Empire is the winner of the Nordic Council Film Prize 2023.
Lamb is a supernatural drama about an Icelandic couple who live with their herd of sheep on a beautiful but remote farm. When they discover a mysterious new-born on their land, they decide to keep it and raise it as their own. This unexpected development, and the prospects of a new family, brings them much joy before ultimately destroying them.
Flee tells the extraordinary true story of a man, Amin, on the verge of a marriage which compels him to reveal his hidden past for the first time. This secret that he has been hiding for over twenty years threatens to ruin the life he has built for himself. He recounts his dramatic journey as a child refugee from Afghanistan to Denmark. Told mostly through animation, Flee weaves together a tapestry of images and memories to tell the deeply affecting and original story of a young man, grappling with his traumatic past in order to find his true self and the meaning of home.
Beware of Children traces the dramatic aftermath of a tragic event in a middle-class suburb of Oslo. During a break in school 13-year old Lykke, the daughter of a prominent Labour Party member, seriously injures her classmate Jamie, the son of a high-profile right-wing politician. When Jamie later dies in hospital, contradicting versions of what actually happened risks making a difficult situation worse. Liv, the school’s principal and the secret lover of Jamie’s father, confronts the community in distress and her own conflicted emotions.
Anne, a brilliant and dedicated lawyer specialising in children and young adults, lives what appears to be the picture-perfect life with her doctor-husband, Peter, and their twin daughters. When her estranged teenage stepson, Gustav, moves in with them, Anne’s escalating desire leads her down a dangerous rabbit warren which, once exposed, unleashes a sequence of events that threatens to destroy her world.
Queen of Hearts explores the making of a tragic family secret step-by-step, as the consequences of hubris, lust, and lies conspire to create an unimaginable dilemma.
Halla is a fifty-year-old independent woman. But behind the scenes of a quiet routine, she leads a double-life as a passionate environmental activist, secretly waging a one-woman-war on the local aluminium industry. As she plans her biggest and boldest sabotage operation yet, she receives an unexpected letter that changes everything. Her application to adopt a child has been accepted and a little girl is waiting for her in Ukraine. As Halla prepares to abandon her role as saboteur and saviour of the Icelandic highlands to fulfil her dream of becoming a mother, she decides to plot one final attack on the aluminium industry.
Little Wing tells the story of 12-year-old Varpu (Linnea Skog), who is rapidly approaching adulthood while her mother Siru (Paula Vesala) refuses to grow up. One night, Varpu has had enough of her horse-riding friends and her mother. She steals a car and drives north in search of the father she has never met. Finding him awakens something in both Varpu and Siru, and they begin to realise the roles they play in each other’s lives and in the world.
An upcoming exhibition to celebrate photographer Isabelle Reed three years after her untimely death brings her eldest son, Jonah, back to the family home, compelling him to spend more time with his father, Gene, and his withdrawn younger brother, Conrad, whom he hasn’t seen in years. With the three of them under one roof, Gene tries to connect with his sons, but they struggle to reconcile their feelings for the woman whom they all remember very differently.
Fúsi is in his forties and he has yet to find courage to enter the adult world. He sleepwalks through everyday life, where routine is key. When a bubbly woman and an 8-year old girl unexpectedly enter his life, he is forced to take a leap.
Of Horses and Men is a rural romance about the humanity in horses and the equine in humans. Love and death become intertwined, with major consequences. The fortunes of people in the countryside are seen through the eyes of horses.
Following a tough divorce, 40-year-old Lucas has a new girlfriend, a new job and is in the process of re-establishing his relationship with his teenage son, Marcus. But things go awry. Just a passing remark - a random lie. And as the snow falls and the Christmas lights are lit, the lie spreads like a virus. The shock and mistrust get out of hand, and the small community suddenly finds itself in a collective state of hysteria, while Lucas fights a lonely fight for his life his and dignity.
Play is an astute observation based on real cases of bulling. In central Gothenburg, Sweden, a group of boys, aged 12-14, mobbed other children on about 40 occasions between 2006 and 2008. The thieves used an elaborate scheme called the ‘little brother number’ or ‘brother trick’, involving advanced role-play and gang rhetoric rather than physical violence.
One morning just before Christmas, Leena (34) receives a phone call from a hospital in her childhood town where she grew up. She learns that her mother is dying. This news takes the young woman on a journey to face her mother for the first time in her adult life. Leena has fought hard to let go of her grief over her lost and dark childhood. She is now forced to deal with her past to be able to move on.
Submarino is the story of two estranged brothers, marked by a childhood of gloom. They were separated from each other at a young age by a tragedy that split their entire family. Today, Nick's life is drenched in alcohol and plagued by violence, while his kid brother, a single father, struggles as a junkie to give his son a better life. Their paths cross, making a confrontation inevitable.
A couple undergoes extreme changes and the woman suffers from intense anxiety attacks. In order to help her and to repair their broken hearts and troubled marriage, they retreat to ‘Eden', their isolated cabin in the woods. But the stay turns out to be stranger and more horrifying than they ever expected as nature takes its course and things go from bad to worse. Their relationship is put to test and they are forced to confront themselves and their fears.