Helsinki International Film Festival – Love & Anarchy will welcome guest filmmakers from the United States, Romania, Sápmi, the Baltic states, and Greece, among other places. Through their films, these guests will in turn take audiences on a journey around the world.
A blue-eyed young man has been led to believe that his eyes are cursed. Directed by the Greek filmmaker Thanasis Neofotistos and co-written with Grigoris Skarakis, the film The Boy with the Light-Blue Eyes is both a metaphorical story about the queer experience and a folk horror tale.
Neofotistos and Skarakis will be in Helsinki 18.–24.9. and in Q&A’s after The Boy with the Light-Blue Eyes -screenings on 19.9. 6pm at Orion, 20.9. at 4pm at Maxim 1 and 23.9. at 4.50pm at Orion.
Swedish director Julia Thelin’s dark comedy The Patron explores the art world and has been compared to the twisted works of Yorgos Lanthimos and Ruben Östlund. Thelin will be attending the Söderlångvik Masterclass, organized by the festival’s industry event, the Finnish Film Affair, and will also attend a screening of her acclaimed debut feature film during the same trip.
Thelin will be in Finland 17.–22.9. She can be seen on the screening of The Patron 21.9. at 6.30pm at Kinopalatsi 5.
The changing seasons in Tallinn set the pace for the narrative in the drama-comedy Rolling Papers, in which young people ask fundamental questions about life. The film is the work of Meel Paliale, who has been making movies since he was in school: he is the screenwriter, director, and editor of Rolling Papers. In addition to Paliale, R&A will also be joined by the film’s production designer and line producer, Jasmin Kulagina.
Paliale and Kulagina will be in Helsinki 19.–21.9. ja present in Rolling Papers -screenings on 19.9. at 6.30pm at Kinopalatsi 5 ja on 20.9. at 2.30pm at Kino Töölö.
Elle Sofe Sara, a Sámi artist, is known as a choreographer who has performed her dance works in Finland on several occasions. In Árru, the joik musical she directed as her debut, Sara has put her dance vision to a new kind of use. Through the medium of musical theater, she explores topics such as the mining industry.
Elle Sofe Sara will be visiting Finland from September 21–23 as a joint guest of the Love & Anarchy Film Festival and the University of Turku. She will be present at the Árru screening on 22.9. at 5.30p.m. at Bio Rex Lasipalatsi. Sara will also participate in the R&A x University of Turku: Árru panel discussion following the film. The discussion will examine developments in the promotion of indigenous peoples’ rights, as well as the challenges faced in this regard in Norway, Sweden, and Finland.
A young woman battling cancer seeks help in the forest. The atmospheric horror film Mother of Flies has been praised for its intimate yet uncompromising approach, courtesy of the married couple John Adams and Toby Poser and their daughter Zelda Adams. Two of the three will be in Helsinki when John Adams and Toby Poser arrive to present their film in person.
The couple can be seen in Helsinki 22.–26.9. and at the Mother of Flies -screenings on 23.9. at 7.15 pm at Maxim 1,, 24.9. at 6.45pm at Kinopalatsi 2 and on 26.9. at 8.45pm at Orion.
Romanian director Cristian Mungiu brings his family drama Fjord, set in Norway, to the festival; it will be screened at the Nordic Gems Gala. The film won the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival in May, the Palme d’Or. Its portrayal of the ideological differences between child welfare authorities and a religious family is timely and incisive.
Mungiu will be in Finland on 26.–27.9. and will attend the screening of Fjord on 26.9. at 6.00pm at Bio Rex Lasipalatsi.
As its name suggests, the R&A Shorts: Animated Baltic Gems -screening brings gems from animation experts in the Baltic countries to the big screen. The film Eating Time is represented by Estonian director Mari Kivi, who will be in Helsinki on 24.–25.9. Armenian-Estonian director Natalia Mirzoyan will attend the festival with her film Winter in March and will be present on 24.–25.9. Eglė Davidavičė, the Lithuanian director of The One Who Knows, will be in attendance from 24.–27.9.
All of the above will be present at the R&A Shorts: Animated Baltic Gems -screening on 24.9. at 5:45 pm at Maxim 2.
The Love & Anarchy Film Festival will screen all the nominees for the Nordic Council Film Prize. International guests will also be in attendance for the screenings. One of them is Sverrir Gudnason from Sweden, who stars in Iceland’s nominee, The Love That Remains. He plays a family man contemplating a divorce.
Gudnason will be in Helsinki 25.–27.9. and present in the screening 25.9. at 6.30pm at Kino Engel 1 and 26.9. at 3.30pm at Gilda 1.
Búi Dam, from the Faroe Islands, will be at the festival 22.–25.9. to present his documentary Birita, in which he portrays his mother, who suffers from dementia. Dam will be present at screenings on 23.9. at 6.30pm at Kino Engel and on 24.9. at 5.30pm at Kino Töölö.
Danish actor Trine Dyrholm can be seen in the Denmark’s nominee Beginnings. She plays a woman rethinking her future after a stroke.
Dyrholm will be in Helsinki 21.–23.9. and at the Beginnings-screening on 21.9. at 6.30pm at Kino Engel 1.