Nordic Film Days 2016 in Lübeck

After having experienced the Nordic Film Days in 2014 (read article here) and the opportunities to watch Baltic movies being almost null and very limited for Scandinavian movies, I am glad to visit this beautiful city and nice festival since then. This is then the third edition covered by JoRafCinema. 
You can select in JoRafCinema all the movies seen in NFDL2016 by searching NFDL2016. The same method works for NFDL2014 and NFDL2015. 

 

I dine haender (2015)

	Also Known As: In your arms, In deine Arme
	Year of first release: 2015
	Director: Samanou Acheche Sahlstrøm
	Actors: Lisa Carlehed, Peter Plaugborg
	Country: DK
	Genre: Drama
	Conditions of visioning: 04.11.2015, CineStar 7, NFDL2015, Danish version with English subtitles
Synopsis: Maria (Carlehed) is a young and caring nurse who wants to break free. Niels (Plaugborg) is an incurable patient who wants to travel to Switzerland to commit assisted suicide. Together they embark on an intense journey that will bring them closer to each other but also closer to their dreams.
Review: This movie is presented only once in the NFDL2015 and for such a modern topic, in particular in Germany while the laws on euthanasia are being revised, it is not much. I had to see the movie. And it is very different from Mar adentro. Instead of having a Spanish society where people talk a lot and where the euthanasia is expected in the place where the patient is living, the Danish style is less talkative and force people to make it abroad to make it legally.  The story telling is focused on the two characters. Only a few sequences are without them and it is then a snowing landscape. It is very fast clear that she is the nevrotic and that he knows exactly what he is doing with this hard decision for euthanasia. Hard also for his family.  The acting of Lisa Carlehed is excellent and had to be to maintain some suspense to the movie as the dialogue are not making much of the communication.  After the projection of the movie, the German producers were present. They explained that the coproduction aimed at sharing not only the funding but also the work. The German contributionis the travel from Copenhagen to Switzerland including the train trip and the few days in Hamburg.  The image composition and photography are quite arty but it makes the style of the movie and its personality, close to the characters. I can only complain that the movie was a bit too long as some scenes felt very long to me even if these allowed to get closer to the characters via the focus on the acting. Asking the question during the Q&A, the producer told that the first intention was to have a 60 minutes movie and that it became 88 minutes during the shooting.
Rating: 7 /10

I want to be weird (2015)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2015
	Director: Brynja Fridriksdottir
	Actors: -
	Country: GB, IS
	Genre: Documentary
	Conditions of visioning: 07.11.2015, KoKi, NFDL2015, English version
Synopsis: Kitty von-Sometime is a British artist who has lived in Iceland for seven years. She is mostly known for 'The Weird Girls Project', an ongoing art event only for women. Each project is a single episode which is unique and has it's own concept. Kitty chooses a group of women to participate for each episode but one of the main goals of the project is to increase the women's self-confidence, strengthen their body image and encourage them to release their inhibitions.
Review: The main interest of this documentary is to have a view on what kind of project this is. Through more or less artistic projects the selected women gain self-confidence via acceptance of one's self. And this social goal is met quite well. The projects are well organised and based on the work of all the participants. I like it.  For those who could and should be inspired by that, please have a look there. I expected the documentary turned more on the women' emancipation while it focuses rather on the life of Kitty. Therefore I am a bit disappointed, just because I am missing something in the movie.
Rating: 4 /10

Trevligt folk (2015)

	Also Known As: Nice people, Nette Leute
	Year of first release: 2015
	Director: Anders Helgeson, Karin af Klintberg
	Actors: -
	Country: S
	Genre: Documentary
	Conditions of visioning: 04.11.2015, KoKi, NFDL2015, Swedish/Somali/English with English subtitles
Synopsis: Following the first ever Somali bandy (kind of football on ice) team in their struggle to reach the World Championship in Irkutsk, Siberia 2014. The team lives and trains in Borlänge, Sweden and is coached by former bandy player Pelle Fosshaug and Cia Embretsen.
Review: The story is some Cool runnings in real! By luck this documentary does not make the Somali players laughable. We follow actually more two other sides: the funding and the difficulty of having left one's country. By giving a goal to this group, that Swedish community of Borlänge manages to give them back some self-confidence and to allow them to speak out their love and pride for their country. In that sense I like the movie. It ives of course few indices on the situations experienced by these boys in Somalia, but it shows also what they are really looking for, stability, education and perspective. Once you give that, their love to their country will bring them back and hopefully allow them to change the situation of their country. Many revolutions have been based on layers of the society that reach a certain level of education.  From the characters, I really like the owner of the Chinese restaurant, because he knows what is difficult as migrant, i.e. being accepted by the Swedes, and he really wants to help. His emotions are meaningfull.  Presenting Pelle Fossaug as obsessed by his hair colour makes the story quite funny as well and not on the Somali but on the Swedes.
Rating: 6 /10

