Susan's Writings

Hundreds of film lovers will gather in the usually quiet Sodankylä to give life to the traditional five-day movie marathon.

The 24th Midnight Sun Film Festival is the perfect excuse to visit the Finnish Lapland for 24 hours of non-stop masterpiece screenings and meeting top international filmmakers in the light of the midnight sun.

Aki Kaurismäki, Mika Kaurismäki and Timo Malmi form the programming committee who, together with artistic director Peter von Bagh, select the films; assuring quality to the film fest party.

Gems of contemporary international cinema and classic silent films share screening space in the non-competitive festival. International directors invited this year are John Boorman from the UK, Arturo Ripstein from Mexico, Robert Guédiguian from France and Samira Makhmalbaf from Iran. Special screenings include Rauni Mollberg’s classic adaptation of Timo K Mukka’s Earth is Our Sinful Song, which is not very often seen on the big screen.

The Finnish documentary film Maan muisti, will premiere at the festival. Finnish filmmakers attending the fest include Heikki Kujanpää, the director of Falling Angels, and Timo Torikka, from Mika Kaurismäki’s Three Wise Men’s trio.

Swiss film critic Hervé Dumont, known as an expect of Frank Borzage’s films, and Paolo Mereghetti, author of Il Mereghettii Dizionarion dei Film – a masterpiece of film encyclopaedias will share their knowledge in fantastic Master Class lectures.

www.msfilmfestival.fi

Susan Fourtané – HT
Santeri Happonen – Image