The 68th Nordic Film Days Lübeck –Buddenbrooks p:reloaded, the Retro- spective Programme

Lübeck, September 29, 2026. In honour of the 125th anniversary of Thomas Mann’s Buddenbrooks, this year’s Retrospective follows the tracks of the famed social novel – from the Scandinavian works that served Mann as role models, to early film adaptations, to Nordic cinema’s sweeping family sagas.

Few books are as closely linked with Lübeck as Buddenbrooks. The novel, which has been his debut novel about a Lübeck merchant family, which garnered the 1929 Nobel prize for literature, is turning 125 this year and provides the framework for the Retrospective section of the 68th Nordic Film Days.

From November 4 – 8, the NFL will present a total of 11 important films from various decades that represent a cross-section of family stories by well-known Nordic directors. On the one hand, the Retrospective will explore literary examples from Scandinavia that influenced Mann and their cinematic adaptations and, on the other hand, multi-generational family sagas that emulate his narrative structure. And once again, the Nordic Film Days Lübeck will be working closely this year with Lübeck’s museums. Lübeck’s Buddenbrook House is commemorating the anniversary year with the exhibition Family Affairs, which will open on October 30, 2026 in St. Anne’s Museum. With an NFL cinema ticket, visitors will enjoy a 20 percent discount on a day ticket for the Lübeck museums throughout November.

Jörg Schöning, the curator of the NFL Retrospective, says this about the film selection, “Thomas Mann allowed Nordic antetypes to feed into his epic about a merchant family. So in that sense, the Retrospective films constitute a kaleidoscope of Nordic family stories, while also showing many parallels to ‘Buddenbrooks’. Those seemingly private family affairs are above all interesting because they always also reflect society and its conflicts.”

The most direct connection to Lübeck is Gerhard Lamprecht’s film version of the book itself, Buddenbrooks (1923). That was the first adaptation of the novel and it set the story in what was then the present day. The silent film is screening in cooperation with the Lübeck Academy of Music. A colorised, restored version will be shown accompanied by live music played by academy students, with prof. Franz Danksagmüller at the podium.

Several film adaptations of his literary antetypes demonstrate how much Thomas Mann was influenced by Scandinavian literature. The Wild Duck (1963, orig: Vildanden) by Tancred Ibsen is based on the play by Henrik Ibsen, whom Thomas Mann called his “master”. The film by the renowned dramatist’s grandson is even today considered a textbook example of a faithful movie adaptation.

Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson’s The Bankrupt (1979, orig: En fallit) also left clear traces in Buddenbrooks. Thomas Mann picked up motifs from the drama for the bankruptcy of Buddenbrook son-in-law Bendix Grünlich. Fortuna (1993) meanwhile is based on Alexander L. Kielland’s novel Poison (Gift), a critical look at authoritarian education; it inspired the school chapter in Buddenbrooks. The screening will be accompanied by a lecture on Thomas Mann as an underachiever at school, and a reading from the book by Lübeck actor Heiner Kock.

Victoria (2013) by Torun Lian is a rendition of Knut Hamsun’s eponymous book. The unhappy title figure in that tragic love story provided Mann with one of the models for Tony Buddenbrook.

The Retrospective takes us from those literary exemplars to sweeping multi-generational family sagas in Nordic cinema. Sons of the Soil (1920, orig: Borgslægtens Historie) tells the story of strife among brothers, the consequences of which stretch across three generations. The film, based on 3 / 5Gunnar Gunnarsson’s novel marked the beginning of Icelandic filmmaking and will be screening with new music by Þórður Magnússon, performed by SinfoniaNord.

With Fanny and Alexander (1982, orig: Fanny och Alexander), the Retrospective is showcasing a classic of European cinema. In the film, Ingmar Bergman gives us an opulent family panorama with autobiographical aspects. The maestro’s work is closely bound up with the Nordic Film Days. Three of his films were shown at the very first NFL in 1956.

Lost Generation (2005, orig: Familien Gregersen) seems almost predestined for “Buddenbrooks p:reloaded”. Often called the “Danish Buddenbrooks”, the film, based on a bestselling book, tells of the decline of a wealthy industrialist family against the backdrop of Danish history between the mid-1950s and 1970s.

But financial adversity and endangered family dignity can also provide comedic material, as in Swedenhielms (1935) by Gustaf Molander. In the film, we can glimpse Ingrid Bergman in an early role before she became an international star.

Finally, two films that share an original title bridge the path from family fortunes and inheritance to the issue of the cost of family obligations. In Next of Kin (1979, orig: Arven) by Anja Breien, the reading of the last will and testament of a shipping magnate becomes a test of family bonds. This subtle and humorous satire of family greed garnered the prize of the Ecumenical Jury in Cannes.

Per Fly’s Inheritance (2003, orig: Arven) transposes the motif to modern day business dealings. Like Thomas Buddenbrook, in the film the heir to the family business gets caught up between his personal wishes, family expectations, and a duty to society – with destructive consequences. The film is part of Per Fly’s society trilogy, which won the Danish director several prizes at the Nordic Film Days Lübeck.

The 68th Nordic Film Days Lübeck will run from November 4 – 8, 2026.

The Nordic Film Days Lübeck, first mounted in 1956, are among the film festivals with the longest tradition in the world. They are the only large-scale audience festival and important gathering spot for the German and European film industry that specialises in presenting films from the north and the northeast of the continent. The Nordic Film Days Lübeck is mounted by the Hanseatic City of Lübeck and supported by the state of Schleswig-Holstein, Creative Europe MEDIA, several Lübeck foundations – the Possehl Foundation, the Gemeinnützige Sparkassenstiftung (non-profit savings bank association), and the Wessel Stiftungen, the non-profit Friends of the Nordic Film Days, and broadcaster NDR as media partner. Other supporters and sponsors of the 62nd Nordische Filmtage are Cinestar, Lübeck public utilities, STAWAG utilities Aachen AG, Sudden Death, Gradwerk, skanbo, Diakonie Nord Nord Ost, real estate society Trave, Convotis, tsj-architekten gmbh, Waldzimmer, Theater Lübeck, MOIN Film Fund, Norwegian embassy, Kaufmannschaft zu Lübeck, Deutscher Verband Frau und Kultur e.V., von Keller Foundation, Die Gemeinnützige Foundation, Superkunstfestival, Ver.di, Lübeck Protestant church district, Baltic Films, and the festival venues Cinestar Stadthalle and filmhaus, Kommunales Kino KOKI, KOLK 17, Theater Lübeck, InfinityDome, European Hansemuseum, Lübeck Academy of Music, and Lübeck cathedral.