Scandinavia celebrated at the Mons Love Film Festival

by Aurore Engelen

05/03/2012 - The Mons International Love Film Festival on Friday evening revealed its winners and awarded Finnish film The Good Son [trailer], thus bringing a beautiful end to a week of Scandinavian films. The festival celebrated Scandinavian films this year, as they are little known in Belgium as cinemas do not often screen them, except if they are made by the region’s few international stars of auteur cinema, such as Lars Von Trier or Aki Kaurismaki.

Somewhere between a psychological drama and a caustic comedy, Zaïda Bergroth’s i>The Good Son follows a mother and her two sons as they “retire” to the countryside for a weekend. But Leïla is not just any mother. A veteran actress who is addicted to the spotlight and often appears in the tabloids, she promises her sons a few days of peace away from it all. But soon her past catches up with her, and a toxic gaggle of celebrity-addicted people gatecrash the family’s countryside weekend. Ilmari, the oldest son, decides that it has all gone on for too long... The Good Son is Zaïda Bergroth’s second film, and was nominated seven times during the last Jussi Awards (opposite Havre [trailer, film focus] by Kaurismaki, a film that took away most of the awards), where actress Elina Knihtilä, who plays Leila in the film, was awarded Best Actress. In Mons, besides the Grand Prize, the jury also rewarded Samuli Nittymäki, the actor who plays the eldest son in the film.

Also from Scandinavia, Turn Me On, Goddammit [trailer] by Norwegian director Jannicke Systad Jacobsen won the award for Best First European Film. During the last Karlovy Varyparmi International Film Festival, Variety had already called Systad Jacobsen one of ten young directors to watch. Her film is an adaptation of a bestselling novel about adolescence, and was a great success in Norway.

Finally, The End of Silence [trailer] (France/ Austria), Roland Edzar’s first feature film unveiled at the Directors’ Fortnight in Cannes, received both the Award for Best Screenplay and the Audience Award.

(Translated from French)