SHOWING FEBRUARY 3 - 9, 2012
From its inception in the summer of 2008, the purpose of the Nordic Lights Film Festival – Twin Cities is to highlight contemporary cinematic treasures of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden, and to support Minnesota’s historic Scandinavian ties while giving a modern look into new sides of Nordic cultures. We hope to affirm cultural ties for those with Scandinavian roots while at the same time introducing an often overlooked genre, Nordic film, to local audiences.

The Nordic Lights Film Festival attracts film goers of all ages captivated by the longstanding film making traditions of the North. It also provides an opportunity to share the richness and diversity of the Nordic cultures through the lens of film. Hosted by The Film Society on Screen 3 at St. Anthony Main Theatre in Minneapolis Feb. 3 – 9, 2012 the festival will include a variety of feature-length and short films. The festival will also provide opportunities to mingle and interact, helping to connect our local Nordic community with fellow film enthusiasts.

Ticket Info: $8.50 General Admission; $6.00 Members/Seniors/Students/Children

To purchase tickets online, click on the individual showtimes next to the film titles below, or head over to the St. Anthony Main Theatre's website for a full listing.

Danish Films

In a Better World (Hævnen)

Director: Susanne Bier
Runtime: 119 min
Country: Denmark / Sweden
Language: Danish and Swedish with English subtitles
Year: 2010
Showtimes: Fri, Feb 3 at 7:15pm; Sat, Feb 4 at 6:45pm; Mon, Feb 6 at 6:30pm

Anton is a doctor who commutes to a refugee camp in Africa while his life in idyllic Denmark is falling apart. His marriage is ending and his son is bullied in school. The son makes a new friend who has just moved with his father to Denmark from London, and who struggles with the recent death of his mother. As the two families cross paths, lives are put in danger and everyone’s morals, friendship, and love are tested.

This film won the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film and the Best Foreign Language Film at the Oscars in 2011.

Finnish Films

Princess (Prinsessa)

Director: Arto Halonen
Runtime: 100 min
Country: Finland
Language: Finnish & Swedish with English subtitles
Year: 2010
Showtimes: Sun, Feb 5 at 5:30pm; Tues, Feb 7 at 7:15pm

Princess is a light-hearted film based on a true story, concerning the most famous patient of Kellokoski Psychiatric Hospital, Anna Lappalainen. Diagnosed as manic depressive with symptoms of schizophrenia, Anna Lappalainen claims to be a princess when brought into the hospital and does not want to be called by her own name. Her arrival kick-starts a long battle between Lappalainen and the hospital staff over her identity and her right to dictate her own personality. Eventually Kellokoski Hospital becomes the Princess’s castle, where Anna holds court bringing joy and healing to her surroundings.

Moomins and the Comet Chase (Muumi ja punainen pyrstötähti)

Director: Maria Lindberg
Runtime: 75 min
Country: Finland
Language: Finnish with English subtitles
Year: 2010
Showtimes: Sat, Feb 4 at 12:30pm; Sun, Feb 5 at 2:30pm; Thu, Feb 9 at 6:00pm

One day Moomintroll notices that something strange has happened in the Moomin Valley - everything is grey; not just the sky and the river, but the trees, the ground, and the Moominhouse, too. With the help of his father, Moominpappa, Moomintroll and his worried friends build the best raft ever and begin a challenging journey to the observatory to ask the wise professors what is going on. At the observatory, the professor calculates that a ferocious comet will reach the Earth in four days, four hours, four minutes and 44 seconds. It's time to go back home as fast as they can—surviving an unexpected number of peculiar creatures and dangers on the way. Will they be able to make everybody safe in time?

Icelandic Films

Future of Hope

Director: Henry Bateman
Runtime: 75 min + panel discussion
Country: Iceland
Language: Icelandic with English spoken
Year: 2010
Showtime: Sat, Feb 4 at 2:30pm

A character-driven documentary following individuals who, after the breakdown of Icelandic economy in 2008, strive to change the world of consumerism. The film questions the system of credit and debt that the Icelandic economy, as all western economies, have been built upon for the past 50 years or more. Focusing on sustainable developments in nature, organic farming, business, innovation, and renewable energy, we are taken on a story of struggle, determination, and, most importantly, hope. Future of Hope takes you on a journey of Iceland as well as on a journey of change. Is capitalism the only viable future, or are there alternative, better ways to organize economic societies?
*A panel discussion will follow the screening.

Summerland (Sumarlandið)

Director: Grímur Hákonarson
Runtime: 87 min
Country: Iceland
Language: Icelandic with English subtitles
Year: 2010
Showtimes: Sat, Feb 4 at 4:45pm; Mon, Feb 6 at 8:45pm

An art-house comedy about an ordinary family running the unusual business of elf tourism and spiritual sessions. Lára, a mother of two, is gifted with a sixth sense. Not only does she communicate with people in Summerland (the sweet hereafter) in open séance sessions, but she also has good connections with elves. Lara attends to the big elf stone in their garden every day while Oscar runs the elf tourism business and medium sessions. Business is not exactly blooming, so when he gets an offer from a German eccentric to sell the stone for a substantial sum, he becomes very tempted.

