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FESTIVALS Germany

Happy, Happy opening for Lübeck’s Nordic Film Days with 147 films

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Unspooling its 53rd edition from November 2-6, the Nordic Film Days Lübeck (northern Germany) – the largest showcase of Scandinavian films outside the Nordic countries – will boast eight German premieres and four world premieres in a selection of 147 films from the Nordic countries of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, adding the Baltics and the local region.

Norwegian director Anne Sewitzsky’s feature debut, Happy, Happy [+see also:
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– which won the grand jury prize at the Sundance Film Festival – will open the festival as one of the 15 contenders for the NDR top prize; Sewitsky, scriptwriter Ragnhild Tronvoll, producer Synnøve Hørsdal of Maipo and the four lead actors of the tragi-comedy will attend.

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Also in competition are three Nordic subsmissions for the Oscars: Norwegian directors Joachim Trier’s Oslo, 31 August [+see also:
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, Danish director Ole Christian Madsen’s Superclásico [+see also:
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and Icelandic director Rúnar Rúnarsson’s Volcano [+see also:
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. From Sweden, programme director Linde Fröhlich has chosen, among others, Lisa Ohlin’s Simon and the Oaks and from Finland Aleksi Mäkela’s Home Sweet Home [+see also:
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Films under the Midnight Sun – the 2011 retrospective – is dedicated to films from Lapland (covering northern Norway, Sweden, Finland) and the work of Sami directors. One of them, Nils Gaup – whose Pathfinder (1988) was nominated for an Oscar – won the Audience Prize in Lübeck 2008 for The Kautokeino Rebellion [+see also:
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. Besides recent features, the sidebar will screen Lapland Late Night Movies using Lapland as the backdrop for genre productions, such as US director Virgil W. Vogel’s 1959 sci-fi/horror movie Space Invasion in Lapland, Finnish director Rauni Mollberg’s 1973 socio-drama The Earth Is a Sinful Song and Swedish director Kjell Sundvall’s 1996 Polar thriller, The Hunters.

This year’s selection of 28 documentaries focuses on the effects of the financial crisis on people in northern Europe, and on the consequences of historical events which are still visible in today’s societies. Entries range from Danish director Eva Mulvad’s award-winning The Good Life, about a Danish woman who has slipped from luxury to bitter poverty, and Ulla Boje Rasmussen’s Thor’s Saga, depicting the success and failure of an Icelandic entrepreneurial family, to Swedish directors Stefan Jarl’s Submission: In Defence of the Unborn, about the threat of chemical additives and Peter Gerdehag’s Women with Cows, following dairy farmers living in harmony with flora and fauna.

This year’s Nordic Film Days Lübeck has programmed 170 screenings on eight screens at the CineStar Filmpalast Stadthalle and the Kolosseum – the NDR top prize (which comes with €12,500) and another seven accolades will be awarded at a ceremony in the Theater Lübeck on November 5. Besides screenings to general audiences, the festival organises the Lübeck Meetings in support of the media industry, with a Nordic film market for new titles as well as upcoming productions of potential interest for German partners (and a special German-Norwegian co-production session). NDR Television will accompany the showcase by five Scandinavian Film Nights, airing nine features between Nov 6-22.

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