Australia Meets The Nordic As The Scandinavian Film Festival Kicks Off In Wintry July

I am indeed very excited then for this excellent addition to our festival canon. Beginning late July, the 2nd (now annual) Scandinavian Film Festival kicks off in Australia, providing a diverse array of Norwegian, Danish, Swedish and Finnish content across the three kingdoms. 

Expect wry, deadpan humor, ice-cold procedural and top-rate social commentary as the best of recent Nordic film makes its way across Palace cinema screens Australia-wide. Here is a glance at the program to come.

The second Scandinavian Film Festival will open with the uproarious Here Is Harold; a Norwegian road movie, about a man who sets out to kidnap the founder of Ikea Ingvar Kamprad, but unfortunately for him, Kamprad is quite happy to be kidnapped.

Having picked up Best Film, Actor, Actress, Director and seven more awards at the Edda (Icelandic Academy) Awards, unsparing Icelandic drama Life In A Fishbowl tells three congruent tales of three people who have a lasting effect on one another. This naturalistic portrait of everyday life in Reykjavik on the eve of the country's 2008 economic meltdown is not one to be missed.

The Grump; based on a series of Finnish radio plays, this is a broad satire that tells the story of a set-in-his-ways, 80-year-old farmer from rural Finland, who raises hell when he is forced to move in with his city-dwelling son.

A modern take on class conflict plays out in the critically acclaimed debut film Underdog. The drama tells the story of 23-year-old Dino who dreams of a different life. Like an abundance of Swedes her age, she has fled the mass unemployment of her home country in search of a more worthwhile existence in a nouveau-riche Oslo. But her new life is caught in destructive loop of temporary jobs, financial trouble and hard partying, until she lands a job as a housekeeper for a wealthy ex-sportsman and spirals into a bizarre love triangle that is more than meets the eye.

Danish thrillers once again take center stage with this taught sequel to smash hit The Keeper Of Lost Causes. In The Absent One, a troubling affair involving a double murder of twin siblings is reopened by the Copenhagen cold-case division after the kids' father commits suicide.

Young Sophie Bell; In this Swedish drama, two university friends move to Berlin after graduating, but their dreams are shattered when one suddenly and mysteriously disappears.

The full program launches in early June. Stick to ScreenAnarchy for reviews and more information as it develops!