32nd Göteborg International Film Festival Lineup

From January 23 to February 2 the fest will take place in Sweden and here are the eight films competing for The Nordic Film Award.

Drottningen och jag (The Queen and I), Nahid Persson Sarvestani, Sweden
The Swedish Iranian documentary filmmaker meets her former opponent - Farah Diba, the wife of the shah of Iran.

Sveitabrúokaup (Country Wedding), Valdis Oskarsdottir, Iceland
A drama about a wedding on the Icelandic countryside. Directed by the acclaimed editor of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

Velsignelsen (The Blessing), Heidi Maria Faisst, Denmark
A story with personal visual language about a woman who tries to adjust to her new role as a mother.

Guidance, Johan Jonason, Sweden
A hopeful and humoristic and weird story about a man who tries an alternative therapy method to get rid of his back problems.

De gales hus (House of Fools), Eva Isaksen, Norway
An urgent and funny film about a newborn lust for life at a psychiatric ward. Based on the novel by the Norwegian author Karin Fossum.

Kielletty hedelmä (Forbidden Fruit), Dome Karukoski, Finland
A drama about friendship and revolt where 18 year old Mary runs off to the big city and Rachel goes after to make her come back.

I skuggan av värmen (In Your Veins), Beata Gårdeler, Sweden and Norway
A serious and sexually intense film about the relationship between a drug addicted security guard and a naive policeman, based on the novel by Lotta Thell.

Muukalainen (The Visitor), Jukka-Pekka Valkeapää, Finland
Strong and quiet, Tarkovsky inspired story about a mother and a son on an isolated farm. (Absolutely a must be seen for me)

To read the press release that includes another eleven Swedish world premieres go here.

The Ingmar Bergman International Debut Award is the film award to discover new talent with eight international debutants competing for the award described as for “a director making his or her debut with a film dealing with existential issues in a broad sense and displaying a dynamic or experimental awareness of the cinematic means of expression.” Have to say that just because of the award name this must be one award that many filmmakers have to wish to win. The nominees are:

Los Bastardos (The Bastards), Amat Escalante, México, France and USA, 2008
Das Fremde in mir (The Stranger in Me), Emily Atef, Germany, 2008
Desierto Adentro (The Desert Within), Rodrigo Plá, Mexico
Il y a longtemps que je t’aime (I’ve Loved You So Long), Philippe Clauderl, France, 2008
Al-Mor wa al Rumman (Pomegranates and Myrrh), Najwa Najjar, Palestine
Parque vía, Enrique Rivero, Mexico, 2008
Snijeg (Snow) Aida Begic, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Synedoche, New York, Charlie Kaufaman, USA

This is a very interesting movie selection that definitively jurors will have a hard time deciding the winner. Have seen only one but ALL are in my must be seen movie list.

The festival catalog is just great but unfortunately is available only in Swedish a language that I have very limited knowledge… still is quite complete and has great pictures of films. If you want to take a look go here.

The fest has a LGBT section that you can check the films here, again the lesbian interest films are not many as they will screen only To Faro and Affinity. If you want to read the press release with a very suggestive name: Gus Van Sant’s Milk heads massive gay section go here.

One of the most interesting sections is Turkey – Country in Focus that will screen 13 movies and one that I have to see is Milk (Süt) that is the next Semih Kaplanoglu film after Yumurta. You can check all the movies here.

There are many films in the fest and to browse the films you can go here and check each section of the fest to find the films. All films have an IMDb link if you need to use it to read more information.