15/12/2009

The 2nd Ciné Nordica Festival (December 16-20) kicks off tomorrow at the Cinéma du Panthéon in Paris.

This event is an excellent opportunity for discovering new talents and established directors from Denmark, Sweden and Norway. It also brings to a close an outstanding year for Scandinavian cinema, which clinched its first international blockbuster thanks to Niels Arden Oplev’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Niels Arden Oplev
interview: Søren Stærmose
film profile], whilst showing its diversity with Lars von Trier’s Antichrist [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Lars von Trier
film profile], Tomas Alfredson’s Let the Right One In and animated film Niko & the Way to the Stars [+see also:
trailer
film profile].

This broad range has "countered the reductive image of boring films", according to Hanne Palmquist (Nordisk Film & TV Fond), who is delighted to "see Scandinavian cinema increase its commercial potential, whilst continuing to foster arthouse and experimental works."

The Ciné Nordica programme includes four Danish features: Martin Pieter Zandvliet’s Applause [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Martin Pieter Zandvliet
film profile] (double winner at Karlovy Vary - Best Actress Award and Europa Cinemas Label Award); Simon Staho’s Warriors of Love; and two films by Ole Bornedal: Just Another Love Story [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (in competition at Sundance 2008 - to be released in French theatres on January 6 by UGC Ph.) and Deliver Us from Evil [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (selected at the latest Toronto Film Festival - see news).

Norwegian production will be represented by Rune Denstad Langlo’s North [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Rune Denstad Langlo
film profile], which was unveiled in the Panorama section at the latest Berlinale, where it won the FIPRESCI Prize and Europa Cinemas Label Award (to be released in France in March 2010); Erik Poppe’s Troubled Water [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (winner of the Norwegian Film Critics’ 2009 Award, to be launched in France on December 23 by Jour2Fête); Eva Sørhaug’s Cold Lunch [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], which opened last year’s Venice Critics’ Week (see review); and two "classics" by the now well-known Bent Hamer: Eggs and Kitchen Stories (presented in the Cannes Directors’ Fortnight in 1995 and 2003, respectively).

Sweden will make an appearance with The Ape [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Jesper Ganslandt (see video interview), which won acclaim in Venice Days 2009 (see review); Fredrik Wenzel and Henrik Hellström’s Burrowing [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (unveiled in the Forum section at the latest Berlinale); and Tarik Saleh’s remarkable animated film Metropia [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], shown in the latest Venice Critics’ Week (see review).

The line-up also includes Anders Høgsbro Østergaard’s outstanding Swedish documentary Burma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country [+see also:
trailer
film profile], 12 shorts, a special section Swedish Sin (featuring classics by Bergman, Mattson and Widerberg and Stig Björkman’s Images from the Playground, which screened in Cannes Classics in May) and a “Carte blanche” to Claire Denis, who will take part in a debate on Sunday evening, following the screening of Carl Theodor Dreyer’s Gertrud.

(Translated from French)