Norwegian Films

King of Devil’s Island (Kongen av Bastøy)

Director: Marius Holst
Runtime: 120 min
Country: Norway
Language: Norwegian with English subtitles
Year: 2010
Showtimes: Sat, Feb 4 at 9:15pm; Thu, Feb 9 at 7:45pm

Based on a true event in 1915 on Bastøy island, a correctional facility for juveniles, a group of headstrong inmates revolt against the inhumane conditions imposed by the leadership of the facility. A new boy, Erling, arrives with his own agenda—escaping from the island—and this leads to a violent uprising. Once the boys manage to take over Bastøy, 150 government soldiers are sent in to restore order. The evil warden is played by renowned Swedish actor Stellan Skarsgård. The real-life Bastøy operated as a penal colony for boys from 1900 to 1953. It has since been reinvented as “the first ecological prison in the world.”

Forced Ashore (Kasta på land)

Director: Harry Johansen
Runtime: 37 min
Country: Norway, Sapmi
Language: Norwegian & Sami with English subtitles
Year: 2010
Showtimes: Sun, Feb 5 at 4:00pm; Mon, Feb 6 at 5:00pm

This documentary follows a young Sámi fisherman who wants to earn his income from the sea but who runs into the regulations of the Norwegian state. While the sea Sámi have traditionally lived off fishing off the coast of Norway, their fishing rights were compromised 25 years ago. If the Sámi want their fishing quotas in 2010, they need to purchase them. This is a film about the conflicts between the Norwegian state, the larger fishing companies, and indigenous peoples.
*screened together with Melting Lives – Rain in the Middle of Winter.

Swedish Films

The Regretters (Ångrarna)

Director: Marcus Lindeen
Runtime: 58 min
Country: Sweden
Language: Swedish with English subtitles
Year: 2010
Showtimes: Sun, Feb 5 at 1:00pm; Tue, Feb 7 at 9:15pm

Orlando and Mikael go under the knife in hope of finding their true selves, only to realize that life on the other side isn’t what they dreamed it would be. Now, well into their 60s, the two meet for the first time to talk about their lives as well as the one defining regret they both share: their sex change. In a candid conversation between the two, the men explore their past and present experiences and gender identities.

Melting Lives – Rain in the Middle of Winter

Director: Mariela Idivuoma, Samuel Idivuoma
Runtime: 30 min
Country: Sweden & Sápmi
Language: Swedish & Sámi with English subtitles
Year: 2008
Showtimes: Sun, Feb 5 at 4:00pm; Mon, Feb 6 at 5:00pm

In this last part in a documentary series called ”Victims of the New Climate” on climate change in the Arctic region, the filmmaker Samuel Idivuoma meets Girste, a female reindeer herder in the Dálbma Sámi village in northern Sweden. The series takes us on a journey around the Arctic to indigenous people who live in and with nature, and who struggle to keep their way of subsistence living when the climate drastically changes. 24-year old Girste is Sami and can’t imagine another life for herself than that of a reindeer herder. However, the mild winters and hot summers present challenges for her and her reindeer, who for centuries have been dependent on the Arctic climate.

Greenlandic Film

Inuk

Director: Mike Magidson
Runtime: 84 min
Country: Greenland
Language: Greenlandic with English subtitles
Year: 2010
Showtimes: Sun, Feb 5 at 7:30pm; Wed, Feb 8 at 6:00pm

Sixteen-year-old city-boy Inuk is living a troubled life when he is pulled half-frozen from an abandoned car and sent North to a children’s home in the desolate Arctic. There he meets local polar bear hunter Ikuma, and the two set out on an epic dogsled voyage where the challenges don’t stop at bitter cold and fragile sea-ice; the greatest challenges they face are ones within themselves. A universal theme of the quest for identity and rebirth is portrayed in a powerful film that speaks just as much to the story of Greenland today: a country torn between tradition and modernity. The authenticity of this story is intensified with its exceptional performances by nonprofessional Inuit actors: teenagers from a home for neglected Inuit children and local seal hunters.

Films from Sápmi

Melting Lives – Rain in the Middle of Winter (Nya vädrets offer)

(see description above)

Forced Ashore (Kasta på land)

(see description above)

Nordic Shorts

Runtime: 111 min
Countries: Finland/ Sweden/ Iceland
Languages: Finnish, Swedish & Icelandic with English subtitles
Showtimes: Fri, Feb 3 at 5:00pm; and 9:45pm;
Sun, Feb 5 at 9:15pm; Tue, Feb 7 at 5:00pm; Wed, Feb 8 at 8:00pm

List of Shorts

• Monster Birthday (Päivänsankari) Finland, 11 min.
• Tord and Tord (Tord och Tord) Sweden, 11 min.
• Legacy (Karlsefni) Iceland, 21 min.
• Liv Finland (in Swedish), 15 min.
• Weekend Practice (Treenilaji) Finland, 11 min.
• 21 Sweden, 28 min.
• My Superhero (Supermään) Finland, 14 min.

The shorts program is back with its quirky Nordic flare; through documentary, comedy, animation, and drama, Nordic Shorts is a series of crowd-pleasing films audience members can relate to and enjoy. Focused on the theme of family and friends, this program includes everything from blending single parent families to worrying about your birthday party and wanting a new toy. A little gambling and a few super powers spice up the program too. Nordic Shorts is always a highlight of the festival--Join us at one of the four screenings!