Nordic films, series and talent to make big splash in Toronto

After the muted Covid years, Nordic films are back in force at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), one of the largest film events in the world and favoured North American launching pad for sales agents and producers.

The nine-titles TV line-up for the PRIMETIME programme just announced Monday, comprises the event series Estonia, set to reach Toronto’s shores ahead of its Nordic launch on TV4 Play mid-October.

Finland’s most ambitious series to date-steered by Fisher King, captures the true event of Europe’s worst civil maritime disasters in recent times, the sinking of the MS Estonia in September 1994. The 8-part series was co-produced by Sweden’s Kärnfilm, Belgium’s Panache Prods & La Compagnie Cinématographique, and Estonia’s Amrion for MTV, TV4 and ProSiebenSat1. Beta Film handles sales. The epic drama was backed by Nordisk Film & TV Fond.

The festival’s CENTERPIECE (formerly Contemporary World Cinema) honouring the best global cinematic achievements, has lined up 47 titles from 45 countries, including three Nordic films also supported by Nordisk Film & TV Fond: Norway’s A Happy Day by Hisham Zaman, making its world premiere, Finland’s Cannes winning film Fallen Leaves by Aki Kaurismäki and Je’Vida by Katja Gauriloff, shown earlier at Tribeca.

Hisham Zaman’s anticipated third feature after Letter to the King and Before Snowfall, is set in an isolated refugee centre in northern Norway, where three teenage boys are waiting in a limbo, to be possibly kicked out of Norway, after their 18^th birthday. “My film is about a specific theme in Norwegian politics, but this topic affects us all because it concerns our common humanity,” said the writer/director, who produced the film for his outfit Snowfall Cinema. The co-production with Norway’s Rein Film and Denmark’s Zentropa will be released domestically October 13 by Ymer Media, on behalf of Scandinavian Film Distribution.

Other Centerpiece entries are the minor Nordic co-productions About Dry Grasses by Turkish director Nuri Bilge Ceylan, co-produced by Sweden’s Second Land, and The Settlers by Chile’s Felice Gálvez Haberle, co-produced by Denmark’s Snowglobe.

The SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS has over 50 titles from prominent directors such as Sweden’s Together 99 by Lukas Moodysson and Denmark’s The Promised Land by Nikolaj Arcel, both supported by the Fund.

Seasoned auteur Lukas Moodysson will be back in Toronto exactly 23 years after the screening in the Canadian film hub of his original cult comedy Together. The Memfis Film production is due to premiere in Sweden October 13, with REinvent handling sales.

Zentropa is both co-producer of Together 99 and main producer of the highly anticipated Mads Mikkelsen vehicle The Promised Land, which will arrive in Toronto straight after its world premiere in competition in Venice.

The epic drama set in 1755 has been pre-sold to more than 50 territories by TrustNordisk. The Danish premiere via Nordisk Film is set for October 5.

Nordic co-productions making their world premieres at the Special Presentations are:

• Viggo Mortensen’s English-language western The Dead Don’t Hurt co-produced by Denmark’s Motor.
• Swedish-born Niclas Larsson’s US feature Mother, Couch! starring Taylor Russell, Ewan McGregor and Ellen Burstyn. The comedy co-produced by Sweden’s Film i Väst and Denmark’s Snowglobe will have its European premiere at San Sebastian’s New Directors’ Competition after Toronto.
• Unicorns by The Swimmers’ filmmaker Sally El Hosaini and James Krishna Floyd is a UK/US/Swedish film, with Sean Wheelan’s Filmgate Films and Film i Väst steering the Swedish co-production.
  

Also world premiering in the section is celebrated Danish writer/director Lone Scherfig with her Spanish-Language The Movie Teller, a Spanish/French/Chilean film starring Bérénice Bejo.

The PLATFORM section will open with the US satire Dream Scenario by Norway’s Kristoffer Borgli (Sick of Myself), a sharp satire of social media and celebrity starring in Nicolas Cage.

Making its world premiere next to Borgli is the Swede Axel Petersén with Shame on Dry Land (Syndabocken). The director who picked up a FIPRESCI Discovery Prize at TIFF in 2011 for his earlier film Avalon said: “I haven't been there since Avalon, which is some kind of cousin to Shame on Dry Land, so the circle feels closed.” The Swedish/Maltese film is produced by Sigrid Helleday for Fedra in co-production with Pellikola. TriArt will release it November 24 in Sweden.

The DISCOVERY section where Joachim Trier had his breakthrough in 2007 with Reprise, will lend its stage to 26 rising talents, of which 50% are female directors, such as Iceland’s Ninna Pálmadóttir and Norwegian Sami Margrethe Oskal, both making their feature debuts.

Pálmadóttir’s Solitude (Einvera) is produced by Pegasus with support from Nordisk Film & TV Fond. The film written by Rúnar Rúnarsson tells of a farmer, forced to move to the city where he develops a friendship with a 10-year-old paper delivery boy. The co-production with Croatia film is sold worldwide by Party Film Sales.

Oskal’s The Tundra Within Me (Eallogierdu) produced by Freedom from Fear Stories tells of a Sámi artist returning home where she confronts her past demons and finds love.

Another Sámi-themed film about homeland, cultural heritage and belonging is the Finnish/Norwegian Homecoming (Mahccan) world premiering at the festival’s DOCUMENTARY programme. The film produced by Finland’s Vaski Film with Norway’s Ten Thousand Images, is directed by the 2022 Nordic Talents candidate Suvi West with Anssi Kömi.

Meanwhile Norway’s seasoned filmmaker Margreth Olin will go back to Toronto where she screened her feature debut The Angel in 2009. She will bring this year her acclaimed personal documentary Songs of Earth, supported by Nordisk Film & TV Fond, set to premiere in Norway September 1^st.

Finally, TIFF’s short film section will showcase Iceland’s Fár by Gunnur Martinsdóttir which recently won a Special Mention in Cannes, and Finland’s Nun or Never by Heta Jäälinoja.

The 48^th TIFF runs September 7-17, 2023.