The 39th Midnight Sun Film Festival shines bright from June 12 to 16. Buzzing with cinema day and night, the festival brings famed filmmaker guests to Sodankylä from all around the world as well as Finland.
The Midnight Sun Film Festival opens in the morning of Wednesday June 12 at 11 am, when the iconic Cinema Lapinsuu presents the Finnish premiere of Close Your Eyes (2023), the latest picture by Victor Erice who visited the festival in 1995. The film explores themes of time and memory through the use of three different temporal levels as the story centres a movie that remains unfinished as its lead actor disappears mysteriously during the shoot. The official opening screening in Cinema Lapinsuu at 19:30 showcases The Lovers on the Bridge (1991) by the visionary filmmaker guest Leos Carax. From Carax’s restless camerawork emerges a unique, brutal and striking poetic creation starring Denis Lavant and Juliette Binoche.
From Wednesday onwards, Sodankylä welcomes a number of international directors. As a bold reformer of Italian cinema, Michelangelo Frammartino presents the Midnight Sun audience with his international breakthrough The Four Times (2010). The modern masterpiece depicts a soul’s journey between the body and different states in a poetic and irresistibly cinematic way. German-Turkish director Aslı Özge visits the screening of her dark psychological thriller All of a Sudden (2016). The small-town story of the social decline of a son from a good family shows how fluidly honesty and loyalty can be defined.
With his strong personal filmmaker’s voice, Kazakh director Adilkhan Jeržanov presents the audience with his wild tragicomedy The Owners (2014) on Thursday. Influences of the film can be traced back to names such as Aki Kaurismäki, Franz Kafka and Vincent van Gogh. In the same evening the winner of multiple Academy Awards Alfonso Cuarón takes over Cinema Lapinsuu with his major international breakthrough Y tu mamá también (2001).
Present on Thursday evening is also Alice Rohrwacher from the top of modern Italian cinema with La Chimera (2023). The cinematically playful story about grave robbers is set in Tuscany in the 80s and had its cinema release in Finland in the spring. Additionally, Rohrwacher’s short film De Djess (2015) has been added to the programme. The short set in the fashion world viewed through a surrealist lens was the first collaboration between Rohrwacher and the Finnish musical group Cleaning Women, whom the director met on her first visit to Midnight Sun Film Festival in 2014. Friday the group of guests expands with the arrival of Norwegian Dag Johan Haugerud whose films in the programme include Sex (2024). The first instalment of an ambitious trilogy is both entertaining and discursive about its themes of approaches and expectations in modern relationships.
Many Finnish filmmakers also take part in the screenings of their recent and older works throughout the five-day festival. On the first evening, the programme includes the first ever feature in the Skolt Sámi language Je’vida (2023) by Katja Gauriloff, and actor Jari Virman joins the screening of black comedy Death Is a Problem for the Living (2023) directed by Teemu Nikki. On Thursday, documentarists Virpi Suutari and Ville Suhonen introduce their recent works Once Upon a Time in a Forest (2024) and Children of War and Peace (2024). New Finnish Shorts includes the premiere of Mia Halme’s short documentary Fabulous Cow Ladies (2024). The screening is also joined by Elina Talvensaari whose recent How to Please (2023) received a short film Jussi award.
The festival’s beloved masterclasses commence from the first day when the wave of five beach films curated by film scholar Olaf Möller takes off with Alberto Lattuada’s The Boarder (1954). Head of Forum programme at Berlinale and an expert of Soviet cinema, Austrian Barbara Wurm introduces the documentary Mother and Daughter, or the Night Is Never Complete (2023) by Georgian master Lana Gogoberidze, and well-renowned British film critic Mark Kermode presents director William Friedkin’s action thriller The French Connection (1971).
Midnight Film Festival offers five days and five nights of mind-blowing cinematic experiences June 12–16. The festival period is filled with enchanting silent film concerts, wild karaoke screenings and in total over a hundred feature and short films. The programme invites the audience to enjoy music and dance at the festival clubs, and immerse themselves in fascinating discussions led by experts and filmmakers.
Midnight Sun Film Festival would like to thank our partners:
Ammattiliitto Pro ry, Finland Festivals ry, EU/Creative Media, Laitilan Wirvoitusjuomatehdas, Niilo Helander Foundation, The Ministry of Education and Culture (OKM), The National Audiovisual Institute (KAVI), Finnish Film Foundation (SES), The Sodankylä Municipality, Taike, YLE Teema, The French Institute in Finland, Istituto Italiano di Cultura di Helsinki, Embassy of Mexico
Image: Axa Sorjanen