Scandinavian Movies - The List!

Ok, so I live in London, but in many ways I'm defintely a Scandinavian at heart! Today I've been incredibly hung over - hence, I've spent the day watching movies and eating a lot of junk. I've also made a huge shopping cart at Amazon.co.uk which now contains all the DVDs that I'm going to buy once I get paid (next week!). However, as I searched for DVDs to purchase, I noticed that it's really hard to get hold of Scandinavian films from the UK (perhaps a business idea anyone?). The beauty of DVD's is that you can add english subtitles to any film, so there's no reason why they couldn't sell the DVDs in non-Scandinavian speaking countries...

I also imagine that probably more people would take the trouble to get hold of Scandinavian films if they knew what to get. Am I right? Well, you guys can answer that better than me, but here's a list to films from Scandinavia, that I thought were pretty good:

- Så som i himmelen (As it is in heaven), Sweden 2005, directed by Kay Pollak. Starring Frida Hallgren and Michael Nyqvist. The plot is about a famous conductor who returns to a small village in his native Norrland to rehearse the local choir. The movie was nominated for Best Foreign Film in the 77th Academy Awards. Trailer here.

- Jonny Vang, Norway 2003 (see previous post for more details).

- Buddy, Norway 2003. Directed by Morten Tyldum. Kristoffer is a billboard hanger, 24 years old and carefree. When his girlfriend Elisabeth duimps him for the boss of her trend bureau, his life falls into pieces. He feels like a loser. By coincidence some of Kristoffer's video diaries end up with the producer of the popular talk show "Karsten Tonight" in TV2. A few weeks later Kristoffer's life has become TV entertaiment. People love the sequences from his commune at Tøyen: Kristoffer's half-twisted view of his surroundings, his crazy best freind Geir, not to mention the weird web designer Stig Inge, who hasn't set foot outside the Tøyen shopping centre for two years. Kristoffer's future again looks bright, everyone likes him. But revealing your life on national television comes with a price tag. As Kristoffer's future in the TV business looks brighter and brighter, his friends start suffering. Geir's big secret is revealed, and Stig Inge's personal problems are much more serious than Kristoffer first thought. It will cost him a great deal to win his friends back. Kristoffer knows what he wants, but does he have enough guts to follow his heart?


- Hawaii, Oslo, Norway 2004. Directed by Erik Poppe. As Oslo suffers through the hottest day of the year, the paths of several strangers cross. A male nurse believes he can sense the future (as long as he's asleep), while a suicidal former pop star pines for the past. "Hawaii" is a local bar where two long-lost lovers swear to meet to fulfill their childhood promise; Hawaii, the American state, is also the place where one lover's brother dreams of fleeing during his one-day furlough from jail. Meanwhile, a grief-stricken marriage couple hope to make a desperate trip to the United States for an experimental operation that might save their child's life.

- Bænken (The Bench), Denmark 2000. Directed by Per Fly. A man is given one last chance to repair a broken relationship with his daughter in this downbeat drama. Kaj (Jesper Christensen) once had both self-respect and a solid career as a chef, but these days he's an alcoholic who spends most of his days drinking with a handful of companions in a suburban park near Copenhagen.

- Italiensk for begyndere (Italian for beginners), Denmark 2000. A young minister, a widower, is temporarily assigned to a church whose suspended pastor drove parishioners away; he stays at a hotel where he meets Jørgen, who's alone approaching middle age. Jørgen's friend Finn, a temperamental restaurant manager, may be about to be fired. Finn's assistant is Giulia, a lovely young Italian who prays for a husband. Olympia, a clumsy bakery clerk, has an ornery father; Karen, a hairdresser, has a mother who is very ill. The paths of these six characters cross at church, in the restaurant, at the hotel, and at an Italian class at the local adult school. Loneliness, grief, solace, romance, and love may meet 'nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita.'

- Fucking Åmål, Sweden 1998, Directed by Lukas Moodysson. The sixteen year old Agnes Ahlberg (Rebecca Liljeberg) has been living in the small Swedish town of Åmål with her family for one year and half, but she has no friends. She secretly loves her popular school mate Elin Olsson (Alexandra Dahlström), a girl bored with the lack of perspective of Åmål. In Agnes's birthday party, Elin kisses her and changes their lives. Trailer here.

- Elling, Norway 2001: 40-year-old Elling--a sensitive, would-be poet, is sent to live in a state institution when his mother--who has sheltered him his entire life, dies. There he meets Kjell Bjarne, a gentle giant and female-obsessed virgin, also in his 40s. After two years, the men are released and provided with a state-funded apartment with the hope they will be able to live on their own. Initially, the simple act of going around the corner for groceries is a challenge, but through a friendship born of desperate dependence, the skittish Elling and the boisterous Kjell discover they cannot only survive on the outside, they can thrive. As their courage grows, the two find oddball ways to cope with society, striking up the most peculiar friendships in the most unlikely places... Trailer here.


- Himmelfall, Norway, 2002, Directed by Gunnar Vikene. Features Kristoffer Joner as the main character. Reidar is a resident at Solihøgda psychiatric institution. He is expecting the Earth to be hit by a huge meteor any time now, but until then he is busy trying to keep his fellow patient, Juni, from killing herself. And it doesn't happen often. But maybe one is allowed to hope. That when the quarks in the ball are correctly aligned with the quarks in the wall that you throw it at, there won't be a collision. But a moment of harmony when everything is balanced. And that moment could be now.


... that should be a start?