the first part of the story. The character just wants to be punished for something that hitherto was not punishable. She shows no pleasure in all the whipping she receives and does not seem to have a fetish about practice. Her only pleasure is the brief moment of masturbation rubbing her body against the books supporting her. When nobody is at home and her child wakes up, gets up and goes to the balcony, and a melodia fills the scene, it is a (no so) subtle reference to Antichrist. But while in the second it was the woman’s fault , von Trier here laughs as he says to the audience “this time I spared the innocent”. But Joe still has an uncomfortable sense of guilt. In this half of the movie von Trier also seems to draw more attention to ridicule the situations narrated, like in the sequence in which Joe as a child has a religious vision, for example. In the first film, thankfully, no incestuous practice

CINEMA SCANDINAVIA | NYMPHOMANIAC: VON TRIER TALKING ABOUT VON TRIER

NYMPHOMANIAC (2013)

was implied between Joe and her kind father. It would be cliché and unnecessary. Incest appears in the second part symbolically. Joe becomes the tutor of a teenage girl, P (Mia Goth), who moves in with her as she reaches the age of legal adulthood. P makes the first move, to much pain and despair of Joe herself, who seemed not to want the relationship initially. But when she is fully engaged on it, the primitive sense of ownership arises and with it jealousy. That is what led her to be laying in the alley at the beginning of the film. The public may be surprised by the ending, but being Seligman the representation of culture, it is easy to understand that von Trier is implying that our culture normalizes sexual violence against women, especially those who have notoriously active sex life. It is not out of his character to attempt rape. He was just curious, a theorist who has expressed interest in what Joe said she had done with so many people. Joe’s reaction (as well as her speech in support group) echoes the speech of all women in the world: my body is mine, it’s my choice, society should stop trying to control me. The option to hide the outcome on a black screen increased the impact of the final

result. The second movie is less about pleasure and more about pain. Yet, thanks to the outcome, what remains is a powerful message. If the main character was more psychologically and mentally healthy, she probably would be more easily comprehended and accepted. The impeccably beautiful photography of Antichrist and Melancholia is missing. Here the composition approaches the rawness of Dogma 95, but it does not harm the work as a whole. This is a film difficult to digest and it raises debates, which is more than almost all of contemporary filmmaking. It’s interesting to see a young director already revisiting his own work and answering questions made by his own public.

Isabel Wittmann is an Architect, Social An-

thropology Master’s Degree student at Universidade Federal do Amazonas (UFAM) as well as a costume design columnist.

BESS IN BREAKING THE WAVES AND JOE IN NYMPHOMANIAC

SCANDINAVIA AROUND THE WORLD THE ABSENT ONE (FASANDRÆBERNE)

36 CINEMA SCANDINAVIA

HUNGARY It’s been a while that Nordic / Scandinavian culture first became popular in Hungary, and it doesn’t really matter whether it’s about films, music or literature, Hungarians have a huge passion for almost everything that comes from the Nordic / Scandinavian countries. There are several institutions and organisations whose aim is to promote different segments of Nordic / Scandinavian culture. For instance, the Nordic House Foundation, which was established in autumn 2002 by some Scandinavians living in Hungary and some Hungarians who have special interest for Scandinavia, often organises events. They have a film club every other week, for instance. However, this time I would like to draw attention to a Hungarian film distributing company called Vertigo Media Ltd due to the fact that they frequently present Scandinavian / Nordic films among others. The company was established in 2010. I have interviewed Balázs Berta, the Head of Distribution, to gain some insight into their work as well as to find out why Scandinavian / Nordic films are so popular in Hungary. You usually have Nordic / Scandinavian films among your distributed films. Is it a result of a conscious decision? Yes, absolutely. We think that Scandinavian films are those films that provide good quality permanently, and what is more, the Hungarian audience is eager to see them. It is interesting to observe how diverse Scandinavian cinema is; they produce not just crime such as thrillers successfully, but also black comedies, dramas and comedies. How do you select the films? Screenings at festivals and the feedback given there are highly important to us. We also monitor the best-seller adaptations, but there are some Scandinavian actors, actresses and creators whom we trust by all means such as Nikolaj Arcel or Mads Mikkelsen. I could mention Lars von Trier, Thomas Vinterberg or Hans Petter Moland as well.

SCANDINAVIAN FILMMAKERS COME UP WITH VERY UNIQUE STORIES, THEIR SCRIPTS ARE VERY TIGHT, AND ESPECIALLY THEIR CRIME STORIES ARE UNPREDICTABLE.

How many percent of your distributed films comes from Scandinavia approximately? It is true that we are trying to present all the most significant films in the Hungarian cinemas but this number changes year by year depending on the number of films made yearly. We have presented six films this year so far, and we had nine motion pictures last year.

