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Films from the Land of Midnight Sun
Scene from the Greatest Thing.
Cinema has seldom been the reason for this small country, tucked away in the western part of the Scandinavian peninsula, to find space in the Indian media. But the `Land of the Midnight Sun' is all set to make inroads into the hearts and minds of Indians the "dramatic'' way.
Introducing the land that does not see sunrise for a good three months and sunset for an equal number of days through the year, will be the Second Norwegian Film Festival in India coming to this city on April 11.
Screened as part of the festival will be seven recent films of Norway. Speaking to the press on Thursday evening, the Ambassador of Norway, Truls Hanebold, said the festival was a medium to create awareness about his country and that the "coming months will see a number of programmes that will introduce Norwegian music, dance and films to the people of India.''
Organised by the Royal Norwegian Embassy in association with the Federation of Film Societies in India, the travelling festival inaugurates in Mumbai on March 26 and will later go to Thiruvananthapuram and Chennai before coming to Delhi. It will then move on to Kolkata, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Pune and Chandigarh.
The reasons for New Delhi not figuring top on the list are not hard to see. "Last year, we had started with Delhi but received a lukewarm response. The other cities gave better feedback to the new and unknown work,'' the Ambassador said.
Films to be screened this time round include, "Cool and Crazy'', a unique documentary that takes a warm but funny look at the lives of men who make up the Berlevag Men's Choir in the small fishing village of Finnmark. A film laced with the songs of the choir, the film was described by the Ambassador as one that presents the traditional image of Norway.
Other films to watch out for include "Cabin Fever'' that speaks of an extended Christmas holiday gone wrong, "Frozen Heart'' which is about Roald Amundsen, a prominent polar explorer, "The Greatest Thing'' based on a popular Norwegian novel, "The Fisherman's Daughter'', "Old Little Man'' by Stein Leikanger on a kid's search for Jesus, "Detector'', a psychologist and his strange passion for metal detection and "Bloody Angels'' a thriller about a tightly knit community in crisis time.
The Norwegian film industry has made some 300 feature films in the last three decades, a measly number compared to the blooming India film industry. But as the Norwegian Ambassador puts it, "Norwegian films may be short in length, but when it comes to quality they have just as much and sometimes more quality to display.''
By Lakshmi Balakrishnan
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