03/09/2013 - Finnish director Ulrika Bengts’ second feature will fly the white-blue colours in the race for the Academy Awards nominations

Yesterday (September 2), the Finnish Oscar committee named Finnish director Ulrika Bengts’ second feature, The Disciple (photo), Finland’s official candidate for the Oscar nomination as Best Foreign-Language Feature. The film will be domestically released on September 27 by Långfilm.

Scripted by Jimmy Karlsson and Roland Fauser, The Disciple [+see also:
trailer
film profile] is set in the summer of 1939, when 13-year-old Karl arrives on an isolated island in the Baltic Sea to work as lighthouse master Hasselbond’s assistant. Hasselbond, however, turns him down because of his young age. Karl struggles desperately to stay on and makes friends with Hasselbond’s oppressed son, Gustaf, but their friendship changes to rivalry and hate when Hasselbond starts to favor Karl over his own son.

“A simple, but bright pearl – high quality, with a universal story,” said the Finnish Oscar committee about the film, which has a cast including Erik Lönngren, Patrik Kumpulainen, Niklas Groundstroem, Amanda Ooms, Ping Mon Wallén, Philip Zandén and Sampo Sarkola. Mats Långbacka produced for Långfilm.

Over the years Finland has submitted 27 contenders for the Foreign-Language Oscar - only Aki Kaurismäki’s The Man without a Past [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (2002) won a nomination. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will announce this year’s nominations on January 16, 2014, and the 86^th awards ceremony will take place on March 2, 2014.