THE HUNT (JAGTEN, 2012)

The Titanic International Film Festival also shows quite many Nordic / Scandinavian films every year. Where do you think their success derives from? As I have mentioned above, the audience is surely grateful for the high-quality film-making. Moreover, Scandinavian film-makers come up with very unique stories, their scripts are very tight, and especially their crime stories are quite unpredictable. The Hungarian audience that is eager to see humorous stories appreciates Scandinavian black comedies. Not to mention that an excellent cast assists the directors in their work. But is it worth screening Nordic / Scandinavian films in Hungary? It would be an exaggeration to say that all films without exceptions are financially profitable. However, this is part of our commitment, meaning that we also present smaller-scale films and stories, which we find precious and which earned some recognition at film festivals but might be not so appealing to the Hungarian audience. Which films have been the most popular among the viewers? Last year The Hunt was an absolute hit. This year Lars von Trier’s Nymphomaniac: Volume I and II have been extremely successful, and many people have come to see Hans Petter Moland’s In Order of Disappearance. We have believed in the film very much but the reviews and the public reception have surpassed all our expectations – luckily. Which films are we going to see this year or perhaps next year? It is sure that we are going to present the latest story of the Department Q, The Absent One. The Keeper of Lost Causes was a blockbuster in Denmark, and although in Hungary it was not such a big hit, we still hope for a more successful sequel. In addition to that, probably we will distribute the film A War, which are expected to be released at the end of 2015. It has been written and directed by Tobias Lindholm who is known for films like A Hijacking, The Hunt or Submarino and series like Borgen. Furthermore, we are in negotiation for other promising films so we might announce other titles later on.

NYMPHOMANIAC (2014)

THE SACRFICE

Barbara Majsa is a Hungarian arts & cultural journalist and editor working in the field for almost five years. She took Film and Scandinavian Studies at Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, and graduated from University of Gothenburg in communication in June 2014. She usually writes about films, music and design. Her articles have been published both online and offline in both English and Hungarian. 38 CINEMA SCANDINAVIA

FILM OF THE MONTH: YOU, THE LIVING BY ROY ANDERSSON

HOPE IN THE FACE OF OBLIVION AN EXPLORATION OF OPTIMISM IN ROY ANDERSSON’S “YOU, THE LIVING” BY SARAH HUDSON

In the opening of Roy Andersson’s film You, the Living, a man sleeps on a sofa in an office. A train passes by outside, blowing the curtains in the window. The man startles awake and turns to the audience. He tells us that he had a nightmare: he dreamt the bombers were coming. 90 minutes later in the film, the bombers arrive, threatening to destroy the characters Andersson has, up to this point, explored and shared in their lives. Was what was in between a dream or a premonition? The film focuses around the lives of individuals in a city, crossing each others’ paths and dwelling within their own bleak struggles - financial woes; broken hearts. The situations they encounter play out like a silent film tragicomedy, where things are absurd and don’t quite work out. Andersson’s comedic style is visual and deadpan, finding humour amidst existential crises. This is a dark and very funny film. And yet, despite the struggles of the characters, there’s a sense of hope about it all. Andersson is known for his wide, static shots, a mode of staging and shooting which he refers to making “you very curious… [causing] you [to] become an active spectator” (“The End”) within the film. A scene will fit into a carefully staged long master shot - a shot which reveals the entire world within its space. Within this shot, Andersson takes his time to play out the carefully choreographed action. What results within every shot is extremely visually rich, and Andersson makes full use of the deep space of the shots to develop visual gags and support his theme. Characters appear and reappear; stories intertwine. Late in the film, a girl with a hopeless crush on the lead guitarist of a band retells a dream in a bar where she marries him and sets off on their honeymoon. The film cuts to her dream, where the couple are in their apartment after the wedding. Slowly, it becomes apparent through the open window of

40 CINEMA SCANDINAVIA

the room that the apartment is actually moving. It passes through the countryside and arrives in the city, where a crowd of well-wishers come to their window, shouting their support and hope for their future although they are strangers. The film cuts back to the girl in the bar, where she marvels how nice everyone was - how they came out to support her although they didn’t even know her. In the background of the shot, the bartender dries his eyes and a elderly man sitting at a table recounts his own wistful dream. As hopeful as this sequence is, shortly after this scene the bombers arrive. We know how things will end for these characters, but this moment reveals something about how humanity chooses to behave when faced with oblivion. Ultimately, everything must end, but in the face of certain apocalypse, we keep living anyway. We keep supporting each other. We keep moving, and, despite all its struggles and ultimate end, it’s this act that gives life meaning. Andersson comments, “it’s a film about the vulnerability of human beings… we should not humiliate each other, and sometimes people are forced to humiliate themselves.” (“Interview”) This is a film that laughs with the characters rather than at them. Andersson shows these characters at their darkest moments while still celebrating the act of living their lives. The opening Goethe quote, which the film takes its title from, explores these ideas: “Therefore rejoice, you, the living, in your lovely warm bed, until Lethe’s cold wave wets your fleeing foot.” As the film plays out, for all their crises, the characters relish in their present state, and we, the audience, share in these moments.

