This year’s Love & Anarchy Gala screenings will include the best, most awarded and wildest films of the year. They have little in common beyond their incredible quality. The Gala films range from a gay period piece to a Korean action film, a Nordic family drama and a current-day Russian political thriller.
The Opening Gala film dives into the depths of a hidden history and surfaces as a beautiful love story. The Spanish film La bola negra tells an elegant story of closeted homosexuality, tying together three different timelines. The story begins in the 1930s and reaches the current century, while exploring the pull of fascism, Federico García Lorca’s literature and the mysteries of love. Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo won the award for Best Director at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.
Opening Gala, Thursday 17 September, Bio Rex Lasipalatsi, 4:45pm and 8pm.
The R&A Gala speeds into a rural Korean town and its surrounding forests, where locals defend themselves against monsters. Na Hong-jin’s Hope premiered at an unusual venue for an action film: in competition at the Cannes Film Festival, where it was praised, both as a spectacular and entertaining monster movie and a feverish feat of thoughtful filmmaking. Hope has more than earned its place among the Gala films.
R&A Gala, Monday 21 September, Bio Rex Lasipalatsi, 7:30pm
The National Gala film reminds us that you don’t always need to look far for talent and vision. Hanna Bergholm’s second feature Nightborn shrouds a depiction of parenthood in darkness. It builds upon Finnish mythology and nature, but also on a mother’s worst fear – a child you gave birth to feeling unfamiliar. Bergholm turns the mother’s suspicions into a psychological suspense narrative.
The National Gala, Wednesday 23 September, Bio Rex Lasipalatsi 6pm and Cinema Orion 7pm
This year, the Nordic Gems Gala also represents the best in the whole world. Love & Anarchy welcomes one of the brightest directing stars working today, as Romanian filmmaker Cristian Mungiu brings his new film Fjord to the festival. Fjord won the Palme D’or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. In this family drama set in Norway, religious parents clash with child protective services. Ideological rifts end up running deeper than the titular fjords.
Nordic Gems Gala, Saturday 26 September, Bio Rex Lasipalatsi 6pm
The Closing Gala will not offer a gentle goodbye. Minotaur, the winner of Cannes’ second highest honour, the Grand Prix, explores modern-day Russia as a whole but is set in a small town, where cynicism rules both relationships and business. In the centre of this negative spiral is a local businessman who takes an equally questionable approach to being the head of his family and his company. With Minotaur, the perceptive and uncompromising Andrey Zvyagintsev returns to filmmaking after ten years.
Closing Gala, Sunday 27 September, Orion 5:50 pm and Bio Rex Lasipalatsi 6:15 pm
Tickets for Gala screenings go on sale Wednesday September 2 at 1pm. All other tickets go on sale on Friday September 4 at 1pm.