Sophelikoptern (2015)

	Also Known As: The garbage helicopter, Der Müllhubschrauber
	Year of first release: 2015
	Director: Jonas Selberg Augustsén
	Actors: Christopher Burjanski, Daniel Szoppe, Jessica Szoppe
	Country: S
	Genre: Comedy
	Conditions of visioning: 08.11.2015, CineStar 5, Romani/Swedish/English version, NFDL2015
Synopsis: An elderly Roma woman yearns for her wall clock, which has been in the repair shop for a year. So she calls her granddaughter to pick it up and bring it. Shortly thereafter, a Saab takes to the road, carrying the clock, three people Baki (Burjanski), Saska (Daniel Szoppe) and Enesa (Jessica Szoppe) – including one obsessed with crossword puzzles, a giant roll of bubble wrap and a device for detecting speed traps.
Review: The story is quite simple but the Swedish roads have many surprises. Strange monuments, strange behaviours at the few tank stations, etc. Since 2010, Augustsén shoots movies focused on one minority language of Sweden (The Autumn man in Finnish and Myrlandet in Samí. This time Romaní. Augustsén shows that the daily life of the standard Swede is full of absurd humour because full of absurd hobbies and reactions, full of silence, full of stereotypes on the minorities, etc. I like the standard answer the three road riders give to the Swedes ("We speak Swedish").  The actors are really coming from the Romaní minority and their behaviour is like the Swedish behaviours quite strange and funny for me. They are authentic, maybe because they experienced these daily life scenes as well. Note that two siblings are playing the main roles. I do not know whether it is due to Sweden or due to the city/country-side difference. Anyway the scenes with dialogue or silence humour or with situation humour made me laugh a lot.  The cinematography with a strictly unmoving camera for each take opens a door to many humouristic games. The black-and-white cinematography captures moments with great authenticity and sometimes mystery.  I liked not only the movie but also the idea of the movie done by a Swede in a minority language.
Rating: 7 /10

Nordic Film Days Lübeck 2017

JoRafCinema will attend the 2017 edition of the Nordic Film Days in Lübeck, Northern Germany. This will take place from November 1st to November 5th 2017 in the Hanseatic city of Lübeck open to the Baltic sea.

We had since 2014 a lot of fun in this festival and experienced many excellent movies and events. You can select in JoRafCinema all the movies seen in NFDL2016 by searching NFDL2016. The same method works for NFDL2014 and NFDL2015.
This year JoRafCinema intends to share even more with you this festival. The movies, the venues, the side events. And maybe this will give you some motivation to watch Scandinavian and Baltic movies or to pass by Lübeck for the Film festival.

Bridgend (2015)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2015
	Director: Jeppe Rønde
	Actors: Hannah Murray, Steven Waddington, Josh O'Connor
	Country: DK
	Genre: Drama, Thriller
	Conditions of visioning: 06.11.2015, CineStar1, NFDL2015, English
Synopsis: Sara (Murray) and her dad Dave (Waddington) arrive to a small village in Bridgend County. The village is haunted by suicides amongst its young inhabitants, and Sara falls dangerously in love with one of the teenagers, Jamie (O'Connor) while Dave as the town's new policeman tries to stop the mysterious chain of suicides.
Review: The story of the film is based on a mysterious suicide cluster that took place in Bridgend County, a small former coal-mining province in Wales. Between December 2007 and January 2012 seventy-nine suicides were officially committed in the area. Most of the victims were teenagers, they hanged themselves and left no suicide notes. Danish documentary filmmaker Jeppe Rønde followed the teenagers from the area for six years and wrote the script based on their life stories. Bridgend is Rønde's fiction film debut. It is entirely shot on location.  The investigation follows two traces, the new policeman in town and the new girl (his daughter) in town. The atmosphere generated is some kind of light version of David Lynch's Twin Peaks. The parallelism is stunning especially with the pictures of woods and hills. The mysterious atmosphere is coming also with the lack of goal and sense at screaming, partying, naked night swimming.  The whole movie is enhancing the mystery, the lights, the actions, the dialogues, the scenery. When I look at pictures of the real town of Bridgend, they look completely different. This means attention has been taken to shoot with the right day light and this is a great job.
Rating: 7 /10

