Polarise Nordic Film Nights returns to Brussels for its fifth edition, running from 4-15 March, presenting films from Iceland, Denmark, Sweden, Greenland, Finland, Norway and Sápmi that seldom reach Belgian screens. This year's programme places women's voices, indigenous identities and environmental struggles at its core.

To tie in with International Women’s Rights Week, the gathering opens with The Day Iceland Stood Still [+leggi anche:
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trailer
scheda film] by Pamela Hogan, screening at Cinéma Aventure on 4 March. The documentary revisits the period of October 1975, when nine out of ten Icelandic women went on strike, bringing the country to a standstill, changing the course of history and the status quo in Iceland, and setting an example for furthering women’s rights and gender equality.

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The official opening night, taking place on 11 March at Cinéma Galeries, features Beginnings [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Jeanette Nordahl
scheda film] by Jeanette Nordahl, co-produced by Denmark, Sweden and Belgium, with Trine Dyrholm starring in a role exploring tenderness, love and pain. The film took 200,000 admissions in its first week on release in Denmark.

On 12 March, The Cost of Growth – screened alongside a Q&A with director Thomas Maddens and producer Erika Jangen – examines the consequences of economic expansion, such as environmental degradation, the exploitation of land and people, and the social upheaval of communities caught in the machinery of development. The movie follows Anuna de Wever, Lena Hartog and Greta Thunberg across Europe, from the GKN factory in Florence to lithium mines in Serbia and the Sámi people's fight to defend their lands.

On 13 March, My Fathers' Daughter [+leggi anche:
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scheda film], a Sámi coming-of-age flick, addresses questions of belonging, cultural roots, the legacy of colonialism and its effects on indigenous identity, reflecting a growing strand within Nordic cinema of engagement with the history of the Sámi people.

On 14 March, the festival dedicates a full evening to Greenlandic cinema. Sumé – The Sound of a Revolution [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] tells the story of the first Greenlandic rock band, who sang in Kalaallisut at a time when the language was being suppressed, thus using music as a form of political and cultural resistance. The screening is followed by Walls – Akinni Inuk, which was rewarded with the DOX Award at CPH:DOX, and which examines the fight of Greenlandic women against systemic injustice. The double bill comes at a moment when Greenland has returned to the centre of international geopolitical attention.

The festival closes on 15 March with a comedy programme: the short film Sit. Stay. Play. by Cecilie Flyger Hansen will be screened in the presence of the director, followed by 100 Liters of Gold [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Teemu Nikki
scheda film], a Finnish comedy by Teemu Nikki (The Blind Man Who Did Not Want to See Titanic [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Teemu Nikki e Jani Pösö
intervista: Teemu Nikki, Jani Pösö e P…
scheda film], Death Is a Problem for the Living), which centres on Sahti, the traditional Finnish beer, and the women who brew it.