Midnight Sun Film Festival’s beloved traditions continue in June, as the festival programme includes silent film concerts of Ingeborg Holm and 7th Heaven, as well as a rollicking karaoke screening of Mika Kaurismäki’s concert film Hassisen kone 40 vuotta myöhemmin.
Victor Sjöström’s 110-year-old Ingeborg Holm (1913) will be screened in the festival’s traditional Friday night silent film concert. The early work in the legendary Swedish director’s career is a harrowing social drama about a family driven into a desperate situation by the father’s death. The music for the screening is composed by Sodankylä audience favourite, acclaimed Swedish film composer Matti Bye and one of Finland’s most highly regarded experimental musicians, singer-songwriter and composer Lau Nau. In the screening, they perform as a trio featuring cellist Leo Svensson.
Frank Borzage’s 7th Heaven (1927) takes the audience on an emotional roller coaster ride in Saturday’s silent film concert. Borzage’s expressionistic melodrama was one of the greatest commercial successes of the silent era and went on to win several awards at the first ever Oscars. One of the most iconic screen couples of Hollywood’s first decades, Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell star as the 1910s Parisian lovers, collaborating here for the first time. The film will be accompanied by Seitsemäs Taivas, featuring Lau Nau, Topias Tiheäsalo and Hermanni Yli-Tepsa.
What would the Midnight Sun Film Festival be without tent-bursting karaoke? This year, the sing-along screening showcases Mika Kaurismäki’s new concert film Hassisen kone 40 vuotta myöhemmin. The concert section of Kaurismäki’s new documentary of the same name, also to be screened at the festival, offers a real treat to the fans of one of the most iconic bands in Finnish rock history, as the members of Hassisen kone take the stage at the sold-out Ratina Stadium in their anniversary concert.
The Midnight Sun Film Festival will be held for the 38th time in June 14-18, 2023. As always, the cinematic celebration continues around the clock: screenings start early on the opening Wednesday and go on until late Sunday night.
The festival’s entire programme and filmmaker guests will be announced in May. The schedule will be published on Monday, June 29, and ticket sales will start on Wednesday, May 31.
We would like to thank our partners:
Trade Union Pro, EU/Creative Media, Finland Festivals, Jenny and Antti Wihuri Foundation, Laitilan Wirvoitusjuomatehdas, the National Audiovisual Institute (KAVI), the Ministry of Education and Culture (OKM), the Finnish Film Foundation (SES), the Sodankylä Municipality, YLE Teema.