Scandinavian Films
35th Portland International Film Festival: February 9-25, 2012
Nordic Groups Sponsor Movies
Drawing an audience of over 35,000, the Portland International FilmFestival (PIFF) is the biggest film event in Oregon, premiering more than 100 international shorts and feature films to Portland audiences each February. Audiences can experience a variety of parties, visiting artists, and plenty of festival adventure taking in this feast of cinematic fare.
For the fifth year, the Scandinavian Heritage Foundation is co-sponsoring Nordic films at Portland’s month-long foreign film festival. Co-sponsors with SHF are Grieg Lodge, New Sweden and the Scan|Design Foundation.
Movie & Nordic Reception
Get in on the fun: see the movie and enjoy an exclusive reception before or after the film of your choice.
SHF and Grieg Lodge are co-sponsoring King of Devil’s Island, a Norwegian film by Marius Holst, Feb. 13. Movie at 6 pm, followed by a dessert reception at 8 pm.
SHF and the Scan|Design Foundation are co-sponsoring Clown: the Movie, a Danish film by Mikkel Nørgaard, Feb. 16. Appetizer reception at 7:30 pm, followed by the movie at 8:45 pm.
SHF and New Sweden are co-sponsoring Play, a Swedish film by Ruben Östlund, Feb. 21. Appetizer reception at 7 pm, followed by the movie at 8:30 pm.
The one-hour receptions are $20 per person, including a movie ticket ($10 value), food, wine, beer and nonalcoholic beverages. All movies are at the Whitsell Auditorium at the Portland Art Museum. Reservations are required. Call SHF at (503) 977-0275.
2012 Scandinavian Films:
Denmark:
CLOWN by Director Mikkel NørgaardFinland:
LAPLAND ODYSSEY Dome KarukoskiIceland:
VOLCANO by Rúnar RúnarssonNorway:
KING OF DEVIL'S ISLAND by Marius HolstHEADHUNTERS Morten Tyldum
TURN ME ON, DAMIT Jannicke Systad Jacobsen
Sweden:
PLAY by Ruben Östlund
Click herefor the 2012 PIFF schedule.
2012 Scandinavian Film Summaries & Show Times
DENMARK
CLOWN: THE MOVIE
Mikkel Nørgaard
Frank and Casper have a plan. A canoe trip—with tents and minimal personal hygiene—that the women won’t possibly want to go on. The trip’s agenda can then be to find as much sex as possible. But when Frank discovers that his girlfriend is pregnant and, doubting his capabilities as a father, hasn’t told him, he brilliantly takes her young nephew on the trip to bond and prove his parental capabilities. Based on a popular Danish television comedy, Clown was a massive commercial and critical hit in Denmark, a sort of ribald fusion of “The Office” and The Hangover. “This is gutter comedy elevated to the level of high art, a laugh-till-it-hurts comedy of transgression and moral degradation played out in front of—and often involving—an 11-year-old boy. A movie this wrong has seldom been this funny.”—Todd Brown, Fantasia Film Festival, Montreal. (88 mins.) Mature audiences.
First Feature.
2/16 8:45pm Whitsell Auditorium
2/18 5:30pm Lloyd Mall 6
2/20 8:00pm Pioneer Place 5
Sponsored by Scandinavian Heritage Foundation and ScanDesign Foundation.
NORWAY
KING OF DEVIL’S ISLAND
Marius Holst
This gripping true story of an uprising in a brutally run Norwegian reform school in 1915 is told in an epic style that won the Best Film Prize at the Norwegian Film Awards. Located on a remote island in the Oslo fjord, the Bastoy Boys’ Home was established as a place to reform wayward teenagers—using beatings, manual labor, and rigid discipline to keep the youngsters subdued. But when newcomer Erling arrives on the island and starts to question the authority of the abusive “housefathers,” he finds more than a murmur of support from his fellow inmates. Determined both to escape and to reveal the institution’s corruption, Erling has to choose between himself and the friends he has won. Starring Stellan Skarsgård as the school governor. (120 mins.)
Selected Filmography: Cross My Heart and Hope to Die (94), Dragonfly (97), Blodsbånd (07).
2/11 8:30pm World Trade Center Theater
2/13 6:00pm Whitsell Auditorium
Sponsored by Grieg Lodge, Scandinavian Heritage Foundation, and the Norwegian Consulate General, San Francisco.
SWEDEN
PLAY
Ruben Östlund
“A deliberately provoked racial incident, based on numerous similar real life transgressions, is played for all it’s worth in Play. Swedish writer/director Östlund employs mesmerizing visual strategies to relate a disturbing tale of how five savvy African immigrant boys in Gothenburg take advantage of the liberal guilt and placating temperament of three local kids to rob them and take them for a ride to unknown destinations. Social, racial, and political credos are twisted, pulled inside out, and stood on their heads by this bracing and confronting work, which will challenge the assumptions of many a viewer. Play poses more questions than it answers as it lays bare attitudes lurking beneath the surface tranquility of Scandinavian life—a peacefulness that can sometimes be tragically shattered.”—New York Film Festival. (113 mins.)
Filmography: Family Again (02), Gitarrmongot (04), Involuntary (08).
2/20 5:15pm Whitsell Auditorium
2/21 8:30pm Whitsell Auditorium
Sponsored by New Sweden, Scandinavian Heritage Foundation, and the Consulate General of Sweden, San Francisco.
In addition, here are a few other Nordic films playing this year.