FILM OF THE MONTH: YOU, THE LIVING BY ROY ANDERSSON

REVIEWS

NORTHWEST A GRITTY, REALIST, DOGME STYLE CRIME DRAMA FROM MICHAEL NOER BY EMMA ROBINSON

Michael Noer’s new film, Northwest, is an absorbing and tough crime drama set against the impoverished and ethnic backdrop of the Copenhagen suburb Northwest. Noer’s first film was the acclaimed 2010 prison drama, R, and while Northwest is similar in that it shares some of the films fascination with young men and violence, it is also convincing in that it never relishes the violence, but instead it simply notes how hard it is to escape your surroundings. Real life teenage brothers Gustav and Oscar Dyekjaer Giese, both non-professional actors, are compellingly believable as eighteen year old Caspar and seventeen year old Andy, who live with their single mother and younger sister. Caspar burgles homes and provides the goods to Jamal, the leader of a small Arab gang in the region. While Andy would rather be joining his brother than going to school, Caspar made an agreement with his mother that he would keep Andy off the streets; besides, Caspar is naturally protective of his siblings. The main part of the narrative concerns Caspar ‘graduating’ from working with the small time Arab group to a higher up level of ‘biker gangsters. When the leader of this gang, Bjorn, asks Caspar to get him some big ticket electronics, Caspar sees it as an opportunity to advance his career, and shift away from Jamal and the Arabs. Bjorn likes Caspar, and allows him to enter into his world of drugs and prostitution. However, Jamal isn’t willing to let Caspar think he is a free agent, and a turf war ensues. With Caspar now in the middle, it’s not long before Andy gets involved. Noer ensures we see Caspar as a product of a fractured society, as he’s part of the fatalistic environment. In this place, young people have a distinct lack of opportunity available to them, and fall victim to manipulative, older criminals who recruit kids. While nobody’s idea of a ghetto full of gang members, on this evidence Northwest apparently has a shady reputation in Copenhagen. Noer spent 42 CINEMA SCANDINAVIA

considerable time getting to know the neighbourhood and its stories, and depicts the dynamics of the place, with its hierarchies and racial tensions, with a gritty familiarity from R. Northwest is a perfect realisation of Dogme-era filming: gritty, natural, spontaneous - yet regulated, deliberated, purposeful. Each shot and each scenes a controlled strike to a vital point, every scene punctuated with heartbreaking efficiency. Noer has a documentarian eye and respect for character, bringing in a sensitivity to working-class male anxiety. It’s the gritty realism that sets this film apart from so many other dramas of this kind. Noer thrives in being naturalistic, as he hired real life criminals to star in the film (one of which had to return to prison straight after the film finished shooting), to help us peer into this world through those who know it best. Michael Noer is a gritty realist, concerned with the unstoppable inertia of the city. Crossing back and forth between documentary and fiction, Noer sees no line between the constructed plots of his films and the real-life social fissures in Danish society. His depictions of the malfunctioning systems that entrap youth into a life of crime and poverty are grounded in reality, which makes the characters in his films all the more believable and tragic. Comparisons of the likes of Pusher and Easy Money are to be expected, given the similarities in narrative structure, yet this is a far less stylised affair, instead concerned with creating a harrowingly immersive experience. Northwest is an intense, compelling character study that continues on the golden era of Scandinavian cinema, and the current wave of exceptional figures coming out of Denmark, where realism is the most prevalent aspect.

Find it in cinemas, On Demand, digital and DVD in the UK now

REVIEWS

NORTHWEST | NORDVEST DIRECTOR: MICHAEL NOER WRITTEN BY: HEISTER RASMUS BERG AND MICHAEL NOER DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: MAGNUS NORDENHOF JØNCK STARRING: GUSTAV DYEKJAER GIESE, OSCAR DYEKJAER GIESE, ROLAND MØLLER OPENED IN DENMARK ON: 18/04/2014 DURATION: 91 MINUTES PRODUCTION COMPANY: NORDISK FILM PRODUCTION A/S

