Norway
In Norway on 22 July 2011, right-wing terrorist Anders Behring Breivik murdered 77 young people attending a Labour Party Youth Camp on Utöya Island outside of Oslo. This three-part story will focus on the survivors of the attacks, the political leadership of Norway, and the lawyers involved.
Ballet Boys takes you through disappointments, victories, forging of friendship, first loves, doubt, faith, growing apart from each other, finding your own way and own ambitions, all mixed with the beautiful expression of ballet.
Marius and Ebba is a couple in their late 20’s who is in constant conflict even though they love each other deeply. Every New Years Eve they try to break up. A story about love and dysfunction told over the course of three years.
“If buildings could talk, what would they say about us?” CATHEDRALS OF CULTURE offers six startling responses. This 3D film project about the soul of buildings allows six iconic and very different buildings to speak for themselves, examining human life from the unblinking perspective of a manmade structure. Six acclaimed filmmakers bring their own visual style and artistic approach to the project. Buildings, they show us, are material manifestations of human thought and action: the Berlin Philharmonic, an icon of modernity; the National Library of Russia, a kingdom of thoughts; Halden Prison, the world’s most humane prison; the Salk Institute, an institute for breakthrough science; the Oslo Opera House, a futuristic symbiosis of art and life; and the Centre Pompidou, a modern culture machine. CATHEDRALS OF CULTURE explores how each of these landmarks reflects our culture and guards our collective memory.
Eva Arctander is born with hypertrichosis, meaning that she is covered from head to toe with fine blonde hair. Her father is so ashamed of her that he hides her away from the world in their apartment. However, Eva’s nanny fights for her right to be treated like everyone else.
Andrés and his son Pedro live in a working district of Caracas and hardly ever see each other. While Andrés fills his time doing different jobs, Pedro wanders the streets playing with friends and learning from the violent atmosphere around him.
Norwegian children’s film about football girl Anja who become seriously ill.
Documentary about the two big resources in the North Atlantic, fish and oil, and the impact of their exploitation on the environment in various countries on both sides of the Atlantic.
An intimate portrait of a group of very different suicide bombers working for Al Qaeda in Syria. From the Saudi who loves singing and fried chicken, to a 26-year-old white British convert who worries a lot about his new wife, this remarkable film embeds with an unlikely bunch of “martyrdom seekers”, each waiting for their turn to go on a final mission, known by Jihadis as ‘Dugma’.
A reclusive nun is tempted to leave the monastery. Her dream is to become a curvy, voluptuous woman; to become how she really feels inside. With cautious steps, she ventures towards the sinful city.
In the darkness of a peaceful village, a pyromaniac ignites his first fire. As more fires break out, the society panics. An inferno lurks under the surface as a local policeman uncovers the unthinkable truth…
A Christian farmer searching for a higher purpose to life, falls into sin and wakes up as the Prince of Darkness in the city of Stavanger, Norway.
Amalie is the girl who has everything, good looks, money, a boyfriend and a big talent of dancing. One day, her world falls apart and she moves from everything she knows. Then enter Mikael. He is dancing in the streets and Amalie joins him in dancing on the streets, dancing Battles.
After her girlfriend is imprisoned on fraud charges, Chela is forced to face a new reality. Driving for the first time in years, she begins to provide a local taxi service to a group of elderly wealthy ladies. As Chela settles into her new life, she encounters the much younger Angy, forging a fresh and invigorating new connection.
A family that survives the genocide in Indonesia confronts the men who killed one of their brothers.
Varg Veum tries to help a scared girl lost in the woods at night, but he fails to avoid her death. What was this young asylum seeker fleeing from?
Varg Veum is going to be a father. In a way he could never imagine, life takes on a new direction while he is searching for a missing pair of siblings in the prostitution circles in Bergen. Varg realizes that life will never be the same when he has to make a decision: Let the criminals go free or expose Karin to mortal danger.
Norwegian folklore turns out to be real when Leo and Elvis encounter a girl called Thale in a basement. A regular cleaning job turns into a struggle for survival, while they’re trying to figure out what or who Thale is. Could Thale be a huldra? A seductive forest spirit who appears from the front to be a beautiful young woman, but who also has a cow’s tale and whose back appears to be like a hollowed out tree. The huldra has been known to offer rewards to those who satisfy them sexually, while death to those who fail to do so and are also prone to stealing human babies.