ICELAND
VOLCANO
Rúnar Rúnarsson
This year’s Icelandic submission for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar is a “coming-of-age story about a 67-year-old man.” It opens with elegiac images of a volcanic eruption that devastated a coastal town before fast-forwarding to the present—when Hannes, a survivor of the disaster, is retiring from his job as a school custodian. He advises his successor that it’s best if the students fear him; at his sparsely attended retirement party, Hannes responds to the principal’s gently teasing farewell by saying, “My skin is thicker than a shark’s. I can take it.” But can he? Hannes attempts suicide; upon failing, he returns home to his long-suffering wife, adult children, and grandchild. As they share their lives over dinner, Hannes can only gripe about the soup. Then a pair of mishaps—one trivial, the other devastating—forces Hannes to reassess his armored emotional isolation. (99 mins.)
First Feature.
2/12 2:15pm Lake Twin Cinema
2/18 8:30pm Cinemagic
2/20 8:00pm Cinemagic
NORWAY
HEADHUNTERS
Morten Tyldum
Roger Brown is Norway’s most successful headhunter, recruiting personnel for powerful corporations. But as successful as he is, it’s not enough to keep up with what he thinks his wife needs. So to keep things afloat, he uses his job to find wealthy people he can steal art from. When the master conman sets his sights on a priceless painting, its owner turns out to be a former mercenary with a terrible secret, and Roger is in for much more than he ever could have imagined. His client has excellent hunting skills, leading to a perilous journey rife with gunfights, mountaintop car chases, and bloodthirsty pit bulls. Based on the bestselling Norwegian novel, this violent and twisted thriller is packed to the brim with nail-biting set pieces and surprising plot revelations guaranteed to keep you on the edge of your seat. (103 mins.)
Filmography: Buddy (03), Fallen Angels (08).
2/17 11:30pm Cinema 21
Sponsored by the Norwegian Consulate General, San Francisco.
TURN ME ON, DAMMIT!
Jannicke Systad Jacobsen
Only a woman could tell this wry, astonishingly candid tale of a teenage girl with an unbridled sexual appetite. Fifteen-year-old Alma is consumed by her out-of-control hormones and fantasies that range from sweetly romantic images of Artur, the boyfriend she yearns for, to down-and-dirty daydreams about practically everybody she lays eyes on. Alma and her best friend Saralou live in an insufferably boring little town in the hinterlands of Norway. After Alma has a highly perplexing encounter with Artur, she makes the mistake of telling her incredulous friends, who ostracize her at school. At home, Alma’s mother is overwhelmed and embarrassed by her daughter’s extravagant phone sex bills and constant self-gratification. Throughout, Jacobsen renders the complexities of Alma’s burgeoning sexuality and loneliness with a compassion and frankness that ring true. (76 mins.)
First Feature.
2/12 8:00pm Lloyd Mall 5
2/15 6:15pm Cinemagic
2/19 12:00pm Cinemagic
Sponsored by the Norwegian Consulate General, San Francisco.
SWEDEN
KISS ME
Alexandra-Therese Keining
“Love can blossom at the most inopportune moments—and that’s what happens to Mia and Frida, two thirty-something professionals who meet at a party celebrating the engagement of Frida’s mother and Mia’s father. As future stepsisters—not to mention the fact that Mia is herself engaged—theirs will not be an easy path. From this beginning, Keining fashions a nuanced and deeply felt drama that does not avoid confronting the barriers—both personal and social—faced by her same-sex couple. For the heretofore-hetero Mia, her attraction to Frida—a lesbian very comfortable in her own skin—is a shock. But as their relationship develops emotionally and sexually, the film’s most impressive feat comes through showing just how organic their growing love for each other is. That love knows no boundaries is confirmed in a fresh and thoroughly involving way.”—Palm Springs Film Festival. (107 mins.)
Filmography: Hot Dog (03).
2/18 8:30pm World Trade Center Theater
2/25 8:30pm Cinema 21
Sponsored by Celia Lyon, Principal Broker, Meadows Group Inc. Realtors.
34th Portland International Film Festival: February 10-26, 2011
For the fourth year, the Scandinavian Heritage Foundation sponsored two films at the Portland International Film Festival, a festival of the Northwest Film Center.
This year we will be sponsoring the Danish film "In a Better World" by acclaimed director Susanne Bier which just nabbed a Golden Globe for Best Foreign Film by the Hollywood Foreign Press. It is also this year’s Danish submission for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar.
In addition, SHF and Finlandia Foundation Columbia Pacific Chapter co-sponsored the Finnish documentary film Steam of Life, directed by Mika Hotakainen and Joonas Berghall. Submitted by Finland for an Oscar in the Best Foreign Film documentary. This film also sponsored by Löyly Sauna & Spa, Finlandia Sauna Products, Inc, Heart Coffee Roasters and Scandia Imports.
Click here for the 2011 PIFF schedule.
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33rd Portland International Film Festival
The Scandinavian Heritage Foundation was once again a Cultural Sponsor of the Portland International Film Festival which showed films from all over the world from February 11 - 28, 2010. PIFF also featured a number of Nordic films, many of which you can find in theaters or on DVD. Here they are:
32nd Portland International Film Festival
For the second year, the Scandinavian Heritage Foundation was a Cultural Sponsor of the Portland International Film Festival, a festival of the Northwest Film Center. Our thanks to supporters E. Roxie Howlett, Aase Besson and Susanne Baumann for helping to sponsor this important international event with over 170 films. These Scandinavian films were shown through February 21, 2009:
