The seventh annual Scandinavian Film Festival L.A. comes to the Writers Guild Theater in Beverly Hills on Sunday, January 15, Friday, January 20, and Saturday, January 21, 2006. At the fesival you may enjoy the Norwegian Oscar contender "Kissed by Winter", as well as the modern movie version of Ibsen's drama "An Enemy of the People".
12/30/2005 :: What: Scandinavian FIlm Festival 2006
When: January 15, 20 and 21, 2006
Where: Writers Guild Theater, 135 S. Doheny, Berverly Hills
Info: www.asfla.org or +1 (323) 661-4273
Scandinavian Film Festival L.A. January 15, 20, 21, spans two weekends at the Writers Guild Theater (135 S. Doheny/at Wilshire in Beverly Hills) for a Nordic "weigh-in" during L.A.’s winter film season build up to Oscar nominations. The festival focuses on work of Nordic film makers offering Nordic Oscar contenders along with other current films, and a sampling of shorts and documentaries from Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden.
"This is the 7th year the festival has brought ‘northern lights, camera, action’ to Los Angeles." says festival Founder/Director Jim Koenig. "We have a devoted audience of film lovers, industry professionals, and homesick Nordics eager to see what’s new from the northlands! A lot has happened in Nordic film since the Bergman classics, or Von Trier or the Bros Kaurismaki gained a ‘cult following.’ Despite Nordic climates, Nordic film is hot! In fact, in the first six years of our festival we’ve seen five Academy Award ‘Best Foreign Language Film’ nominations. From the quality of the films-- we could well see another this year!"
Gala "Opening Day" for the festival Sunday Jan. 15 featuring three Nordic Oscar submissions starts off at 2 p.m. with Finnish Director Klaus Harö’s –MOTHER OF MINE an epic story of a child’s plight in the midst of the warring world. Set during the Finnish-Russian War (1939-1940) 70,000 children were evacuated from Finland to Sweden. This is the story of one boy who had two mothers, and at the same time–none. Following at 5 p.m. is Norway’s KISSED BY WINTER debut film from director Sara Johnsen set against the beauty and brutality of the winter landscape of a small town, where a Stockholm doctor who blames herself for her son’s death, sets up practice as a country doctor. When the body of a young Iraqi immigrant is found in a snowdrift and a genial snowplow driver is suspected of manslaughter, the doctor determines to find the truth. The screening is preceded by a Norwegian short film- Rune Tempte’s CARGO a five minute film with Bermanesque musings weighing issues of life, death, infinity, and points of arrival and departure At 6:30 the festival opening day gala buffet feeds hungry film revellers with a Nordic flair. At 8:15 Sweden’s ZOZO from director Josef Fares unreels with the story of a boy who grows up in Beruit and, inspite of the civil war, tries to live a normal life until tragedy strikes and he is forced to find hope and make his own way in a new life in Sweden. .
Friday Jan 20– offers an evening of Danish film beginning with Denmark’s CHINAMAN directed by Ruben Genz. When Keld’s wife walks out describing 25 years of marriage as "life in a cemetery" he sells his plumbing business, and subsides on nightly meals at the local Chinese take-out restaurant where he eventually strikes a deal with the owner to enter a "marriage of convenience" with his sister to help her get the Danish equivalent of a green card since he needs money to buy "his share of the house" from his "x." The result is a haunting cross-cultural romantic comedy full of understatement and irony. At 8:15 the tone changes dramatically with director Per Fly’s MANSLAUGHTER– in which a respected fifty-two year old high school teacher with a wife and a son is having an affair with a former student who is an extreme left-wing activist. When the girl is implicated in the death of a policeman the affair is revealed and he leaves his stunned wife to devote all his energies to the girls defense.
Saturday Jan. 21 opens at 10:30 a.m. with AFRICA UNITED, a lively and upbeat documentary that introduces us to a Moroccan immigrant who, after ten years in Iceland was desperate and depressed until he decided to bring life to his amateur soccor team comprised of other immigrants to Iceland from Morocco, Nigeria, Columbia, Serbia, Kosovo, Gambia and Guinea and take them into semi-professional play. In the process we are taken us on an enchanting journey into the the dreams and aspirations of a football-crazy coach and his colorful team of "misfits." Following at 12 noon is Iceland’s Oscar submission AHEAD OF TIME directed by Agust Gudmundsson. After 22 years the Icelandic director offers the sequel to his musical comedy "On Top", which ws the unidisputed numer one box office hit of all times in Iceland– the story of a rivaly between two rock groups– a girl band, and a boy band. The current opus find the aging and rapidly deteriorating male group suddenly seeing the opportunity of a big come back!
At 2:00 p.m. Finnish Director Petri Kowica’s HOMESICK tells the story of seventeen year old Sami, who, after an accident neither talks nor shows feelings and is taken against his mother’s will for care in the youth ward of a mental hospital. Sami’s new roommate would prefer staying forever in the security of the hospital and the two develop a strange friendship. A caring male nurse deccides to find out what was really behind the "accident" in this film about survival, care, and hope. Following at 4 p.m. is a screening of Finnish Oscar submission MOTHER OF MINE. At 5:50 a Norwegian short TOUCHED directed by Marcelino Martin Valiente and inspired by a short story by Norwegian writer Knut Hamsun about love, passion and the unexpected preceeds Erik Skjoldbjaerg’s 6:00 AN ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE. The Norwegian director first gained international recognition for his 1997 feature debut Insomnia and consolidated his reputation in 2001 with the explosive Prozac Nation. In this modern version of Ibsen’s classic play we encounter a TV celebrity who intends to rivitalise his small hometown in partnership with his brother by marketing the local sping water. Their venture stumbles as traces of a banned pesticide are found in the water and bankruptcy threatens, dividing the brothers on the best course of action.
At 7:45 HARRY’S DAUGHTERS from Swedish director Richard Hober serves up an intense drama with psychothriller elements which is set into motion when two sisters find themselves pregnant at the same time. At a dinner, the older sisters feels ill and becomes alarmed. Both couples go to the hospital together– only to find that one baby is fine and the other has dies. After the birth of the healthy child, the sisters’ relationship unravels.
SCANDINAVIAN FILM FESTIVAL L.A. is under the auspices of The American Scandinavian Foundation of Los Angeles.