REVIEWS

THE KEEPER OF LOST CAUSES ‘DANISH NOIR FOR BEGINNERS’ BY VALERIYA BAEVA

The Keeper of Lost Causes (Kvinden i buret) had quite a difficult task before it has been released. During the Scandinavian crime fiction occupation around the world, it was very hard indeed to be somehow original when The Killing, The Bridge and The Girl with a Dragon Tattoo already gained millions of fans whose expectations on a new crime series were high. Directed by Mikkel Nørgaard (Klovn, Borgen) with a writer Nikolaj Arcel (The Girl with a Dragon Tattoo, A Royal Affair) this film promised to be made with professionals who know about international success first-hand. Also, getting for the lead role Nikolaj Lie Kaas, who’s been one of the most known Danish actors helped the new series become recognizable. Yet, the film itself looks more as an introduction, a pilot episode which is aimed to attract mainly those who didn’t have an opportunity to get deeply involved with the addiction called ‘Scandinavian crime cinema”.

the opportunity to pass the investigation itself on a deep level. The intrigue can be revealed by the viewer who is familiar with a detective narration in the middle of the film. It seems like authors did not really have time to go into details and let their characters take the misleading route and make any mistakes. Maybe it happened due to the time limits (movie’s runtime is just over 90 min), or more likely this just allowed to get the film to act as a very quick introduction to the genre. Overall, the first film of the upcoming series look promising. Recently, the trailer for the second part has been released and it looks much more tense and dark than the first one. Add here the likeable characters who really create the emotional contact with the viewer and you get quite an interesting example of concentrated Scandinavian crime thriller for those, who did not really have time to read the books or watch 20 hour-long episodes of The Killing.

Police detective Carl Morck (Nikolaj Lie Kaas) is being transferred to the department “Q” after the accident he caused, where one of his partners was killed and the other one paralyzed. His new duty is to sort old cases, not to solve them – just do the paperwork. His new assistant Assad (Fares Fares) doesn’t really mind a job like that, as he, unlike Morck, has been “promoted” to get this kind of work. However, Morck decides to investigate almost the first case he’s found. Five years ago a young politician Merete Lynggaard (Sonja Richter) mysteriously disappeared on a boat whilst travelling with her young brother Uffe (Mikkel Boe Folsgaard), who had mental problems. Morck finds certain omissions in this case and starts to dig into something, that has been almost forgotten. Soon after grim details start to reveal themselves. As the beginning of film adaptation of bestselling novels by Jussi Adler-Olsen, this movie doesn’t have

In cinemas now

In cinemas this month 44 CINEMA SCANDINAVIA

REVIEWS

THE KEEPER OF LOST CAUSES | KVINDEN I BURET DIRECTOR: MIKKEL NØRGAARD WRITTEN BY: NIKOLAJ ARCEL DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: ERIC KRESS STARRING: NIKOLAJ LIE KAAS, FARES FARES, SONJA RICHTER, MIKKEL BOE FØLSGAARD OPENED IN DENMARK ON: 03/10/2013 DURATION: 100 MINUTES PRODUCTION COMPANY: ZENTROPA

REVIEWS

FLAMMEN & CITRONEN ONCE UPON A TIME, IN NAZI OCCUPIED DENMARK... BY PAULO ANTUNES

Once upon a time in a Nazi occupied Denmark: this is the motto launched to describe the next paragraphs. But what is that movie is about? Very simple, is just one of the best movies of Scandinavian cinema, as well as the most expensive film produced on Danish land to date in 2008, and it has become huge box office success and won numerous awards. After lifting the tip of the veil, there no longer remains many queries for the movie in question, but for the most distracted, I will quote this name Flammen & Citronen. Flammen & Citronen was directed by Danish director Ole Christian Madsen, and starring the actor Thure Lindhardt, the actress Stine Stengade and the actor of the moment, Mads Mikkelsen, who in my opinion and not wanting to despise all the great work of other actors, is undoubtedly the number one in Denmark at this time. Ole Christian Madsen offers a well-told story and with reference to real and historical facts, with elements of film noir and nuances of documentary. In an intelligent way focuses already in the last stages of World War II, recreating those who were the heroes of the Danish resistance, and will tried to open gaps in the patriotic view of these heroes. The protagonists of this action are Bent Faurschou-Hviid (Thure Lindhardt), a.k.a by his nickname Flammen due to red hair color of your hair and your faithful companion Jørgen Haagen Schmith (Mads Mikkelsen), a.k.a by Citronen.

2009, Quentin Tarantino. Flammen and Citronen not to collect scalps, but the principle is the same go after anyone and everyone to pledge allegiance to Das Führer. The film’s plot is wonderfully accomplished, the perfume of film noir further intensifies the smell with the character Ketty Selmer (Stine Stengade), the role of femme fatale, which as the name indicates is the woman who seduces and deceives the hero but also other men to get something. And Stine Stengade did very well that role, has always managed to be on both sides of the fence and get what he wanted, having even in my opinion deceived our hero with red hair, who was blindly in love with her, but at the same time also the evil Gestapo officer Hoffman (Christian Berkel). Flammen & Citronen is a film for those who enjoy the theme Second World War, and for those who thought there was nothing more to say or show on this. It is certainly an excellent job of directing, actors and production, or better the whole team that accompanied the filming of this movie. Note for a curiosity, the director Ole Christian Madsen, says he was influenced by French film from 1969, Army of Shadows from French filmmaker Jean - Pierre Melville, about the French Resistance, to develop this masterpiece of European Nordic film.

