27/10/2022 - Film productions from 15 countries will be screened at the festival, which is also dedicating an homage to Icelandic director Friðrik Þór Friðriksson

The 64^th edition of the Nordic Film Days will take place in the Northern German city of Lübeck from 2-6 November. As usual, the festival focuses on a selection of new productions from Scandinavia and the Baltic countries. The programme will showcase a total of 173 movies and series, scattered across a total of nine sections. Among them is a new one called Immersion 360°, which, for the first time, will present 16 360-degree films and artworks in a mobile, full-dome theatre. Among the highlights is the collective work Árran 360° by six leading Sámi artists, which premiered at this year's Venice Biennale and which combines indigenous storytelling with innovative technology.

This year, the festival has a new head for its Series section: US programmer and film journalist Wendy Mitchell has selected eight productions from Scandinavia, including The Kingdom Exodus [+see also:
series review
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interview: Asta Kamma August
interview: Hubert Toint and Mark Denes…
series profile] by Danish director Lars von Trier. Nordic Film Days’ retrospective is titled “Cross and Queer” and will present 14 films made between 1921 and 1981 that hinge on the topics of dressing differently and gender identity. As for the homage, it is dedicated to Icelandic director Friðrik Þór Friðriksson. Friðriksson, who was born in 1954, is one of the big names in Icelandic cinema. His career started in the 1980s, and his 1991 romantic drama Children of Nature is the only film from Iceland to have been nominated for the Oscar for Best Foreign-language Film/Best International Feature Film so far. In Lübeck, it will be possible to watch this movie as well as four more, which were created between 1994 and 2010 – namely, Movie Days (1994), Cold Fever (1995), Angels of the Universe (2000) and Mamma Gógó [+see also:
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film profile] (2010).

The core of this year's edition is its competition. The films taking part will be competing for a total of 12 awards endowed with €63,000, and a jury and the audience will be the ones deciding on the winners. The fiction-feature competition comprises 14 titles. They include A Matter of Trust by Annette K Olesen, a Danish drama that tells the complex story of five different people who all struggle to find a place in life where they can feel safe and loved; the coming-of-age drama Beautiful Beings [+see also:
film review
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interview: Guðmundur Arnar Guðmundsson
film profile], about a 14-year-old boy with a drug-addict mother and a violent stepfather, helmed by Icelandic director Guðmundur Arnar Guðmundsson; Norwegian director Hallvar Witzø’s comedy Everybody Hates Johan [+see also:
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film profile], in which the protagonist is particularly fond of dynamite; Dovilė Šarutytė, representing Lithuania, with her debut, Feature Film About Life [+see also:
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interview: Dovile Sarutyte
film profile], in which she accompanies her protagonist through her grief over the death of her father; Boy from Heaven [+see also:
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interview: Tarik Saleh
film profile] by Swedish director of Egyptian heritage Tarik Saleh, which is set in Cairo and tells the story of a student struggling with his search for faith; Godland [+see also:
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interview: Elliott Crosset Hove
interview: Hlynur Pálmason
film profile] by Hlynur Pálmason, a historical drama co-produced by Denmark, Iceland, France and Sweden; the social satire Sick of Myself [+see also:
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interview: Kristine Kujath Thorp
interview: Kristoffer Borgli
film profile] by Norwegian director Kristoffer Borgli; and the tragicomedy The Woodcutter Story [+see also:
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interview: Mykko Myllylahti
film profile] by Finnish helmer Mikko Myllylahti.

Also part of the fiction-feature competition are the Latvian-Lithuanian-Polish production January [+see also:
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film profile] by Viesturs Kairišs, set in the winter of 1991 at the moment when Latvia gains its independence; the animated film from Latvia My Love Affair With Marriage [+see also:
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interview: Signe Baumane
film profile] by Signe Baumane; the Norwegian coming-of-age flick with fantastical elements Sister, What Grows Where Land Is Sick? [+see also:
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film profile] by Franciska Seifert Eliassen; the thriller-horror-drama Speak No Evil [+see also:
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interview: Christian Tafdrup
film profile] by Danish director Christian Tafdrup; the drama about a single mother The Store [+see also:
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film profile] by Ami-Ro Sköld; and, finally, The Great Silence [+see also:
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interview: Kristine Kujath Thorp
film profile] by Denmark’s Katrine Brocks, which tells the story of a young novitiate.

Besides the fiction-feature competition, there is also one dedicated to documentaries, which boasts 18 highly acclaimed titles including A House Made of Splinters [+see also:
film review
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film profile] by Simon Lereng Wilmont, Nelly & Nadine [+see also:
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interview: Magnus Gertten
film profile] by Magnus Gertten, The Eclipse [+see also:
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interview: Nataša Urban
film profile] by Nataša Urban, Polaris [+see also:
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interview: Ainara Vera
film profile] by Ainara Vera, Ruthless Times – Songs of Care [+see also:
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interview: Susanna Helke
film profile] by Susanna Helke and The Territory [+see also:
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film profile] by Alex Pritz.

Last but not least, a short-film programme with 32 titles has been scheduled, and there will also be a section with 29 films chosen specifically for a young audience. The festival will open on 2 November with the Danish documentary Music for Black Pigeons [+see also:
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interview: Jørgen Leth and Andreas Koe…
film profile] by Jørgen Leth and Andreas Koefoed, which is also part of the documentary competition. The film, which accompanies a group of jazz musicians, will enjoy its German premiere in Lübeck.