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The Nordic comedy has never been better. Göteborg Film Festival now releases its second focus for the festival 2019: Nordic Comedy. The world premiere of the major comedy Britt-Marie was here unofficially starts off both the festival and Nordic Comedy, which includes a review of the best comedies of the year from the Nordic countries, a live-podcast and many wonderful short-films.
The 42:nd edition of Göteborg Film Festival starts on January 25, but already on January 24, both the festival and Focus: Nordic Comedy secretly starts with the Swedish feature film Britt-Marie was here, based on the best-selling novel by Fredrik Backman, starring Pernilla August in the main role and directed by Tuva Novotny.
– Clever cops and mysterious murders have long established ‘Nordic Crime’ as an international phenomenon. But the last couple of year’s Nordic films show on a new tendency: we have stopped scaring and started joking. Focus: Nordic Comedy is a tribute to the contemporary Nordic comedy and an attempt to try to understand the humour’s social and political role in today’s culture, says Jonas Holmberg, Artistic Director at Göteborg Film Festival.
The Nordic Comedy has made success all over the world. Since European Film Academy initiated a prize for best European Comedy, four out of five winners have been from the Nordic countries. Films and tv-series like A Man Called Ove, Dag, The Square, Klovn, Lilyhammer, Rams and The Hundred-Year Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared have made that the world turn to the Nordic countries to have a laugh.
During Göteborg Film Festival 2019, we highlight the funniest, weirdest and most provocative the Nordic countries have to offer right now. The Danish comedy duo Ditte Hansen and Louise Mieritz attend the festival and offer a Danish MeToo comedy, Patrik Eklund premiers his new badminton-comedy Revenge and then it will be a wonderful trip with the Finish heavy-metal scene in Heavy Trip. In addition, the podcaster and comedian K. Svensson shows the first episodes of his humorous short-series The Pine and The Elk and podcast live together with Jonathan Unge and Simon “Chippen” Svensson from Della Monde.
Nordic Comedy and the humour’s political force have also been given space in the festival’s seminar program. The so called ‘alt-right movement’ have embraced snappy satire, provocative irony and mocking humour which traditionally has been the left’s way of sticking hole on the elite. We have invited Jens Ganman, Rojin Pertow, Ditte Hansen and Louise Mieritz for a conversation about whether the right is the new satirist.
See below for nine of the films that are included in Focus: Nordic Comedy. More films will be presented at the program release on January 8.
Focus: Nordic Comedy
Pernilla August shines in Tuva Novotny’s warm and moving film adaption of Fredrik Backman’s success novel. When Britt-Marie’s husband’s affair is exposed after 40 years of marriage everything is turned upside-down. In warm and humorous notes, Tuva Novotny draws a gripping image of a human and a society in transformation.
Focus: Nordic Comedy
The popular tv-series Ditte & Louise has been turned into film and the result is a grunting MeToo slapstick. The actors Ditte & Louise dream of getting film roles but after Ditte has auditioned for yet another role as a nameless prostituted, she goes to her next audition as Ditlöv. Her new male persona is an immediate success, but the fact that Ditlöv is treated like a ruptured genius puts the friendship with Louise on trial. Ditte & Louise is a comical triumph at the same time as it exposes a patriarchal film industry.
Focus: Nordic Comedy
The Pine & The Elk is a truecom that relates to film in the same way a podcast relates to radio. It is about the underground artist K. Svensson and his two friends and colleagues Johannes and Christoffer, his successful wife Anna and her sister Marie. During the festival, the first two episodes of the series will be shown.
Focus: Nordic Comedy
Wild, sparkling and award-winning comedy about a patchy group modest young men on the Finish countryside that dream of breaking though with their all through raw metal-band. Jukka Vidgren and Juuso Laatios Heavy Trip is a colourful and loving trip with the Finnish metal-world, and their sometimes slightly distasteful attribute, which succeeds in its attempt to attract others than only those who already loves metal.
Focus: Nordic Comedy
The superannuated ex-badminton player Annbritt has never gotten over her defeat in SM-final 1983, alcoholic and after revenge she attempts to make a comeback. The Festival favourite Patrik Eklund’s new short-series in ten episodes is an absurd, black comedy with much warmth. Anki Larsson and Olle Sarri shine in the roles as the outmoded elite-athlete Annbritt and her newly divorced and homeless son Mattias.
Focus: Nordic Comedy
Oskar makes everything he can to avoid all women that shows an interest, but is secretly in love with his dog’s vet. Everything is turned upside down when she suddenly one day becomes divorced. Maggi, on the other hand, throws himself from one relationship to another without hesitation, hoping it is eternal love every time. With a lot of humour, the everyday life of the two Icelandic brothers and their friends is portrayed. The Swedish Maximilian Hult’s (Hemma) humanistic drama comedy is a real pearl.
Focus: Nordic Comedy
Grump grunts through life and when his wife dies he sees no reason to live on. Grump stand in strong contrast to one of his sons, who is obsessed with success, luxury and the daughter Sofia’s success. She has been accepted to Princeton and is the father’s feather in the cap. Now he wants her to continue to study and network, but Sofia has completely different plans. The second film about The Grump connects to the modern Nordic comedy tradition (like Ove and The Hundred Year Old Man) about grumbling older men with a righteous and honest heart.
Focus: Nordic Comedy
A centipede that is broken in two, a TV-presenter and a writer that argues about the collective’s existence, an Ikarus who do not want to burn and the artist herself dressed in Dali’s melting clocks. Come along to Iris Smedes absurd humour-filled universe where a line of characters discuss the big questions in life and the contemporary society’s meaninglessness in their search for the average. The film is screened as part of the short film package LOL.
Focus: Nordic Comedy
Fredrik is driven by a wish to become a successful entrepreneur and is searching for investors to his new business idea. Rasmus has just been diagnosed with ALS and feels that life is running away from him. In company with the Sankt Bernard dog Dollar, the two men travel to China to build a breeding centre. But to navigate on the Chinese market becomes harder than they thought and soon they find themselves in one bizarre situation after another. Brilliant actor contributions and smart humour in the satirical documentary filmmaker Mads Brügger’s feature film debute.
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