Both form a duo that balances on all points, but at the same time are quite different. Flammen & Citronen tells the story of two heroes fighting for the freedom of their country. Both are members of the Holger Danske faction, but they work in their own account, as freelancers, as a team of lethal murder, the only way that follows is one that the gun barrel pointing, firing on Danish employees and German officers, all this always under the supervision of the group leader Winther (Peter Mygind), which in turn receives orders from his superiors in Sweden. In spite of being based on a true story, these two heroes would fit like a glove, on the famous group of Nazi hunters, led by Lieutenant Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt) in the film Inglorious Basterds,

46 CINEMA SCANDINAVIA

Available on DVD and Netflix

REVIEWS

FLAME AND CITRON | FLAMMEN AND CITRONEN DIRECTOR: OLE CHRISTIAN MADSEN WRITTEN BY: OLE CHRISTIAN MADSEN, LARS K ANDERSEN DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: JØRGEN JOHANSSON STARRING: THURE LINDHARDT, MADS MIKKELSEN, STINE STENGADE, PETER MYGIND OPENED IN DENMARK ON: 28/03/2008 DURATION: 130 MINUTES PRODUCTION COMPANY: NIMBUS FILM

REVIEWS

IN ORDER OF DISAPPEARANCE SERBIAN GANGSTERS BAFFLED BY NORWEGIAN WEIRDNESS BY FREDERICK BOVE

Two Norwegian gangsters are sitting in a car, talking about snow. One of them sees a connection between the cold weather and the welfare state. You could never get people to go through the trouble of building a real civilization if everybody could just pluck a banana and eat it. ‘Snow or welfare’, he states. The untold irony is, of course, that historically, it has been exactly the other way. Civilizations developed in the fertile and warm subtropical zones, while the north was seen as too harsh and rugged to support people other than wild savages. The mountains and the snow made the Norwegians Vikings, not builders. The best parts of Hans Petter Moland’s morbid gangster-comedy In Order of Disappearance examines whether Norway really is truly civilized, or whether it’s just a varnish over a violent core. Take the main character, Nils Dickman (Swedish actor Stellan Skarsgaard), for instance. He rides a snowblower for a living, claiming he helps keep civilization open. He was inspired by old books about ‘Indians’: ‘You might think of me as a pathfinder,’ he says in a speech after winning a prize for ‘Citizen of the year. ‘Even if I keep finding the same path again and again.’ This is a sad metaphor for attempts at upholding civilization: As soon as Nils removes the snow obstructing the roads, more will fall down. The metaphor becomes considerably more grim when Nils’ son Ingvar is murdered by cocaine-dealers, and Nils begins methodically murdering them one by one, until he sets his sight on a boss called ‘The Count’ (Pål Sverre Hagen, who played Thor Heyerdahl in the Oscar-nominated Kon-Tiki) As the bodycount rises, a rival Serbian gang gets involved as well, and soon the plotstrands converge into a climax, which feels inevitable but also fairly predictable. Plot-wise, the film is hardly more than a Norwegian Fargo or an update on the gangster-comedies Guy Ritchie used to make. It’s fun, but fans of the genre will probably feel a sense of deja-vu. For fans of Scandinavian cinema, on the other hand, there is a lot to gain in the incredible production design of the film. I cannot overstate how brilliant the design of the film is. I was baffled as to where in Norway I could find the weird city, in which the gangsters live, and had to do some research. Reviewers has said Oslo, but also claimed that it had to be northern Norway. It is Oslo, but the establishing shots has been digitally manipulated, removing the old parts of the city, resulting in a skyline that rises out of the Norwegian snow as abruptly as a city like Abu Dhabi rises out of the Arabian sands. In the city, scenes mainly takes place among ultramodern buildings, not

48 CINEMA SCANDINAVIA

the squares of glass and steel as in America, but the curved angles and dark woods of modern Scandinavian architecture. In a scene, one of the gangsters leave a club directly into a dark winter street completely covered in snow and devoid of life, and is later murdered next to rows of rental bikes. What kind of madness is this? The Serbian gangsters are baffled by the weirdness of the Norwegian people as well, whose prisons are so humane they are something to look forward to, and where women put on plastic bags to pick up dog droppings in the street. The Count himself is a caricature of a modern man, drinking fresh-pressed juice and arguing over parental rights with his ex-wife (Dane Birgitte Hjort Sørensen, known from playing Katrine Fønsmark in Borgen), in between bouts of racist ranting and indiscriminate killing. In his understanding, his failures as a father and husband stems from his stressful job as a topleader in a competitive business, not from being an awful, violent human being. With a script by Danish screenwriter Kim Fupz Aakeson and a Swedish leading man, the film is somewhat a pan-Scandinavian effort. It premiered in competition at Berlin, same place as Molland’s A Somewhat Gentle Man (2010), also with Skarsgaard and a script by Aakeson. In Order of Disappearance has been bought for distribution in the UK, France and Germany, among other territories, and while it’s not breaking any new ground in it’s genre of choice, it’s very much worth seeing for it’s snowfilled cinematography and sense of design, and as a satirical examination of modern Scandinavian society today. With plenty of blood as an added bonus.

