After the stunning success of the debut Scandinavian Film Festival last year, presented by Palace and screening exclusively at Palace Cinema locations, here is a taste of the Nordic film feast, which opens from 8 July nationally.
The second Scandinavian Film Festival will open with the uproarious HERE IS HAROLD (Her er Harold), a Norwegian road movie, about a man who sets out to kidnap the founder of Ikea. For over 40 years, Harold has been running a successful business, “Lunde Furniture”. But this comes to an end when IKEA decides to open a new superstore right next door to his small furniture shop. In mounting anger and desperation, Harold wants revenge. He arms himself with a pistol and sets off for Älmhult, Sweden, in order to kidnap his Nemesis – the founder of IKEA, Ingvar Kamprad. But unfortunately, Kamprad is quite happy to be kidnapped.
Having picked up Best Film, Actor, Actress, Director and seven more awards at the Edda (Icelandic Academy) Awards, unsparing Icelandic drama LIFE IN A FISH BOWL (Vonarstræti) tells three congruent tales of three people who have a lasting effect on one another. This naturalistic portrait of everyday life in Reykjavik on the eve of the country’s 2008 economic meltdown touched a nerve on home turf, becoming one of the countries biggest-ever domestic hits.
Based on a series of Finnish radio plays, THE GRUMP (Mielensäpahoittaja) is a broad satire from director Dome Karukoski (Heart of a Lion Scandinavian FF 2014) who returns to the comedy-of-bad behavior mode of his 2010 box office hit LAPLAND ODYSSEY. The film tells the story of a set-in-his-ways, 80-year-old farmer from rural Finland, who raises hell when he is forced to move in with his city-dwelling son.
A modern take on class conflict plays out in the critically acclaimed debut film UNDERDOG (Svenskjävel) by Swedish director Ronnie Sandahl. The drama tells the story of 23-year-old Dino (magnetic comedian Bianca Kronlöf) who dreams of a different life. Like an abundance of Swedes her age, she has fled the mass unemployment of her home country in search of a more worthwhile existence in a nouveau-riche Oslo. But her new life is caught in destructive loop of temporary jobs, financial trouble and hard partying, until she lands a job as a housekeeper for a wealthy ex-sportsman. During a few sultry summer weeks she ends up in the centre of an odd love triangle, an unpredictable struggle for affection as well as dominance. UNDERDOG is a tender and raw story of privilege and longing, yet at the same time a humorous and unmerciful observation of the shifted power balance between Sweden and Norway.
Named by Variety as one of the “TOP 10 EUROPEANS TO WATCH”, Norwegian Writer/Actor/Director Ole Giæver brings us OUT OF NATURE (Mot nature) a commentary on middle-class life and the Norwegian penchant for idealizing nature. With a wry Scandinavian sense of humor, OUT OF NATURE is a sharp and compelling film about a put-upon salary man who seeks spiritual and sexual renewal in the great outdoors.
Danish thrillers once again take center stage with this taught sequel to smash hit THE KEEPER OF LOST CAUSES. In THE ABSENT ONE (Fasandræberne), a troubling affair involving a double murder of twin siblings is reopened by the Copenhagen cold-case division after the kids’ father commits suicide. The Nordic noir-style mystery that toggles between the past and the present as it uncovers what really happened in the 1990s at one of the country’s poshest boarding schools is the second adaptation of a Jussi Adler-Olsen novel in the Department Q series. This film brings the entire behind-the-scenes team back together with director Mikkel Norgaard and lead actors Nikolaj Lie Kaas and Fares Fares.
From Sweden, YOUNG SOPHIE BELL (Unga Sophie Bell) is Amanda Adolfsson’s longed for debut feature, and the second film to come out of Stockholm Film Festival’s scholarship for female directors. In the drama, two university friends move to Berlin after graduating, but their dreams are shattered when one suddenly and mysteriously disappears.
Scandinavian Film Festival 2015
QLD THU 16 JULY – SUN 26 JULY: PALACE CENTRO
NSW WED 8 JULY – SUN 26 JULY: PALACE NORTON STREET, PALACE VERONA
VIC THU 9 JULY – SUN 26 JULY: PALACE CINEMA COMO, PALACE BRIGHTON BAY
ACT TUE 14 JULY – SUN 26 JULY: PALACE ELECTRIC
BYRON FRI 17 JULY – THU 23 JULY: PALACE BYRON BAY
SA WED 22 JULY – WED 29 JULY: PALACE NOVA EASTEND CINEMA
WA THU 23 JULY – WED 29 JULY: CINEMA PARADISO
HOBART THU 23 JULY – WED 29 JULY: STATE CINEMA
www.scandinavianfilmfestival.com
