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From the world's most prestigious film festivals to you
Chalking up 6 years, the Volvo Scandinavian Film Festival is back on Australian shores, with the best contemporary Nordic cinema from Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland and Iceland. This year's programme has international festival favourites and award-winners and 15 Australian premieres. Get your tickets early and hop on board to experience cheeky star-studded comedy, the highest grossing Danish film of all time, a Berlin Silver Bear winner, a glossy biopic, an apocalyptic sci-fi, a surreal love story and more from an exciting filmmaking region.
A national event presented by Palace, get the online program HERE and find screening dates for 2019 as follows. Take family and friends with you and save through group bookings, making the festival very affordable to catch a film or three.
Not only can you enjoy film and afterparty events, you can also be a winner at the Scandinavian Film Festival. The Scandinavian and Polar Specialists, are offering you and a companion to be the lucky winner of one of their best-selling tours for nearly 20 years - Iceland Complete. See everything this country has to offer on our 9 day, Iceland Complete coach tour valued at $3,700pp! Click HERE for the full itinerary, and fill out your details HERE to go into the draw to win!
Top it off with special events like the premiere of the Danish comedy Happy Ending followed by a Scandi celebration with drinks, Nordic flavours and music if you happen to be in Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne, Perth and Brisbane. Adelaide and Byron Bay get a pre-film reception with drinks and entertainment followed by the same film and Hobart gets a drink on arrival before the film.
Australian Premiere and Opening Night Special Event Film Happy Ending may well be the dilemma some of us face, when you and your partner have differing outlooks about how retirement is supposed to look. After waiting for her workaholic husband to retire so they can enjoy their twilight years, Helle finds Peter has totally different ideas; wanting to pursue a new career as a wine importer. Investing all their savings in an exclusive vineyard in Austria is just the last straw for Helle and they split up to go on their own separate journey of discovery, new opportunities, problems and dreams. It's left to be seen if after 50 years of marriage; they are able to cope without each other? This film has Bodil award-winning actors and has been described as the Nordic Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.
The CentrepieceA White, White Day is also an Australian Premiere about a stoic grandfather who has been emotionally pushed to the limit! A former police chief, Ingimunder struggles ever since he lost his wife two years prior, in the remote Icelandic wilderness. He busies himself by renovating a homestead and finds joy by spending time with his spirited young granddaughter Salka. His detective instincts kick in when he begins to suspect his late wife may have had an affair with a local man. Pushed over the edge, his behaviour becomes increasingly unpredictable, in this gripping and powerful tale of unconditional love. This is an unforgettable big-screen experience, with a visceral score and utterly breathtaking cinematography, not to be missed. What happens when we are pushed to the limit?
Two of the Nordic Noir spotlight events, Department Q and the Millennium Trilogy caught my eye. You cannot go past Stieg Larsson's The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played With Fire and The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets' Nest. Having seen them all, this is riveting and powerful film making at its best. There was a remake of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo in 2011, two years after the original, with Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara, but I couldn't bring myself to go past the original with the mesmerising Michael Nyqvist and Noomi Repace . A missing girl, a brutal murder, an unsolved mystery; how close can you get to the truth before you become the target?
A disgraced financial journalist Mikael Blomkvist and a tattooed computer hacker Lisbeth Salander are employed to investigate the disappearance of a member of the powerful Vanger clan. It leads them to uncover links to a number of decades-old grotesque murders and a dark and appalling family history. It continues in the second instalment when the spotlight is on Lisbeth who is accused of a triple murder, and culminates in the gripping finale of the trilogy which sees Lisbeth in an intensive care unit of a Swedish city hospital. A multi-award winner, take a ride and follow the trilogy to its conclusion.
Author of the Millennium Trilogy Stieg Larsson has become one of the world's most famous authors since his untimely death at just 50 years of age. The books sold more than 90 million copies worldwide and spawned multiple film adaptations. However, Stieg's life before the books, paints a little-known man who was obsessive about tracking extremist far right and neo-Nazi groups as an investigative journalist. The documentary - Stieg Larsson: The Man Who Played with Fire reveals a man who was determined to protect the endangered principles of democracy and freedom at any cost. Directed by Henrik Georgsson, this 99 min doco has been nominated for the Grand Jury Prize World Cinema Documentary, Sundance Film Festival, 2019.
Is there anyone who isn't a little bit in love with lead actor Nikolaj Lie Kaas of the Department Q series? Starring alongside Fares Fares who plays fellow Investigator Assad to his Carl Mørck, this embodiment of Nordic Noir broke all Danish box office records. To celebrate the final instalment Purity of Vengeance, this spotlight revisits the previous 3 cinematic offerings of New York Times bestselling author Jussi Adler Olsen's blockbuster novels.
Another one of my favourites, follow Carl and Assad as they embark on their first journey in The Keeper of Lost Causes. This is slick Danish suspense at its best. The homicide detectives begin work on a disappearance case of a female politician which was ruled a suicide. Evidence proves otherwise and the detectives are forced to put their differences aside to unravel the shocking truth behind the mystery as the case becomes a breathless race against time. Get to know the detective in charge of Copenhagen's coldest cases in this first electrifying Dept Q mystery .
The Absent One was the second and even more successful adaptation of the series. Alternating between past and present, Mørck and Assad undertake an unsolved killing; a twisted mission to discover what really happened in the 1990s at one of the country's poshest boarding schools. A Conspiracy of Faith is the third and darkest and most gripping screen adaption and finds Mørck and Assad reunited for a shocking case in rural Denmark. A message in a bottle draws the detectives into a world of religious fanaticism with children going missing. They are forced to confront both the backlash of the tight-knit community and their own personal beliefs.
Fast-paced and highly polished, The Purity of Vengeance boasts the biggest opening ever for a Danish film at the local box office. Chilling and stylish, this final instalment of the Department Q series leads you to a shocking and gruesome discovery. Behind the wall, three mummified bodies seated around a dining table are found, as a fourth chair lies vacant. This engrossing finale has the detectives race against time to identify the bodies and also find out who the vacant chair was intended for. It takes them to a notorious women's hospital on the island of Sprogø where they discover what was thought to be a closed chapter of the past may still be an open book.
As you can see from the full program of films at the Festival, there's much for you to investigate, explore and enjoy.