The girl king (2015)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2015
	Director: Mika Kaurismäki
	Actors: Malin Buska, Sarah Gadon, Michael Nyqvist, Lukas Bryant, Hippolyte Girardot, Patrick Bauchau
	Country: FIN, CDN, S, F, D
	Genre: Romance, Drama
	Conditions of visioning: 07.11.2015, CineStar 1, NFDL2015, English version with German subtitles
Synopsis: Sweden 1638. Crowned Queen at the age of six, Kristina of Sweden (Buska) was thrust into a labyrinth of power and tradition lead by austere Lutheran men. She finds sanctuary and love with her lady-in-waiting, the beautiful and elegant, countess Ebba Sparre (Gadon), although the Chancellor Axel Oxenstierna (Nyqvist) pressures her to pair with his son, Johan (Bryant). As Queen of the Lumières (Enlightener) and influenced by the French Ambassador Chanut (Girardot) and Descartes (Bauchau) she promoted liberty of ideas. Soon her ennemies realize that Ebba is the key to control her but they underestimate Kristina's brilliant mind and her drive to be free.
Review: Even if the poster is not very inviting, the plot is. And the movie is a very good historical movie. From the historical point of view, I do not know. But at least for the effort of reconstitution of that era yes.  As young Queen Kristina, her clothes are very modern for a woman of that time. Her behaviour also. And that is good. Her lesbian love affair is suggested but never shown explicitly. The focus of the story is really on the policital conflict and not on the romance. And the intrigues are well presented, even if the correspondence with Descartes could have been better enhanced to show how much could be expressed via mail.  The acting of Malin Buska is fine while Michael Nyqvist is really impressive in an intrigant strict Lutherian role. It was funny to see the rare Hippolyte Girardot.  The directing is very fine and gets the most free and open-minded impression of Kristina. Via the way she runs through the castle or rides in the country.  Kristina of Sweden gets another meaning to me.
Rating: 6 /10

null.punkt (2014)

	Also Known As: Zero point
	Year of first release: 2014
	Director: Mihkel Ulk
	Actors: Märt Pius
	Country: EST
	Genre: Drama, Melodrama
	Conditions of visioning: 05.11.2015, CineStar1, NFDL2015, Estonian with English subtitles
Synopsis: After being denounced as an outcast in school and frightened away from home by his mother's developing schizophrenia, there is no other way out for Johannes but to start improving his life by reforming himself.
Review: I wanted to watch this movie as one of the few movies from Baltic countries in the Nordic Film Days of Lübeck 2015. For info, the Estonian title is really null punkt as it is written the same way as in German. The melodramatic evolution of the story is really well-done. It looks like a spiral and cumulation of circumstances making Johannes' life unbearable. And then he encouters the zero point. SPOILER And from then on it goes only upwards until the very happy end. The movie shows how courage of leading one's own life is making life more successful than by being lead by others.  The actors playing the family and the two buddies of Johannes are good. The school mates look as if they were playing in an American sitcom, lacking of authenticity. The work of directing and writer is noticeable in the way the different aspects of Johannes' life are driven and are meeting each other. Family, school, friends from the neighbourhood.  The camera is very fluid, even when Johannes is running in the streets or in the stairs of the buildings. The lights are also good.  If the movie would have ended before the SPOILER too happy end, I would have rated much better. I guess this was not the intention of the director, who is quite promising.
Rating: 7 /10

Kvinner i for store herreskjorter (2015)

