The lineup of the 37th Helsinki International Film Festival – Love & Anarchy (19-29 September) will include the opening film of Cannes 2024, American indie-sensation I Saw the TV Glow, Oscar-nominee Raoul Peck’s (I Am Not Your Negro) new documentary feature Ernest Cole: Lost and Found and Viggo Mortensen’s revisionist Western passion project The Dead Don’t Hurt.
Miguel Llansó, Spain’s gift to Estonian cinema, made a splash at Love & Anarchy 2019 with his demented spy-hodgepodge Jesus Shows You the Way to the Highway. Llansó returns to the festival with his new transhumanist scifi-treatise Infinite Summer. A utopia constructed with a punk attitude, the narrative follows two 20-somethings who decide to pass their summer holiday by trying out a new meditation app. The app, which is linked to Tallinn Zoo, ends up having unexpected effects on the biochemistry of its users. The film is produced by Allison Rose Carter and Jon Read (Everything Everywhere All at Once, American Honey) and stars Hannah Gross (Netflix’s Mindhunter) Johanna-Aurelia Rosin and Teele Kaljuvee-O’Brock.
Cannes Film Festival’s opening film delight The Second Act is a fourth wall-smashing meta-comedy directed and written by French enfant terrible Quentin Dupieux (Rubber, Love & Anarchy 2010, Deerskin, Love & Anarchy 2019). The film, which has garnered ecstatic reactions from festival audiences, stars French superstars Lea Seydoux, Louis Garrel and Vincent Lindon, as well as up-and-comer Raphaël Quenard. From the Un Certain Regard selection, Armand, starring Renate Reinsve (The Worst Person in the World, Love & Anarchy 2022) is a drama depicting how one 6-year-old’s inappropriate behaviour towards a classmate escalates with unexpected consequences.
Jane Schoenbrun’s stunning psychological thriller I Saw the TV Glow joins the Love & Anarchy lineup from the daring and artistically diverse US production company A24. An immediate modern queer classic, the film is a visually immaculate study on trans identity enveloped by an ethereal soundtrack. A completely different deep-dive into the same themes is offered by the documentary Trans Memoria, which tells the story of director Victoria Verseau’s personal transition journey through intimate imagery.
The programme is also filled with other documentary gems such as Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat. This Sundance prize-winner is a breathtaking combination of 1960s jazz and absurd political history, depicting the utilisation of jazz music as a smokescreen for the assassination attempt of the prime minister of Congo. Through gorgeous archival footage, the film treats its audience to performances by legends such as Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie and Nina Simone. Oscar nominee Raoul Peck’s (I Am Not Your Negro) new film Ernest Cole: Lost and Found is another incredible documentary set on the African continent; the film tells the story of the first Black freelance photographer to capture the South African Apartheid.
Love & Anarchy is once again dedicated to showcasing films that take a radical approach to reforming filmmaking traditions. The festival’s favourite Danish talent Viggo Mortensen takes his lasso and twists the Western into new shapes with his passion project The Dead Don’t Hurt. Unmatched in his versatility, Mortensen writes, directs, produces and composes for this sensitive tale of revenge, in which he also stars alongside Vicky Krieps and Solly McLeod. The Australian film Limbo is a detective story that combines film noir, True Detective and Australia’s breathtaking vistas into a macho fantasy dripping in testosterone. Simon Baker, who charmed on TV’s The Mentalist, gives a lauded performance as a detective who has turned to drugs to relieve his boredom.
37. Helsinki International Film Festival – Love & Anarchy takes place from 19 to 29 September, 2024. Serial cards are on sale on Early Bird price until 1.9.:
Hurmio (5 tickets 55€, 2.9. onwards 60€), Paratiisi (12 tickets, 112€, 2.9. onwards 132€) and Euforia (20 tickets, 180€, 2.9. onwards 200€).
The whole programme will be published 5.9., prior to that revelations will take place on our social media channels: @helsinkifilmfestival (Facebook, Instagram, X)
Individual screening tickets will go on sale from 9.9.: Regular ticket 13 €, evening ticket 14 € (thu-sat 6pm onwards), gala ticket 17 €.