Out in cinemas on the 12th of September

REVIEWS

IN ORDER OF DISAPPEARANCE | KRAFTIDIOTEN DIRECTOR: HANS PETTER MOLAND WRITTEN BY: KIM FUPZ AAKESON STARRING: STELLAN SKARSGÅRD, TOBIAS SANTELMANN, KRISTOFER HIVJU OPENED IN NORWAY ON: 21/02/2014 DURATION: 116 MINUTES PRODUCTION COMPANY: PARADOX FILM

NORDIC TELEVISION IN FOCUS: MATADOR

MATADOR NOIR ISN’T ALL THAT’S ON DANISH TELEVISION BY ANDY LAWRENCE

For fans who have discovered Danish drama in recent years the nation’s broadcast landscape appears, on initial inspection, to be seemingly dominated by a glut of high quality noir themed series. Closer examination reveals a far more diverse range of genres including soap opera, romance, historical, and family based series and serials. Our understanding of the core characteristics of the country’s approach to fiction based programming is based upon a comparatively small sample culled from the last decade that excludes a rich history of domestically produced content dating back to 1951, some of which continues to be enjoyed by new audiences thanks to repeat screenings and DVD releases. In terms of domestic cross-generational cultural resonance the most significant series may be the family based period drama Matador. Travelling salesman Mads Andersen-Skjern (Jørgen Buckhøj) arrives in the town with his son and soon sees scope to expand his business interests bringing him into contact and conflict with the local banker, Hans Christian Varnæs (Holger Juul Hansen). Denied funds to establish a new emporium the merchant refuses to be beaten by this rejection and strengthens his resolve to secure financing for this venture. Tradition and family loyalty are challenged by modernity alongside the threats of wider social and political changes in the wake of the Wall Street Crash and war in Europe. A strong contender for one of the most successful series to have air on DR, this saga of life in a small town between 1928 and 1947 was initially screened at a time when the station had a complete monopoly. Excluding signals that might have overlapped from neighbouring countries, Danish viewers had to watch what the network offered. United in their consumption and with no access to competing programmes, the original audience may not have responded critically to any domestically produced show. Fed on a diet mainly consisting of imported American and British programming the screening of an original series was in itself a major cultural event. That this show dealt with key moments of national history still all too relevant for most of the viewers elevated the series from mere television programming into the nation’s consciousness. Despite only running for twenty four episodes and with the country now enjoying the bounty of a multi channel televisual environment the series continues to resonate in contemporary Danish society, an estimated 50 CINEMA SCANDINAVIA

one in four Danish viewers is reported to have watched at least two repeat screenings. In 2011 the thirtieth anniversary of the series’ launch was marked by the publication of a book covering every conceivable detail of the production history and packed with reminiscences from cast members. This was followed by an exhibition of surviving props and costumes by Film Nordisk. Prior to the launch of a repeat in the spring of 2012 it was revealed that DVD sales were in the region of 3.6 million. Irrespective of the success of home entertainment releases, forty per cent of the nation were willing to tune in and catch the seventh airing for this chronicle of key moments in recent Danish history as seen through the eyes of a band of characters living and working in the fictional township of Korsbæk. This rerun proved so popular the main rival station hastily rescheduled its flagship programming to avoid being annihilated in the ratings. Taking its name from the Danish version of the board game Monopoly, Matador was created by Lise Nørgaard. A journalist and novelist in addition to a screenwriter, she drew from her own experiences of living through The Great Depression wartime occupation to create a show loosely inspired by the British series Upstairs Downstairs. The template of a relatively self contained community adjusting to changes in society against the backdrop of turbulent historical episodes has recently been dusted down and used in Badehotellet (Seaside Hotel) with press and the public commenting on the parallels between the two series, specifically that for both events start in 1928. In an era before producers could be reasonably confident that their shows might be exported to the English speaking market sales were limited to neighbouring Scandinavian countries. With no possibility of cracking into the all-important American market writers and directors may have tended to address national concerns. Perhaps too parochial for international viewers, nonetheless with each repeat Matador gains a new generation of fans audience who are possibly able to connect stories told by their grandparents with plotlines or set-pieces. Refusing to be vanquished by a media epoch that offers a greater degree of choice and a panoply of genres, this tale of class conflict and modern Denmark’s birth pangs will continue to provide comfort for fans of nostalgia and unite the nation with each transmission.

