The Masterclasses at the Midnight Sun Film Festival, held from 11 to 15 June, will offer insights into history of film from the perspectives of animation, experimental film, and classics. Karaoke screenings take us from the Rovaniemi Fair to the Newport Folk Festival. The festival will also see the return of Greek director Athina Rachel Tsangari, a previous visitor to Sodankylä.
Athina Rachel Tsangari, who previously attended the Festival in 2011, returns to Sodankylä with her latest works. Tsangari has played a major role in the rise of the Greek New Wave. Her debut feature film, Attenberg (2010), which premiered in competition at the Venice International Film Festival, helped redefine Greek cinema and added a touch of the unusual. Since her last visit, Tsangari has written and directed two feature films. Chevalier (2015) infuses Buñuelian humour into a discussion of masculinity. Harvest (2024), a historical drama based on Jim Crace’s acclaimed novel, pierces the idyll of rural community life with sharp insight.
Athina Rachel Tsangari joins an international line-up of guests including directors Margarethe von Trotta, Chris Petit, Julien Temple, Alan Guiraudie, Léonor Serraille, and actress Dominique Sanda.
Karaoke performances are the most copacetic part of the Midnight Sun Film Festival programme. At the event’s 40th anniversary celebrations, joy and collective singing will be stirred up with the help of songs once derided the popular rillumarei songs. At the Rovaniemi Fair (1951) is a film particularly dear to the Festival. It began the Festival’s karaoke tradition in 2005, and its roguish cast also led the musical celebrations at the event’s thirtieth anniversary. The songs of Toivo Kärki and Reino Helismaa represent a culturohistorically significant tradition that has become embedded in the collective subconscious, cherished at the Festival at the singalong screening led by Kaisa Kukkola & co. “The twists and turns of life allow no slip-sliding”, but the melody lines do!
The Festival’s karaoke performances also take us to the cryptic character of the undisputed most respected lyricist of our time, Nobel Prize winner Bob Dylan. The legendary singer-songwriter does not reveal all his cards in the film A Complete Unknown (2024), but he pulls such a deck of songs out of his back pocket that nothing else matters. The karaoke screening led by Olavi Uusivirta and Aino Torttila will be electrified, if not before, by the electric guitars Dylan incorporates into his music at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965 – as we will hear in the film.
In the Festival Masterclasses, international film influencers will, together with the audiences, immerse themselves in impressive classics that still resonate today. Russian critic Andrei Plakhov will come to the Festival from his current home in Berlin. The critic and writer, who has also served as President of the International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI), will introduce the audience to Battleship Potemkin (1925) celebrating its centenary, one of the most powerful cinematic works and depictions of rebellion. Born in what is present-day Ukraine, Plakhov is one of the film influencers who signed a petition against Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine. The scene in Battleship Potemkin depicting the massacre on the Odessa Steps resonates with new force in the current climate. The film is also timely thanks to Lauri Piispa’s recently published excellent biography of Sergei Eisenstein.
Alexander Horwath, Director of the Viennale international film festival and the Austrian Film Museum, is also known for his books focusing on film history. He directed his debut film Henry Fonda for President last year, a documentary also screened in Sodankylä and selected by many critics as one of the best premieres of the year. Horwath also takes on Fonda in his Masterclass, presenting John Ford’s striking portrayal of the Depression, The Grapes of Wrath (1940), in which the star actor plays the lead role. The film is also timely as a portrayal of the United States, and Ford is the subject of Lauri Timonen’s recently published impressive study of the director.
A Masterclass will also be led by renowned American editor Melody London, known above all for his collaboration with director Jim Jarmusch, another previous Sodankylä guest. London has also edited mainstream Hollywood productions and impressive documentaries, and her collaborators include other notable directors such as Fatih Akin and Laura Poitras. In Sodankylä, London will present a sample of her work history. Set in Memphis, Mystery Train (1989) is a charming cinematic triptych in which pop culture meets melancholy and arthouse takes on a street-credible guise.
The Festival will also feature presenters who have become familiar and indispensable to audiences over the years. German film expert Olaf Möller will present a stunning series of meta-films from 1986–1990, paying tribute to the early days of the Midnight Sun Film Festival. The films explore cinema, its technology and the experience of watching films: in post-World War II Germany, the reconstruction of the country is observed from a cinema in the Alps (Schön war die Zeit, 1988), and in a Polish film the characters of a melodrama speak directly to the audience (Escape From the “Liberty” Cinema, 1990).
Jennifer Barker, Professor of Film Studies from the United States, brings another piece of animation history to Sodankylä. Her Cosmic Zoom series presents films showcasing a breathtaking scale, ranging from the minuscule to the cosmic, and from one perspective to another. The series, curated by Barker, takes its name from Eva Szasz’s 1968 film contemplating the universe. Also featured is What Happened Then? (1994), based on the book by Tove Jansson and directed by Jaromir Wesely, with the beloved author’s voice on the soundtrack.
And director and visual artist Mika Taanila will be responsible for the Experimental Film Night School, which takes the audience towards the unexpected. Taanila presents a collection of short films he has curated, such as Revolving Rounds (2024), which Taanila describes as belonging to the “aristocracy of pea cinema”. In the film by Austrians Johann Lurfin (Sodankylä 2019) and Christina Jauernik, modern intensive farming is juxtaposed with watching films. Finnish works include Ville Koskinen’s teeth (hampaat, 2024), in which the East Helsinki metro takes viewers to the hereafter.
The Festival programme will be published on Friday, 23 May. The festival programme schedule will be published on Monday, 26 May. Series tickets and the tickets of silent film concerts and karaoke screenings will go on sale on the same day at 12 noon. Advance ticket sales will start online on Wednesday, 28 May at 12 noon.
The Midnight Sun Film Festival thanks its partners:
Ammattiliitto Pro ry, Finland Festivals ry, EU Creative Media, Genelec, Goethe-Institut Finnland, Kemijoki Oy, Laitilan Wirvoitusjuomatehdas Oy, Kansallinen audiovisuaalinen instituutti (KAVI), Suomen elokuvasäätiö (SES), Sodankylän kunta, Suomen Kulttuurirahasto, Taiteen edistämiskeskus (Taike), Tähtikuitu oy, YLE Teema