	Also Known As: Ich wär gern wie ich bin
	Year of first release: 2015
	Director: Yngvild Sve Flikke
	Actors: Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, Hallvard Holmen, Anne Krigsvoll, Henriette Steenstrup
	Country: N
	Genre: Comedy
	Conditions of visioning: 05.11.2015, CineStar5, NFDL2015, Norvegian with English subtitles
Synopsis: 3 women seeks identity and happiness. The shy literature student Sigrid (Lilleaas) falls in love with a 20 year older writer Kåre Tryvle (Holmen). The artist Trine (Steenstrup) becomes pregnant during her break through. Agnes (Krigsvoll) believes she's dying, and needs to see her away adopted son.
Review: The plot sounds interesting and the characters are interesting as well in the movie. The stories of finding one's other half. Two souls meeting via their emotion in front of paintings by Nikolai Astrup. Two souls meeting via the practical needs around a baby.  The introduction might have been too long or the movie  bit too short because my impression is that we do not get so close to the characters apart from Sigrid that is acted very good by Lilleaas. The roles of Krigsvoll and Steenstrup are not developped enough to take them story seriously but too much too be taken as a secondary story. The acting that is not so demanding has been mastered by the young Lilleaas. Promising actress. The camera and photography being bright and clean for the Sigrid/Kåre story becomes draker and dirty for the Agnes/Trine story. This makes this second story even more difficult to apprehend. A pity, because I really like the plot.
Rating: 5 /10

2 Naktys iki ryto (2015)

	Also Known As: 2 nights till morning, 2 Nächte bis zum Morgen
	Year of first release: 2015
	Director: Mikko Kuparinen
	Actors: Marie-Josée Croze, Mikko Nousiainen, Arly Jover
	Country: FIN, LT
	Genre: Romance, Drama
	Conditions of visioning: 05.11.2015, Kolosseum, NFDL2015, English/French/Finnish version with English subtitles
Synopsis: One-night stand between Caroline (Croze) and Jaakko (Nousiainen) without a common language takes an unexpected turn when an ash cloud from a volcano prevents all flights from taking off.
Review: Even if the plot sounds like the now classical romantic comedy of two strangers meeting in an airport for an affair, the movie deals to me actually with the fate of Caroline and her way out a blocked situation. She does not fell good with her current girlfriend Céline (Jover) but does not dare to split properly. The click is coming here with this one-night-stand. I find it great to see this kind of story. It is actually much harder to find the way out of a relationship than to find the way in and nevertheless there are far less stories about the split in particular in cinema.  The acting of Marie-Josée Croze is excellent of distance to people. This slight sociability and actual asociability are played very subtly and authentic. I like the directing, with the choice of locations. A French and a Finnish meeting in Lithuania. Going from a comfortable historical club to cold modern building via the nice impersonal hotel room. I liked also the symbolic colours, with warm colours (club) for warm moments, neutral tones (hotel, modern buildings) for daily life and SPOILER Spring colours at the end when she stays in Vilnius after the split with her girlfriend.
Rating: 6 /10

Miekkaillja / Vehkleja (2015)

	Also Known As: The fencer, Die Kinder des Fechters
	Year of first release: 2015
	Director: Klaus Härö
	Actors: Märt Avandi
	Country: FIN, EST, D
	Genre: Drama
	Conditions of visioning: 05.11.2015, CineStar3, NFDL2015, Estonian/Russian with English subtitles
Synopsis: Fleeing from the Russian secret police because of his controversial past, a young Estonian fencer named Endel (Avandi) is forced to return to his homeland, where he begins to train a group of young children in the art of fencing. The past however catches up with him and Endel has to choose between letting his students down or putting his life in danger.
Review: The movie is partially based on the real life story of an Estonian fencer Endel Nelis (1925-1993). The story of one of many Baltic young men who joined the German army in the years of Nazi occupation (1941-1944), mostly to fight against the previous Soviet occupation, and has been discriminated for that. Actually means deported to a gulag in Siberia.  After resistance movements during first Soviet occupation (1939-1941), the Soviet Union had resentment against the Baltic countries and decided to deport many of them to Siberia. The fencer is giving to the children some values like discipline, ambition and pride to be from Estonia. He is replacing the figure of the missing fathers. There is a lot of that in the characters of the kids. As the Latvian Excursionist this movie makes a work of historical catharsis for Estonia. That must be the reason why all the actors are so convincing. They have some strength and believes from the education. The kids manage to have this gravity and seriousness in the look. The scenery is very authentic even if is is not in the same town as the real story. Especially the locations for the training hall, the school, the apartment of the teacher. The writer told in the Q&A session that she had to simplify the real story and to romanticize it to make it filmable. The feelings are authentic although these changes. I do not know which kind of feelings we were supposed to get, but it was for me an emotional experience. This means the writer and the director did a good job!
Rating: 8 /10

Megejai (2015)

