09/11/2009

Jörgen Bergmark’s A Rational Solution [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jörgen Bergmark
film profile] (Sweden) won the Best Feature Film (NDR) Award last Saturday during the closing night of the 51st Nordic Film Days in Lübeck, Germany.

Bergmark’s portrait of love, betrayal and marriage had its world premiere in the Critics Week sidebar at this year’s Venice Film Festival, to positive reviews.

The film stars some of Sweden’s finest actors: Rolf Lassgård, Pernilla August, Claes Ljungmark and Finnish/Swedish Stina Ekblad. “Great actors who are unafraid of direct and vulnerable moments lead us through a story that is both crazy and very close to real life,” said the Lübeck jury in a statement. A Rational Solution was co-produced by Germany’s Pandora Film. It is sold internationally by The Match Factory.

Finnish title Letters to Father Jacob [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by filmmaker Klaus Härö won the LP Audience Award and Interfilm Church Award, while the Baltic Film Prize went to another Finnish director, Saara Cantell, for Heartbeats, a patchwork of moments from seven women’s lives filmed as single takes by a hand-held camera. The film will be released domestically early 2010.

The Norwegian youth films Yatzy [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Katja Eyde Jacobsen and Vegas [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Gunnar Vikene were awarded the Children & Youth Film Prize and a Special Mention from the Interfilm Church Jury, respectively.