Celebrations for the festival began today at the media launch held at SAW Gallery. The cozy gathering was brightened by the buzz for the upcoming festival and the excitement for how strongly some of the countries participating in the festival made a showing at this year’s Academy Awards. (Denmark, for example, has three films competing in the races: The Hunt, The Act of Killing, and the short film Helium.) The launch was also made lively thanks to the artisan doughnuts provided by Suzy Q, which offered the easiest conversation starter for any food I’ve enjoyed at a presser. (I tried a tasty maple bacon doughnut.)
Talk of film and doughnuts, however, highlights how this
year’s Bright Nights Baltic-Nordic Film Festival should be an especially
promising celebration of film in the National Capital. Not only do the eight
films continue the showcase of European cinema after the success of the recent
European Union Film Festival, but the Baltic-Nordic Film Festival also keeps
the spirit of cinephilia alive in the downtown core following the recent
closure of the cinema at the World Exchange Plaza. This festival is a great
opportunity for Ottawans to explore films outside the multiplex, especially
since the festival complements other Winterlude festivities they might be
enjoying downtown. The enthusiasm at the event was capped off by a screening of
the festival’s energetic trailer (embedded below), which was made by CFI
programmer Jerrett Zaroski and should inspire as much Shazamming as the
trailer for the EUFF did.
This year’s festival opens with the Estonian film Blood Type, a documentary about Estonian
soldiers in the Afghan War, which McSorley described as a “fascinating look at
the psychology and philosophy of war and soldiers”. Estonia opens the festival,
for the country is the head of the Baltic-Nordic, and the opening night will
feature an appearance by Blood Type’s
director, Leena Linna. Also screening at the festival are two other documentaries (Denmark’s
Moonrider and Finland’s My Stuff) and two films that were
selected to represent their countries in the Oscar Race for Best Foreign
Language Film (Iceland’s The Deep and
Latvia’s Mother, I Love You.) The
festival concludes with The Last Sentence
from legendary Swedish director Jan Troell. All eight films at Bright Nights are
Ottawa premieres.
The line-up for this year’s Bright Nights Baltic-Nordic Film
Festival is as follows:
Blood Type
Dir. Leena Linna | Estonia | 67 min.
Saturday, Februaruy1 at 7:00 pm
Synopsis: Blood Type is an intense, philosophical
documentary about professional Estonian soldiers in the Afghan war. The film
weaves together deeply personal revelations of these men with footage of their
daily dangers to create an intimate portrait of the soldiers' day-to-day
struggles. Linna’s film examines the life of a soldier named Andrei, who lost
his leg in the Afghan war two years ago. Having returned to Estonia, Andrei
wants nothing more than to reunite with his ‘brothers’ on the battlefield,
despite his disability. A provocative film about the warrior mentality and
spirit, as well as the consequences of war itself, Blood Type probes beneath the surface of this all too common
geopolitical phenomenon.
Into the Dark
Dir. Thomas Wangsmo | Norway | 88 min.
Saturday, February 1 at 9:00 pm
Synopsis: On a
dark winter evening driving home with his family, Jan hits his neighbours'
eight-year-old son. A couple of weeks after the accident Svein, the boy's
father, starts growing suspicious of Jan's explanation. Meanwhile, Jan himself
is plagued with guilt, and as Svein closes in on the truth, both men are
trapped in a downward spiral of desperation that threatens to lead to their
undoing.
Narcissus
Dir. Dovilė Gasiūnaitė | Lithuania | 95 min
Wednesday, February 5 at 7:00 pm
Synopsis: Narcissus
(from Greek Narkissos) shares the root nark- with narcosis and narcotic. All
these words have the same origin in the verb narkao - to intoxicate through a
strong smell. In the modern interpretation of the ancient myth Teodore is a
handsome and multiply gifted string quartet cello player who knows his own
value. He draws people in, but ends up hurting them, yet he is impossible to
resist. Teodore abandons his family, career, and friends in his quest for a
true challenge. He has yet to find out that his greatest confrontation will be
with himself.
My Stuff
Dir. Petri Luukkainen | Finland | 80 min.
Wednesday, Feb 5 at 9:00pm
Synopsis: Petri
Luukkainen conducts an experiment with his own life. He packs all his things
and puts them in storage. At first naked in an empty apartment, he only allows
himself to retrieve one item per day.
Mother, I Love You
Jānis Nords, Latvia, 2013, 83 min.
Saturday, Feb. 8, 4:00 pm
Synopsis: 12-year-old Raimonds tries to cover up a bad note at school
and starts a spiral of lies, which spins out of control. He has to venture into
Riga’s thrilling night-life to save his saxophone, his friendship and his face
in front of his mother. An exciting story about the healing power of truth.
Moonrider
Dir. Daniel Dencik | Denmark | 82 min.
Saturday, Feburary 8 at 7:00pm
Synopsis: Moon Rider is a coming-of-age story
about the bike rider Rasmus Quaade. The film follows young Rasmus’ struggle to
become a professional rider, a rough and winding road through hell and back. Shot
on fragile Super8 and raw helmet-cam, it is a journey seen from the inside of a
young man's head - it is a personal story entrusted to the spectator by Rasmus
himself from his intimate diary… The film paints an honest and heartbreaking
picture of the extreme and lonely life of a young championship rider.
The Deep
Dir. Baltasar
Kormákur | Iceland | 95 min.
Saturday, February 8 at 9:00 pm
Synopsis: Based on
actual events, a fisherman tries to survive in the freezing ocean after his
boat capsizes off the south coast of Iceland.
The Last Sentence
Dir. Jan Troell | Sweden | 126 min.
Wednesday, February 12 at 7:00 pm
Synopsis: Torgny
Segerstedt was one of the leading journalists in Sweden in the 20th century. He
fought a one man battle against Hitler and the Nazi regime until his death in
1945 and during these tumultuous times his private life was marked by a world
in chaos, as he falls in love with his friend's wife while married himself. The Last Setence weaves together the
story of a psychological love story with a portrayal of the political situation
Sweden found itself in during the Second World War. A gripping, dramatic and
poetic tale about a man, who could not be silenced.
All films for will
screen in their original language with English subtitles.
Tickets are $12 for
the general public and $8 for members, seniors, and students, and the festival
offers a Bright Nights pass for all eight films at $40 for members and $50 for
non-members.
All films screen in the auditorium at Library and Archives Canada, 395 Wellington St.
The Bright Nights
Baltic-Nordic Film Festival runs Feb. 1 – 12.
Please visit www.cfi-icf.ca for more information.
