Now in its ninth year, the premier celebration of the best new nordic cinema and cult classics from the region tours to seven major Australian cities this winter.
Relieving the winter chill, the Saxo Scandinavian Film Festival returns to Australia this July and August. Happening at Palace, Palace Nova and Luna Palace Cinemas around the country, the festival showcases the best new cinema from the Nordic region, with fresh films from Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark and Iceland.
A rich mix of titles take to the big screen in Melbourne, Sydney, Canberra, Adelaide, Brisbane, Perth and Byron Bay. The festival centrepiece is award-winning writer-director Hlynur Pálmason’s Godland (2022), the follow-up to his breakout hit A White, White Day (2019), which tells the story of a Danish priest going on a pilgrimage across Iceland in the late 1800s.
Other highlights include Let the River Flow (2023), a moving portrayal of the Indigenous Sámi peoples’ struggle for survival in 1970s Norway; Fathers & Mothers (2022), an all-star Danish comedy about the parents of school-aged children; Swedish thriller Shadow Island (2023); and Finnish love story Four Little Adults (2023). Speaking of the Land of Thousand Lakes, beloved Finnish auteur Aki Kaurismäki returns with a new tragicomedy Fallen Leaves (2023), fresh from a series of rave reviews at Cannes.
Scandi neo-noir fanatics have plenty to choose from on the line-up, with Danish film Darkland: The Return (2023), the sequel to 2017 box-office smash Darkland; Swedish thriller Superposition (2023); and psychological drama Copenhagen Does Not Exist (2023). Elsewhere, the Scandi Screams program features six films that examine the mysterious folklore traditions and mythology influencing filmmakers who’ve shaped the genre over the last 15 years.
Portraits of central Scandinavian figures also take centre stage, with documentary The King (2023) telling the story of Sweden’s King Carl XVI Gustaf, who became the world’s youngest monarch at age four; and Munch (2023), a gripping dramatisation of Norwegian painter Edvard Munch’s life in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Cult classics and hit films on the roster include the Academy Award-nominated Border (2018); the director’s cut of Ari Aster’s Midsommar (2019); the Mads Mikkelsen-starring Viking epic Valhalla Rising (2009); as well as Closing Night selection Let the Right One In (2008), celebrating its 15th anniversary this year.
Browse the full program and secure your tickets today via scandinavianfilmfestival.com.
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