Want one good reason to attend the 2025 Hurtigruten Scandinavian Film Festival? Here are three.
Acclaimed director of The King’s Choice, Erik Poppe, returns to wartime Norway with Quisling: The Final Days, a bold and fascinating historical drama about the country’s infamous autocratic leader, a man who wept on hearing of Hitler’s death.
The film commences in 1945 with the country’s head of state Vidkun Quisling arrested and put on trial for high treason, accused of collaborating with the Nazis. Pastor Peder Olsen is press-ganged into being his confessor, beginning a series of meetings that officials hope will extract a measure of contrition from the defiant politician.
Quisling’s political philosophies unfold, informed by his experiences in Russia, his reasoning for his Fascist views rock solid and irrefutable.
Olsen’s quizzing of Quisling is reminiscent of Avner Less’ questioning of Adolph Eichmann, an inquisition into the mind set that supported and allowed monstrous acts.
Powered by the strong central performance of a towering, glowering Gard B. Eidsvold, Quisling: The Final Days is a provocative meditation on complicity, faith and the human capacity for self deception and self aggrandisement. Delving into the circumstances and motivations of Quisling – a man whose name has become a byword for traitor – this eloquent, thought-provoking film presents a quagmire of moral complexity, a dubious patriot, a certified bigamist, a disconcerting resemblance to contemporary counterparts.
Written and directed by Ásthildur Kjartansdóttir, The Mountain is the first officially vetted sustainable production in Iceland and has been awarded the prestigious Green Film Sustainability certification. Shot on location in the Icelandic highlands and in Hafnarfjörður, a town just outside Reykjavík,The Mountain is a quasi cosmic drama that reminds us that the fault is not in the stars but in ourselves.
Electrician Atli, his wife María, an astronomer, and their nineteen-year-old daughter, musician Anna, live together in a settled domestic situation.
María has planned a trip for the family to go into the highlands to photograph a comet she thinks she has discovered, but when the day of the trip arrives, Atli, through an unexpected work commitment and Anna, because of a concert opportunity, cannot accompany her. It is a fateful change that upends their lives and leads them on a new trajectory.
Björn Hlynur Haraldsson is electric as the soul searching sparky and Ísadóra Bjarkardóttir Barney is spicily splendid with inherent spike, channelling her mother, Björk, in musical chops as lyricist/composer/performer, Anna.
Finally, from the Faroe Islands comes Sakaris Stórá’s The Last Paradise on Earth, a poignant drama that beautifully captures the unique culture and stunning landscapes of the self-governing archipelago, part of the Kingdom of Denmark.
Kári cherishes the simple life in his small village on an isolated island with his sister and father. Together they quietly mourn the loss of their wife and mother, but while Kári finds solace in his job at the fish factory, Silja struggles to finish school, and their father returns to the sea on a fishing boat. The only source of income for the local community is the fish factory where Kári works, and when it faces the threat of closure, the fragile balance of their world begins to unravel.
Although his friends dream of escape, seeking better lives beyond the island, Kári makes a different choice: to stay and confront the challenges of life on the island head-on. For him, his hometown is eponymous last paradise on earth.
The 2025 Hurtigruten Scandinavian Film Festival will take place from July to August. Tickets are now on sale.
Sydney: 17 July – 10 August, Palace Norton St, Palace Moore Park, Palace Central and Chauvel Cinema
For more information, visit scandinavianfilmfestival.com and follow @ScandiFilmFest on Instagram[MS1] /Facebook
