A postcard from Tromsø Film Festival

Highlights from the 35th edition including a silent movie gem

by Amber Wilkinson

Love won the Fipresci prize
Love won the Fipresci prize

It rained supreme at the 35th edition of Tromsø International Film Festival, which has a reputation for snow in between its screenings. Mild weather meant that it was a much wetter week than might have been expected in northern Norway in January, but that didn’t dampen the spirits of those who attended the country’s vibrant celebration of film from at home and abroad.

The short days make the warm and dark cinemas seem even more cosily inviting and they certainly pack the crowds - even 9am foreign language screenings I attended had barely a free seat. It was also heartening to see such a wide age range among the audience, the most vital sign that a festival has a healthy future lying ahead.

As the festival is happy to bring good movies to a local audience, rather than insisting that everything must be a premiere, the calibre of what is showing is high. Among the Awards season contenders this year were RaMel Ross’ Nickel Boys, Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist and Halina Reijn’s Babygirl.

Tromsø also helps to shine a spotlight on films from the region, with its Films From The North section, a selection that focuses on fiction and documentary films from Sápmi, northern Norway, Sweden, Finland, Russia and Canada, as well as Alaska, Iceland and Greenland.

I was lucky enough to be on the Fipresci jury of international critics, alongside Jan Storo, from Oslo, and Hélène Robert, from France, and we were treated to a terrific cross-section of films.

Marion Cotillard in Little Girl Blue
Marion Cotillard in Little Girl Blue
Our winner went to the homegrown Love, by Dag Johan Haugerud, part of his trilogy of stand-alone films that explore the nature of desire and romance. A multifaceted character study, it follows a doctor (Andrea Bræin Hovig) who is encouraged to embrace what she wants from relationships by her younger gay nurse colleague (Tayo Cittadella Jacobsen). Haugerud’s humanistic approach gently challenges gender stereotyping and also raises issues around men’s healthcare in a subtle but informative way.

The film can be seen by Scottish film fans at Glasgow Film Festival this spring, as can U Are The Universe, a sometimes funny, frequently poignant sci-fi from Ukraine. It follows Andriy (Volodymyr Kravchuk) - a space trucker on disposal runs to Jupiter - when something happens that might mean the return trip is off. Alone, save for his wisecracking computer Maxim (surely the most engaging space robot since Moon’s Gerty, he suddenly receives a message that sets things on a new path.

It might be a few lightyears away from Love in terms of its setting but Pavlo Ostrikov’s film is shares the theme of the importance of connection.

Also embracing science-fiction was Fleur Fortune’s The Assessment, which is set in a near-future world where couples must undergo stringent tests before being allowed to start a family. Probing similar ideas to last year’s The Pod Generation, it sees Mia (Elisabeth Olsen) and Aaryen (Himesh Patel) welcome assessor Virginia (Alicia Vikander) into their home. Her methods are less than orthodox, as she frequently adopts the attitude of a young child to see how the pair cope.

A slippery film that asks questions not just about the challenges of parenthood but of ageing and, yes, connection, in a disconnected world, it may have about two endings too many but Fortune’s ambitious attitude marks her out as one to watch.

Back in the present day, George Sikharulidze breathes life into familiar coming-of-age themes in Panopticon thanks to detailed character work and the avoidance of cliche. Sandro (Data Chachua) is a pretty typical horny teenager, the camera indicating the way his gaze tends to shift when he talks to women. His inner world is a place of conflict, however, since despite his urges, he has been raised by his father (Malkhaz Abuladze), who is now on the path to becoming a monk, to shun sex before marriage. When he becomes friends with the radicalised Lasha (Vakhtang Kedeladze) it seems things may take a more dangerous turn and he also finds himself increasingly infatuated by Lasha’s mother (Maia Gelovani).

Sikharulidze walks a careful line as he explores how the older woman represents both a sexual fantasy and a potential safe maternal haven for the youngster. Her interactions with him are also carefully calibrated as morally grey areas are explored. Resting on a strong performance from Chachua this is a finely tuned character study that offers a steady stream of surprises and keeps its faith with its young protagonist.

By Sledge and Reindeer in Inka Länta's Winterland
By Sledge and Reindeer in Inka Länta's Winterland Photo: Courtesy of Tromso Film Festival
The factual side of the competition also didn’t disappoint with two very strong documentaries on offer. Riefenstahl takes on the controversial life of filmmaker Leni, who infamously created propaganda for the Third Reich. The film shows her command of filmmaking, particularly with Berlin Olympics' film Olympia, but also continually probes at her engagement with Nazi ideologies. This isn’t an attempt to whitewash what she was privy to but more of an exploration in the cognitive dissonance she displayed in later years. Featuring a wealth of archive and interview, it also comes as a reminder that it is men who tend to get to frame history - since her interviewers are almost exclusively male. Not one of them asks her if she ever felt afraid of Hitler or his regime, for example, even though she was apparently assaulted. Also, its interesting that this charismatic woman, even in death, is able to control her projection, with Veiel ending the film with the images he says that she wanted to be remembered by.

Little Girl Blue, meanwhile offers a fascinating multilayered portrait of filmmaker Mona Achache’s mother, Carole, a troubled writer who ultimately took her own life. In the film, which explores intergenerational trauma, Mona draws on her mother’s own writing as she considers her personal history alongside that of the older woman, who is played on film by Marion Cotillard. The sort of film as therapy documentary which has become quite popular in recent years - see also The Mother Of All Lies and Film About A Father Who - Achache’s approach is immersive and emotionally brave.

One of the joys of being at festivals is to see films that speak directly to the place where they are screening. I had the privilege of being at a silent movie screening that perfectly wedded space, content and film. A silent film concert, which took place in a swimming pool that has been converted into a cinema high above the city, saw Swedish 1926 film By Sledge And Reindeer In Inka Länta's Winterland set to a new score by Sámi musicians Lávre Johan Eira, Hildá Länsman, Tuomas Norvio and Svante Henryson.

The hybrid documentary by Erik Bergström explores Sámi life. The gaze is, inevitably colonial, brushing over any issues that existed at the time, but it is nevertheless an interesting insight into the culture not to mention highlighting the apparent stubbornness of reindeer. The new score helps enormously to evoke the Sámi spirit - and if you ever get a chance to hear traditional joiking performed live, don’t miss it. The festival’s slogan of “frozen land, moving pictures” seemed particularly well chosen as a full house rose in applause and took the warmth with them out into the cold, damp night.

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