Six “Nordic” titles heading to the upcoming edition of the Torino Film Festival

The 42nd edition of the Torino Film Festival (TFF), one of Italy’s largest cinematic gatherings, will run from 22 to 30 November.

This year’s Nordic contingent is led by the world premiere of Jacob Møller’s debut, the period drama Madame Ida, competing in the international feature category and sold by TrustNordisk. Set in the early 1950s, the story follows Cecilia, a 15-year-old who becomes pregnant after a sexual assault by her orphanage's warden. To conceal her pregnancy, she is sent to live with Ida, a woman eager to adopt, and her maid Alma, in a remote mansion. The three women form an unusual family, finding solace in each other until the arrival of the baby upends their fragile harmony. The main cast includes Flora Ofelia Hofmann Lindahl, Christine Albeck Børge, and Karen-Lise Mynster. Described by TrustNordisk as a tale of longing and the extreme lengths we go to in order to achieve love, the film is budgeted at €1.1 million and supported by the Danish Film Institute, New Danish Screen, DR, and others. Its Danish release is scheduled for December 2nd.

Next, two titles with Nordic involvement will take part in the international documentary competition. The first, which premiered at Toronto’s Hot Docs in the Changing Face of Europe section, is Fabien Greenberg and Bård Kjøge Rønning’s Norwegian Democrazy. It delves into the provocative stunts of Lars Thorsen, leader of the anti-Islam group Stop the Islamisation of Norway (SIAN), capturing his public confrontations over three years to reveal how he uses free speech laws to provoke outrage.

The second documentary, The Brink of Dreams by Ayman El Amir and Nada Riyadh, is co-produced by Denmark’s Magma Film with partners in Egypt, France, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia. Set in a remote southern Egyptian village, it follows a group of young girls challenging their communities by forming an all-female theatre troupe, fighting for their dreams of performing arts careers against societal expectations.

The out-of-competition section will showcase two more titles with Nordic ties - Min Bahadur Bham’s Shambhala and Charlie McDowell’s The Summer Book. Shambhala, co-produced by Oslo-based Ape&Bjørn with Nepalese, French, Hong Kong, Turkish, Taiwanese, Qatari, and US partners, premiered in the Berlinale’s main competition. The story follows Pema, a young woman in a polyandrous Himalayan village, on a quest to find her husband after his sudden disappearance, a journey that transforms her understanding of love and spirituality.

McDowell’s film, based on Tove Jansson’s 1972 novel of the same name and staged by Helsinki Filmi with US and UK partners, is toplined by Glenn Close, Emily Matthews, Anders Danielsen Lie, Ingvar Sigurdsson, Pekka Strang, and Sophia Heikkilä. The Summer Book tells the story of Sophia, a nine-year-old girl who is growing up fast, and her grandmother, who is nearing the end of her life. Together with Sophia’s father, they spend time at their family’s summer home on a tiny, unspoiled island in the Gulf of Finland, exploring the islet, talking about life, nature, and everything but their feelings about Sophia’s mother’s death and their love for one another. The feature, backed by Nordisk Film & TV Fond, is being distributed by SF Studios and will hit Finnish screens on 31 January 2025.

Finally, the brand-new Zibaldone sidebar will host the screening of the Palestinian feature From Ground Zero. The feature, premiered at Amman and Toronto and supervised by Rashid Masharawi, is composed of 22 shorts, including documentaries, fiction, animation, and experimental films about the current situation of the people of Gaza amid the Palestinian genocide. The effort is a co-production between the Masharawi Fund for Films & Filmmakers in Gaza, France’s Coorigines Production, Turkey’s Metafora Production, UAE’s Sharjah Art Foundation, Switzerland’s Akka Films, the Doha Film Institute, Jordan’s Royal Film Commission, and Copenhagen-based NGO International Media Support.

At the press conference held in Rome last week, the new festival head Giulio Base, promised to deliver a “crunchy” event filled with new discoveries, crowd-pleasers, local titles and, of course, Italian and international stars, such as Sharon Stone, Matthew Broderick, Vince Vaughn, Billy Zane, Giancarlo Giannini, Alec Baldwin, and Ornella Muti, walking the red carpet.

TFF will open with Ron Howard’s Eden and close with the world premiere of Bill Fishman’s Marlon Brando biopic Waltzing with Brando, with both directors in tow.