Retrospective dedicated to Lapland and Sami cinema

Entitled "Films Under the Midnight Sun", the Retrospective at the 53rd Nordic Film Days Lübeck is dedicated to the film region of Lapland and the manifold creative work of Sami directors. Besides international audience successes such as "Pathfinder" (1987), the programme includes obscure genre classics such as "Space Invasion of Lapland" (1958) and documentary road movies such as "Sami Daughter Joik" (2007). A silent film gala features George Schnéevoigt's literary adaptation "Lajla" (1929) with musical accompaniment.

Lapland, known as "Sapmi" in the Sami language, stretches across the north of the three Scandinavian countries Norway, Sweden and Finland. In contrast to Greenland, for instance, whose national film industry is still in its beginnings, Lapland boasts an impressive range of ongoing short and documentary film productions, supported by the Sami Film Centre in

Kautokeino and raising considerable attention at film festivals across the globe. One of Lapland's internationally most renowned filmmakers is the Norwegian director Nils Gaup, whose feature film debut "Pathfinder" (1988) was nominated for an Oscar, and who has been a regular guest at Nordic Film Days Lübeck: In 2008 his Sami snow western "The Kautokeino Rebellion" was awarded the LN Audience Prize.

Orfelas (Veisireren) / Die Rache des Fährtensuchers / Pathfinder, Norway 1987, Director: Nils Gaup

Besides Nils Gaup's successful films, the Nordic Film Days Lübeck Retrospective is showing selected "Lapland Late Night Movies" that make use of Lapland as an attractive backdrop for true genre productions - including the science fiction adventure "Space Invasion of Lapland" (USA/S 1958), the Swedish polar crime story "The Hunters" (1996) and the Finnish socio-critical drama "The Earth Is a Sinful Song" (1974). A silent film gala with musical accompaniment will show the Norwegian classic "Lajla" (1929). The epic romantic drama by director George Schnéevoigt is an adaptation of the novel of the same name by Jens Andreas Friis.

 

Laila / Laila, die Tochter des Nordens / Laila, Norway 1929, Director: George Schnéevoigt

The Retrospective programme also includes the road movie "Sami Daughter Joik" (2007) by the Swedish artist Liselotte Wajstedt. It recounts a young Swede's quest for her family roots in Lapland. The Swedish documentary filmmaker Stefan Jarl will also be on location in Lübeck to present his documentary "Hotet" (1987), in which he depicts the consequences of the Chernobyl catastrophe. The Retrospective at the 53rd Nordic Film Days Lübeck opens on 2nd November with the Sami road movie "Bázo" by Lars Göran Pettersson, in which a Sami person undergoes an odyssey through Norway, Finland and Sweden.

Sami nieida jojk / Sami Daughter Jojk / Sami Daughter Jojk, Sweden 2007, Director: Liselotte Wajstedt

"Films Under the Midnight Sun: Lapland and Sami Cinema" sees Nordic Film Days Lübeck carrying on in their tradition of exploring the film regions around the arctic circle, which they began two years ago in the Retrospective "The Arctic Screen: Greenland in the Cinema".