	Also Known As: The amateurs, Die Amateure
	Year of first release: 2015
	Director: Audrius Antanavicius
	Actors: -
	Country: LT
	Genre: Documentary
	Conditions of visioning: 06.11.2015, CineStar 6, NFDL2015, Lithuanian version with English subtitles
Synopsis: When Vitolis Laumakys and Adolfas Mor nas coincidentally entered into conversation on the street in 1962, they didn't yet know that they had a shared passion for film. That same year, they set up an amateur film studio. In the five decades since then, they have produced nearly a hundred short films. Now an unwelcome change threatens their l
Review: I expected a documentary on this amateur studio who apparently produced many movies during the Soviet occupation over more than 30 years. And finally I got a few interviews of the two old producers showing their material. But nothing about the challenges they encountered, not even any image of any of their production. Nothing about their public, about their movies so that it does not seem very realistic. And I am sure that this could have been a huge documentary by showing these missing points. It is a sweet story. But quite obring for the 20 minutes.
Rating: 1 /10

Those who dare - On solidarity of small nations (2015)

	Also Known As: Die Wagemutigen
	Year of first release: 2015
	Director: Ólafur Rögnvaldsson
	Actors: -
	Country: IS
	Genre: Documentary
	Conditions of visioning: 06.11.2015, CineStar6, NFDL2015, Icelandic, Estonian, Latvian, Lituanian, Danish, Russian original version with English subtitles
Synopsis: Jón Baldvin Hannibalsson is retired. He is on his way to be the guest of honour in Lithuania at the anniversary celebrations for January 13, 1991. That was the day the Soviet Union used force to try to put down the independence movement in Lithuania,. Days after the scenario repeated in Latvia and Estonia, and to topple their legitimately elected leaders. At the time, Hannibalsson was Iceland’s foreign minister – and the first western politician who publicly supported recognising the three new nations.
Review: This documentary on tight diplomatic relationship between Iceland and the Baltic countries presents the best way and maybe the only way how small countries can work and move the big countries: solidarity. Using both archived data and recent interviews, director Rögnvaldsson tells the story of this freedom process in Baltic countries which contributed to the collapse of the Soviet Union. The former presidents and foreign affair ministers of Iceland, Denmark, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia acknowledge the importance of solidarity of small countries. Small do not need to preserve diplomatic relationship with all and can be true even if this is provocative. It is no garantee of success as we have seen with the Climate Change and the Small Island Developping States representing 63 million people. This historical point of view was new to me and therefore very interesting.  On the same way, during the Q&A with Hannibalsson himself, this turned into blaming at the Western countries (the USA, France and Germany) who neglected the Baltic countries because they were expecting Gorbatchev staying master of the Soviet Union for a long time.  I was wondering whether Iceland ex-premier wants to remind via this movie that the situation of small countries is still the same. No weight in front of big players. In the European Union as well as in the international scene.
Rating: 7 /10

Sangailes vasara (2015)

	Also Known As: The Summer of Sangaile, Der Sommer von Sangaile
	Year of first release: 2015
	Director: Alanté Kavaïté
	Actors: Julija Steponaityte, Aiste Dirziute
	Country: LT, F, NL
	Genre: Drama, Romance
	Conditions of visioning: 07.11.2015, CineStar1, NFDL2015, Lithuanian with German subtitles
Synopsis: 17 years old Sangaile (Steponaityte) is fascinated by stunt planes. She meets a girl her age at a summer aeronautical show. Sangaile allows Auste (Dirziute) to discover her most intimate secret and in the process finds the only person that truly encourages her to fly.
Review: The story starts like being a romance. And it could have been a beautiful one. One introverted with dreams, pessimism and barriers, one open mind with lightness, dreams, life and love. For me it deals more with a relationship where one sees the inner barriers of the other and helps to destroy them. Thsu apart from the nice romance, there is this gesture of friendship.  I have a ambivalent feeling about the acting. Steponaityte's role is not very interesting as we see the barriers but never what is the cause behind. Therefore the acting was also limited. Dirziute was amazing. Her lightness and the foudness in her eyes is so impressive of freshness with a bit of naiveté that it felt very authentic, like in real life. She is definitively a promising talent.  The scenery in Lituania are nice. A lot of industrial areas almost abandoned. A lot of clear nature. A lot of water. All this enhances the contrast of both main characters. The scenes with airplanes look very prepared and not very authentic, SPOILER apart from the scene when Sangaile really flies.
Rating: 6 /10