The Midnight Sun Makes Its Way To Balmy LA

How much do you know about Scandinavia beyond “smorgasbord”, the midnight sun, fjords, and your fantasy Swedish swim team? All you need to know about our Nordic contemporaries, cinematically speaking, can be seen at the Scandinavian Film Festival.  Featuring the cream of the crop in Scandinavian film, including all of the region’s submissions for the Best Foreign Film Academy Award, the Festival began last Saturday and finishes Sunday, January 17.  All the screenings are held at the Writer’s Guild Theatre in Beverly Hills and, if you take a look around, they’re filled with LA’s surprisingly large Scandinavian population.

Sitting behind us on Sunday, January 10 for the screening of Denmark’s Oscar submission, Terribly Happy, was a representative from the Royal Danish Embassy, for example.  Directed by Henrik Ruben Genz, the darkly comic Terribly Happy has a distinctly Coen brothers’ tone, albeit set in small town Denmark.

Saturday afternoon, we watched the Swedish submission for Hollywood’s favorite golden statue, called Involuntary.  From director Ruben Ostlund, the film follows five parallel stories of relatable, yet generally hysterical and also melancholy, human behavior. One vignette that stands out follows two young girls with an overdeveloped appetite for sex and alcohol, especially considering they can’t be many years out of puberty.

Before each film, you’re presented with a short from the same country.  The short film screened prior to Terribly Happy, was the equally dark and comic The New Tenants about the apartment building from hell.  Prior to Involuntary, we were met with The Man With All The Marbles – a captivating, witty, and beautifully made film about two brothers who have never quite understood how to get what they want from each other.

This Saturday, you can see The Accident, from Norwegian director Marcelino Martin Valiente at 12:45pm followed by Starring Maja at 2:30pm, which hails from director Teresa Fabik of Sweden.  Sunday, January 17 at 12:30pm, you’ll have a chance to see the much-anticipated submission from Iceland, Reykjavik Rotterdam, directed by Oskar Jonasson.

For more information on the Scandinavian International Film Festival, including a full schedule, please click here.

Terribly Happy is set for a small theatrical release, including screenings at the Laemmle Music Hall in Beverly Hills.  For more information, please click here.