Nordic Lights: a window onto the cinema of the Nordic countries

Nine films from Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden arrive at the 41st Mar del Plata International Film Festival.


This edition, the Festival turns its focus to contemporary Nordic cinema. Nordic Lights brings together diverse voices, sensibilities, and aesthetic pursuits from a remarkably rich film tradition, with a selection spanning science fiction, thriller, drama, and literary adaptation.

Denmark opens the selection with Woman Unknown, by May El-Touky, arriving after winning the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival and set to represent its country at the Oscars. Also from Denmark, Marlene Emilie Lyngstad presents Cute, a co-production with Norway and Sweden that drew extended applause at its recent premiere at the San Sebastián Film Festival. Among its leads is Jan Gunnar Røise, whom festival audiences saw last year in Sex, by Dag Johan Haugerud.

Norway participates with Growth of the Soil, by acclaimed filmmaker Hans Petter Moland, selected to represent the country in the Oscar race. The film adapts the novel of the same name by Knut Hamsun, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, bringing together a cornerstone of Norwegian literature and one of its most experienced filmmaking voices. The Norwegian selection is rounded out by My First Love, by Mari Storstein, based on a true story. It follows a young paraplegic woman who finds her first love in an unexpected place.

Finland presents two films. In Lex Julia, by Laura Hyppönen, a woman discovers that her husband has invited an old friend to a weekend house — but the reunion holds a story from the past that completely changes the meaning of the gathering. The Squirrel, by Markus Lehmusruusu, is a surprising science fiction comedy set in a world where all animals have disappeared, offering a singular perspective on the things we take for granted.

Iceland also arrives with two titles. Anorgasmia (All the Things We Do to Survive), by Jon Einarsson Gustafsson, is a co-production between Iceland, Canada, and the Czech Republic, starring French actress Mathilde Warnier and British actor Edward Hayter. Disturbed, by Bragi Thor Hinriksson, is a horror thriller about a woman trapped in an increasingly uncertain perception of what is happening around her, where reality and fiction become indistinguishable.

Sweden rounds out the journey with The Patron, by Julia Thelin. The film follows a young woman who leads two coworkers to believe she is a wealthy heiress — and that lie begins to grow beyond anything she can control.

Stories arriving from the far north to meet audiences in Mar del Plata.