The movie tells the story about a girl who has to hide and survive from terrorist Anders Breivik while looking for her little sister during the terrorist attacks in Norway on the island Utøya, July 22nd.
A big new home, a lovely wife and a new job seem to steer Henrik firmly towards the middle age and a bourgeois lifestyle. There is, however, a substantial amount of boyish prankster still in him – sometimes a little bit too much. Director Martin Lund’s understated, offbeat humour often evokes Bent Hamer’s delightful studies of lone males (O’Horten, Kitchen Stories)
A woman diagnosed with terminal lung cancer gathers her three dearest friends together to make the most of the time she has left.
A nurse gets into a dispute at work because she switches to speaking English when she gets nervous. A translator compromises her integrity when persuaded to translate a book she doesn’t believe in. An elderly woman and her daughter are humiliated when offered a present of one million kroner from a relative. A warm and nuanced film about people who all mean well, but end up hurting one another.
Stockholm, late 1970s. Within a stone’s throw of government buildings and juvenile homes lies the seductive world of sex clubs, discotheques and private residences. Call Girl tells the story of how young Iris is recruited from the bottom of society into a ruthless world where power can get you anything.
It is becoming increasingly difficult to protect ourselves from extreme financial volatility. This feature documentary will examine the mechanics behind bubbles and crashes, and discuss trends and visions for the future.
A young couple, Kaia and Andrew, are renovating Kaia’s secluded family estate. Their lives are violently disrupted upon the unexpected arrival of Kaia’s sister, Christine, and her fiancé, Ira.
The digital revolution of the last decade has unleashed creativity and talent of people in an unprecedented way, unleashing unlimited creative opportunites. But does democratized culture mean better art, film, music and literature or is true talent instead flooded and drowned in the vast digital ocean of mass culture? Is it cultural democracy or mediocrity? This is the question addressed by PressPausePlay, a documentary film containing interviews with some of the world’s most influential creators of the digital era.
3-D puppet animation adventure about two kids from Warsaw in Poland who discover an old piano in amongst a pile of junk that transforms into a magical flying machine. The kids, Anna and her cousin Chip Chip, use the Flying Machine to fly across Europe to find Anna’s father in London. Before it happens, they have to learn how to fly the magical machine… On their way they have to navigate an obstacle course of hot air-balloons, swoop into Paris on a mission of the flying machine, weather a fierce storm in the English Channel, and with sunset fast approaching find dad in the big darkening city of London. Before they reach him they are torn from the flying machine by a magic storm, and find themselves back in the pile of junk in Warsaw. However maybe the Dad saw something in the stormy skies of London, because the next day he comes home to his daughter.
In Skoddeheimen, Norway, 15-year-old Alma is consumed by her hormones and fantasies that range from sweetly romantic images of Artur, the boyfriend she yearns for, to daydreams about practically everybody she lays eyes on.
13 year old kind-hearted Sonja arrives at a tiny village together with a company of bandits. But there is a curse on the village. A long time ago, the King’s only daughter Goldhair disappeared while searching for the Christmas Star. The Queen died of a broken heart, leaving the shattered King all on his own. From that day on, the King cursed the Christmas Star, thereby causing darkness and grief to descend upon the land. However, an old sage has revealed that Goldhair is still alive, and will return only if the King finds the way back to the Christmas Star. Ever since, the King has been searching for the Christmas Star every Christmas, but all in vain.
A simple can of ravioli propels this spectacular 30,000-kilometre, eight-country journey through all phases of food production and the far flung sources of international ingredients. A dream-like voyage with glimpses of disconcerting realities, the story begins with a single mother toiling in one of the biggest open pit mines in Brazil and ends on the shelf of a grocery store in Finland. Along the way, the workers whose calloused hands mine, raise and harvest each ingredient reveal their dreams and hopes, like the Danish pig farmer who loves his sows but longs for a girlfriend, and the Portuguese tomato picker who wants to stay healthy long enough to pay her daughters way through university. Sumptuous photography and impressive sound design make an eloquent statement about our modern, globalized world, making us aware of the hundreds of invisible people who prepare the food we eat every day. -Gisèle Gordon (HotDocs.ca)
In the international race to the moon, the Norwegian mission is led by brilliant inventor Reodor from the village of Pinchcliffe. With Luca the Magpie as the brave astronaut, what could possibly go wrong?
Raging Grannies is a touching and thought-provoking documentary that challenges the idea that we must continue to shop, consume, amass, and keep the economy growing.