NORDIC TELEVISION IN FOCUS: MATADOR

HELLFJORD MEET SALMANDER - ORIGINALLY AN OSLO POLICEMAN. HE KILLS HIS HORSE DURING THE NORWEGIAN NATIONAL DAY AFTER BELIEVING THAT HIS COMPANION WAS IN PAIN. HE IS RELOCATED TO A TOWN IN RURAL NORWAY FOR THREE MONTHS.

52 CINEMA SCANDINAVIA

NORDIC TELEVISION IN REVIEW: HELLFJORD

HELLFJORD IS CERTAINLY NOT FOR EVERYBODY. SOME PEOPLE MAY NOT GET THE CULTURAL REFERENCES - [...] BUT IT IS ALSO PACKED WITH VIOLENCE AND SOME SCENES THAT WILL LEAVE YOU NAUSEOUS.

Let’s be honest, Hellfjord is not as well known as The Killing or The Bridge, not even on the same fame scale as the other NRK’s comedy co-production Lilyhammer (OK, it owes its fame thanks to Netflix). If you think that this Norwegian series is one of the numerous Nordic noir procedural but with a comedic twist, you are greatly mistaken. It certainly has the procedural feel but the humour is not found on the investigation process but rather on its ridiculous characters, dialogues and storyline.

HELLFJORD

Meet Salmander (Zahid Ali) - originally an Oslo policeman. He kills his horse during the Norwegian national day celebration after believing that his companion was in pain. He even borrows a car from one of the parade attendees to crush the poor horse that the car owner who is in the car when Salmander uses it is left trembled. He argues that he is just following instruction on his guidebook. Unfortunately, children see his action and local citizens are shocked by it. Salmander gets demoted to Hellfjord for three months as he cannot be immediately fired due to a new Norwegian police legislation. He is told that it is impossible for him to do a good job there and that he only gets his job as an officer to meet a racial quota. Hellfjord is a fictional town (or village according to Wikipedia) in north Norway. The Norwegian word for hell is also “hell” and so, “Hellfjord” means a hell among the fjords. In the first episode’s narration, Hellfjord is depicted as a place where everybody, even the babies, smokes. Although during the narration there is a short scene where a baby is seen smoking, I think this is just an exaggeration when compared with the number of characters seen smoking in the progression of the series. Still, it is a bad news for Salmander who tries to stop smoking. The average age of its residents is higher than the living expectancy of many developing nations. There is only one person in town who holds the positions of a surgeon, dentist, midwife, tattoo artist and several other at the same time. The biggest job provider is Hellfish which exports fish and an illegal substance hidden in the fish to Oslo. The illegal substance bit is not part of the narration. The company is managed by Swedish businessman Bosse Nova (Thomas Hanzon). Bosse Nova says that Hellfish employs 60 percent of Hellfjord’s residents. There are only 45 (later on 44) workers in Hellfish, so that means there are only 75 or so residents in Hellfjord?

NORDIC TELEVISION IN REVIEW: HELLFJORD

HELLFJORD

Other major characters include irritating and random but hilarious local sheriff Kobba (Stig Fride Henriksen), his mail order bride from Finland Riina (Pihla Viitala), an ambitious but slightly dim-witted local journalist Johanne (Ingrid Bolsø Berdal) and Salmander’s landlady Tante Kose (Maria Bock) - though in the Australian broadcast her name is translated as Auntie Cozy. Kobba says that Riina is actually sold as a bride as there was a potato shortage in northern Finland. Salmander initially stays at Kobba’s house (which is also the sheriff’s office). His room is just a furnished prison presumably on the basement of the house/ office. Due to the need to sleep somewhere with a proper curtain during midsummer and a growing awkwardness between him and Kobba, Salmander asks Kobba to find him another place and he gets Tante Kose’s. Tante Kose is just as random as Kobba but her place is a tad better than the furnished prison. Personally, Henriksen and Bock deserve an award for their extreme makeovers.

HELLFJORD NORWEGIAN DVD COVER

Salmander’s real adventure in Hellfjord begins when he stumbles upon a dead Hellfish worker. The murder investigation leads him to Solvik prison as an undercover agent. His undercover is going well until the prison warden chokes himself to death while eating peanut. The new warden is not as friendly and when she contacts Kobba on Salmander’s mission, he denies any connection with Salmander. Meanwhile, the murdered worker’s counterparts plan a prison break and Salmander tags along. When Solvik prison becomes aware that they have escaped, a car chase ensues and leaves the counterparts dead. If it wasn’t for Johanne who suddenly appears after the car chase has ended, Salmander would have returned to Solvik prison. The investigation now puts Hellfish and Bosse Nova on the spotlight. As Salmander and his gang are about to raid Hellfish, he suddenly gets a call from the police commissioner in Oslo saying that his time is up and must return to Oslo immediately. The storyline becomes more absurd from there.

