26/10/2023 - This year, the festival in the far north of Germany offers a programme of over 180 films from Scandinavia and the Baltic countries

The 65th edition of the Nordic Film Days in Lübeck will take place from 1- 5 November. Once again, the German city in the far north of the country will host the newest film productions from Scandinavia and the Baltic nations. This year's selection will amount to 180 titles, set to be seen in around 250 screenings and, for about half of the selection, also online, nationwide.

Among the German premieres is the opening film by Swedish director Lukas Moodysson. His comedy Together 99 [+see also:
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Moodysson's movie is one of the 14 titles in the international feature-film competition. The other ones include the drama-thriller and Danish-Swedish-Norwegian co-production Copenhagen Does Not Exist [+see also:
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interview: Martin Skovbjerg
film profile] by Martin Skovbjerg (written by the acclaimed Eskil Vogt); Family Time [+see also:
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interview: Tia Kouvo
film profile] (Finland-Sweden) by Finnish director Tia Kouvo, which originally premiered at this year’s Berlinale; another Finnish production, Je'vida [+see also:
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film profile] by Katja Gauriloff; the historical thriller starring Mads Mikkelsen The Promised Land [+see also:
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film profile] (Denmark/Sweden/Germany/Czech Republic) by Nikolaj Arcel, written together with Anders Thomas Jensen; Let the River Flow [+see also:
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interview: Ole Giæver
film profile] by Norway’s Ole Giæver; the drama Paradise Is Burning [+see also:
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interview: Mika Gustafson
film profile], a Swedish-Danish-Finnish-Italian co-production helmed by Mika Gustafson; the Norwegian-German coming-of-age story Practice, about a young musician and climate activist, directed by Laurens Pérol; Slow [+see also:
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interview: Marija Kavtaradze
film profile] (Lithuania/Sweden/Spain) by Marija Kavtaradze; Solitude [+see also:
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interview: Ninna Pálmadóttir
film profile] (Iceland/Slovakia/France) by Icelandic director Ninna Pálmadóttir; the Danish family drama Superposition by Karoline Lyngbye; the historical drama set in the era after World War II The Poet [+see also:
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interview: Giedrius Tamoševičius
film profile] by Giedrius Tamoševičius and Vytautas V Landsbergis; the Danish tragicomedy The Quiet Migration [+see also:
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interview: Malene Choi
film profile] by Malene Choi; and finally, the episodic film Vintersaga [+see also:
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film profile], a Swedish-Danish co-production helmed by Carl Olsson.

The second competition section is dedicated to documentaries. It also comprises 14 films: the Danish-South African production !Aitsa by Dane Dodds, about the desert of Karoo; Before the Light, about the women in Latvia's Evangelical Lutheran Church, by Kristīne Briede; Being Ola by Norwegian director Ragnhild Nøst Bergem, about a village where people with disabilities live self-sufficiently; the Swedish-Danish co-production And the King Said, What a Fantastic Machine [+see also:
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interview: Axel Danielson, Maximilien …
film profile] by Maximilien van Aertryck and Axel Danielson; the biopic of a singular artist from the Faroe Islands, Heartist by Marianna Mørkøre and Beinta á Torkilsheyggi; the Finnish-Norwegian documentary Homecoming [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Suvi West and Anssi Kömi, hinging on Sámi culture; the Finnish-French documentary Cinema Laika by Veljko Vidak, about Mika Lätti and Aki Kaurismäki’s cinema project; the Norwegian-British co-production Liv Ullmann – A Road Less Travelled [+see also:
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interview: Liv Ullmann
film profile] by Dheeraj Akolkar; the Finnish-Estonian co-production Lynx Man [+see also:
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interview: Juha Suonpää
film profile] by Juha Suonpää; Mrs Hansen & the Bad Companions by Demark’s Jella Bethmann; another Danish production in the form of Revir – Everything You Hold Dear by Peter Hammer; the LUX Audience Award contender Smoke Sauna Sisterhood [+see also:
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interview: Anna Hints
film profile] (Estonia/France/Iceland) by Anna Hints; the Norwegian family portrait Songs of Earth [+see also:
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film profile] by Margreth Olin; the Estonian production Sundial [+see also:
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film profile] by Liis Nimik; another family portrait in the guise of the Swedish-Norwegian-Danish co-production The Gullspång Miracle [+see also:
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film profile] by Maria Fredriksson; The Last Movie by Norway’s Olaug Spissøy Kyvik and Karianne Førland Vennerød; the Danish production The World Is Out of Focus by Iben Haahr Andersen, about female photographers; and finally, the documentary Twice Colonized [+see also:
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interview: Lin Alluna
interview: Lin Alluna
film profile] by Lin Alluna, about the indigenous peoples of the Arctic.

Besides these two main sections, there will also be a short-film selection including a total of 23 titles as well as a programme for young audiences, showcasing 27 movies. Another section will show new series, while Immersion 360° will, as its name implies, focus on immersive works. This year's retrospective is dedicated to youth culture in the Nordic and Baltic countries from the 1920s to the turn of the millennium, bears the title “Forever Young” and will screen 17 films in total. Last but not least, the homage at the 65th edition of the Nordic Film Days will focus on Swedish filmmaker Roy Andersson.