NORDIC FILMS

16 August 2026

I’ve left this blog post far too late for it to be of any value to you, dear reader, as the Nordic Film Festival has finished. I should have made it a work in progress but with any luck, some of the films we saw might get an extended run and/or appear on SBS on Demand. [And that in itself is a good reason not to vote for One Nation. They want to close SBS. How will I fill my watching hours if they did so?]

The films we chose included laughter and mental illness, misogyny and romance, indigenous culture and resort living, music and dance.

The most entertaining was The Pension Heist where a group of women with wrinkles set out to steal from Norway’s sovereign wealth fund. 

The most moving for Susan was A light that never goes out about a flautist who returns to his home town, which sounded somewhat better than my choice, Home, about a television host returning to their home town.

My narrative highlight was Tell Everyone, set in 19th century Finland, on island where girls and women who had broken societal taboos were sent – never to be allowed to depart. Minutes after I put my positive review on Letterbxd, the app I use to keep track of films, it received a “liked” from someone called Jarmo Kiuru. Hmmm, I thought. Could that name be Finnish? A quick google search took me to the cinematographer from one of my favourites from last year’s festival,  100 Litres of Gold. It had to be him. There’s a lot about social media that I despise but I confess to be rather thrilled that on the other side of the universe, someone liked my comments on a Finnish film.



Although Arru, a Sami made film has been criticized for its simplistic film style and clunky editing, both Susan and I found this story that looks at the threats, both internal and external, facing an indigenous community powerful. The story is so similar to the Australian story with mining threatening homelands and generational trauma playing out as a result of sexual abuse. The difference is that the people look fair in a world of snow as opposed to dark in a storm of ochre dust. 


And here’s one to avoid: Butterfly. Susan chose it because it was about sisters and we went to see it, along with Arru,  on her birthday. Thank goodness we saw it second with a glass of wine in hand and then had a pleasant birthday dinner at nearby Ginger and Tonic with some more wine to help with the debrief. It was one of those tedious self-indulgent films that was enough to turn you off ever visiting the Canary Islands and a reminder that the 1960s world of fake hippie spirituality faded away for good reason.

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