54 CINEMA SCANDINAVIA

NORDIC TELEVISION IN REVIEW: HELLFJORD

With absurd storyline comes absurd dialogues. For example, when Bosse Nova manages to stop Salmander and his gang from revealing Hellfish’s shoddy business during Salmander’s second return to Hellfjord, Bosse Nova says that Sweden always wins over Norway in sports. In other words, they shouldn’t expect him to be caught and tried because Norway can’t beat Sweden. Instead of lifting the spirit for the Norwegians, Kobba immediately replies that Sweden also outdoes Norway in Eurovision Song Contest (to date, Norway has come last in the Eurovision scoreboards 11 times).

HELLFJORD

Hellfjord is certainly not for everybody. Some people may not get the cultural references - I still don’t get Tante Kose’s remark on Canal+. Yes, it is funny but it is also packed with violence and some scenes that will leave you nauseous. Even yours truly can’t stand seeing some of the scenes and I do hope no real animals were harmed during the making of this series. I guess it is no wonder that the Australian broadcaster SBS put it on the 11.30pm timeslot when the series aired in late 2013.

Bram Adimas Wasito is an Indonesian from Denpasar and a fresh graduate. He became aware of Nordic noir upon attending numerous free screenings at his then local cinémathèque (Midnight Sun program at Brisbane’s Gallery of Modern Art) but the affair only began a few months later when he stumbled upon a DVD set of The Killing at his then local library. Meanwhile, a friend at uni had also started watching the series and so conversations ensued. Since then, he has been trying to learn more about Nordic culture.

WANT TO CONTRIBUTE?

CALL FOR PAPERS: SEPTEMBER 2014 Cinema Scandinavia is continuously looking for reviews, analyses, interviews and anything to do with Nordic film. If you have a topic you’d like to write about, please contact us. Questions? email contactus@cinemascandinavia.com

ALL ARTICLES ARE DUE ON THE 25TH DAY OF THE MONTH

HOW TO CONTRIBUTE

56 CINEMA SCANDINAVIA

1) Select a topic. This can be on anything you want, but must fit into the requirements (see next page) 2) Email your topic to contribute@cinemascandinavia.com to have it confirmed (this is to ensure there is no overlapping) 3) Once your topic is confirmed, write up your article. Be sure to include a short bio about yourself, a bibliography, and any relevant images. Articles must be at least 500 words. 4) Email your article to contribute@cinemascandinavia.com before the 25th day of the month 5) Look out for your article in the next issue! Can’t make the next month? Don’t stress. Your article will be published in the closest issue to the time you submit. So take as long as you want.

TOPICS FOR SEPTEMBER Don’t know what to write about? Look at this list of current Nordic topics for some inspiration. You do NOT have to stick to these topics. Write about whatever you want.

- Joshua Oppenheimer and The Act of Killing - The Salvation - Immigrant film - Of Horses and Men - Kon Tiki - Disney, Frozen, and Norway - Bergen International Film Festival - Odense Film Festival - Liv Ullmann and/or Miss Julie - The 100 Year Old Man Who Climbed Out the... - Susanne Bier - Nikolaj Coster-Waldau

THE SOUND OF SILENCE - THE FOLLOW UP TO THE ACT OF KILLING - WILL BE PREMIERING

- Icelandic Film

TYPES OF ARTICLES: - Feature articles: Must be minimum 2000 words - Television analyses and review: Only a small number to be published each month - Scandinavia Around the World: The influence, marketing, and screening of Nordic films globally - Watch now: Short films available online SUSANNE BIER’S NEW FILM,‘A SECOND CHANCE’WILL BE PREMIERING

- Film of the month: An in-depth look at a particular Nordic film - Film reviews - Film analyses - Festival reports - Interviews

THE BERGEN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL TAKES PLACE IN SEPTEMBER

CINEMA SCANDINAVIA

DOWNLOAD

ALL CINEMA SCANDINAVIA ISSUES ARE FREE TO DOWNLOAD.YOU CAN ALSO DOWNLOAD PLAIN TEXT INDIVIDUAL ARTICLES FOR RESEARCH PURPOSES.

WWW.CINEMASCANDINAVIA.COM/MAGAZINE

D OUR ISSUES

THANK YOU FOR READING

CINEMA SCANDINAVIA

Cinema Scandinavia is made by Emma Robinson and features contributors from around the world. The magazine is assembled in Bergen, Norway WWW.CINEMASCANDINAVIA.COM