01/06/2015 - Malgorzata Szumowska and Miguel Gomes join the guests for Finland’s festival north of the Arctic Circle, unspooling from 11-15 June

While the 304-seat Lapinsuu (lit. “Gateway to Lapland”) Theatre is the undisputed Palais des Festivals – and in fact the only cinema – in Sodankylä, the Finnish village 120 kilometres north of the Arctic Circle, the other centre of the annual Midnight Sun Film Festival, an old circus tent, has been forced into retirement after 29 years.

It will be replaced by an even bigger tent with screening equipment for 70mm films – already programmed is US director Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). Meanwhile, the Lapinsuu will explore the world of 3D, unspooling such titles as French director Jean-Luc Godard’s Goodbye to Language [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (2014) and Hong Kong director Tsui Hark’s The Taking of Tiger Mountain (2014).

Last year, the festival invited Polish director Pawel Pawlikowski; now his fellow countrywoman Malgorzata Szumowska, whose latest film, Body [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Malgorzata Szumowska
interview: Malgorzata Szumowska
film profile], won for Best Director at the Berlin International Film Festival in February, will follow in his footsteps. Body, In the Name of [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Malgorzata Szumowska
interview: Mateusz Kosciukiewicz
film profile] (2013) and other previous works by Szumowska are also on the gathering’s schedule.

Portuguese critic-turned-director Miguel Gomes will introduce Arabian Nights [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Miguel Gomes
film profile] (2015), his six-hour, three-part adaptation of One Thousand and One Nights, which was selected for the Directors’ Fortnight at the Cannes International Film Festival, which has just come to an end. He will also show Tabu [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Miguel Gomes
interview: Miguel Gomes
film profile] (2012), a composition of love, memories and the colonial history of Portugal. 

They will join UK director Peter Greenaway, Russian director Gleb Panfilov, his actress wife Inna Churikova and French director Olivier Assayas (already announced), as well as the lecturers for this year’s master classes: French critic Bernard Eisenschitz, Spanish critic Miguel Marías and Italian festival director Gian Luca Farinelli, of Bologna’s Il Cinema Ritrovato.

For Karaoke Delights in the new tent – screenings that include the audience’s vocal participation – the festival has chosen US director Albert Magnoli’s Prince musical, Purple Rain (1984), and two local classics: Finnish director Jorma Nortimo’s Rovaniemi on the Market (1951) and Finnish Film Sing-Along (uncredited).

The 29^th Midnight Sun Film Festival takes place from 11-15 June.