10/04/2015 - The Casa del Cinema in Roma will host the Scandinavian film festival from Thursday 16 to Sunday 19 April

Between Thursday 16 and Sunday 19 April, the Casa del Cinema in Rome will play host to the fourth edition of the Nordic Film Fest, a festival created with the aim of promoting Nordic film and culture, and which is organised by the four Nordic ambassadors based in Italy with the collaboration of Rome’s Scandinavian Circle.

The overarching theme of this year’s festival will be the noir/crime genre: indeed, Denmark will kick off the 2015 edition with the thriller The Keeper of Lost Causes [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Eugenio Mira
film profile], by director Mikkel Nørgaard, which is based on the best-seller by Jussi Adler- Olsen. The film, which was screened at the Locarno International Film Festival in 2013, will be distributed in Italy byMediterranea Film.

Another Danish film which will be shown at the festival is psychological thriller The Hour of the Lynx [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Søren Kragh-Jacobsen (one of the first signatories of Dogme 95, he won the Silver Bear award at the Berlin International Film Festival with his film Mifune), co-produced with Sweden and based on the play by Swedish writer Per Olov Enquist. The third film to be presented by Denmark is The Salvation [+see also:
trailer
interview: Kristian Levring
film profile] by director Kristian Levring, which was shown out of competition at the last Cannes Film Festival, starring Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen in the leading role. The film will be distributed in Italy by Academy2 and will most likely be released in June 2015.

Norway will be presenting a trilogy of films by writer and director Erik Skjoldbjærg (Insomnia). First up is Pioneer [+see also:
trailer
film profile], which was screened at the Toronto Film Festival, and which George Clooney is allegedly considering doing a Hollywood remake of. Then there’s Nokas [+see also:
trailer
film profile], which is based on the true story of the biggest bank robbery in Norwegian history. The third and last of Skjoldbjaerg’s films to be shown will be An Enemy of the People, which is based on the play of the same name by the great Norwegian playwright Herik Ibsen.

Opening the section on Finland will be The Disciple [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Ulrika Bengts, winner of the Alice in the City section of the Rome Film Festival in 2014: producer Mats Långbacka will be attending. Introducing the second Finnish film, They Have Escaped [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: J-P Valkeapää
film profile], which was shown at the Venice and Toronto film festivals and won four Jussis (the Finnish equivalent of Oscars) in 2015, including best film and best director, will be director and screenwriter Jukka-Pekka Valkeapää and co-screenwriter Pilvi Peltola Valkeapää. The final Finnish film to be featured in the programme, The Grump [+see also:
trailer
film profile], by Dome Karukoski, won a Jussi Award for best actor and was a box office hit in Finland.

Turning to Iceland, first up is Life in a Fishbowl [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by director Baldvin Z (Zophonìasson), winner of 12 Edda Awards (the Icelandic Oscars), which was screened at the Toronto Film Festival and chosen as the Icelandic nominee for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Zophonìasson’s second film did better than many Hollywood blockbusters, shooting to the top of the list of most-seen domestic films of the year. The second and only other Icelandic film to be shown will be Of Horses and Men [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Benedikt Erlingsson
film profile], the debut film of director Benedikt Erlingsson, which was the Icelandic nominee for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2014.

The first film in Sweden’s section is The Reunion [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], which was written, directed and starred in by Swedish artist Anna Odell, and was named best film of the year in Sweden and at the Venice Film Festival. The second Swedish film to be shown will be Stockholm Stories, by filmmaker Karin Fahlén, who will also be attending the screening. The final Swedish film, which will close the Nordic Film Fest, is Gentlemen [+see also:
trailer
film profile], the second film of director Mikael Marciman, which was shown at the Turin Film Festival and nominated for 13 Guldbagge Awards. The director will be attending the screening along with lead actress Ruth Vega Fernandez and producer Johannes Åhlunde.

One important side-event which will be held at the festival will be a photographic exhibition (8 April - 23 May) entitled "Ingrid Bergman: 100 years later”, dedicated to the great Swedish actress 100 years after she was born. Once again this year, in collaboration with Anica and the Writers Guild Italia, there will be a round table with Nordic and Italian producers, ‘North Meets South’, which will be held on Friday 17 April. This year’s festival will also include a section dedicated to Nordic screenwriters on the mornings of 16 and 17 April, with a master-class held by important representatives of film in the Nordic countries.

As there was in the last edition of the festival, there will also be a space dedicated to a focus on “Visual Filmmaking/Video Art” by the Scandinavian Circle.

(Translated from Italian)