OPENING NIGHT: FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 13
Sister, What Grows Where Land is Sick? (Norway, 2022)
Feature | 80 min. | 7:00 pm
In a small town in Northern Norway, Eira tries to navigate in the shadows of her brilliant and rebellious older sister Vera. Lately, something is happening to Vera, and on a quest to find out what, Eira starts reading her diary. She enters Vera’s universe of intense light, glitter, mythology, and hopes for a more beautiful world. Yet, her diary reveals darkness and rage that Eira doesn't know how to deal with.
Sister, What Grows Where Land is Sick? unites magical realism and coming-of-age to depict sisterhood, mental illness, and the helplessness of watching someone you love suffer. We follow the sisters through everyday activities and small discoveries during one spring, as the walls separating reality and fantasy start collapsing around them. The diary reveals Vera’s inner life, which also opens Eira’s eyes to the world at large, with the witchhunts of the past and the alarming presence of the climate crisis, representing our present and future. Each scene that unfolds clarifies Vera's desperation. What is sanity in an insane world?
Other award-winning films include:
- The Gullspång Miracle (Sweden/Norway/Denmark, 2023), an eerie story of family reunification that transforms into a stranger-than-fiction drama about identity, family secrets, and the need to believe.
- Twice Colonized (Greenland/Denmark/Canada, 2023), a documentary following world-renowned Inuit lawyer Aaju Peter as she strives to reclaim her language and identity after a lifetime of whitewashing and forced assimilation.
- Godland (Iceland/Denmark/Sweden/France, 2022), a drama set in the 19th-century where a young 19th-century Danish priest is sent to a remote part of Iceland, where he gradually loses a sense of his own reality, mission, and sense of duty.
- Flowers (Sweden, 2023), a fun film following Emma, who meets a tight-knit group of high schoolers at a forest rave. Going from one party to another, she soon becomes part of the group in their search for new highs and their place in society.
Stay tuned for individual tickets and the full schedule of films!
About the Curator:
We are pleased to announce that this year’s line-up is guest curated by Silja Espolin Johnson. Johnson is a film curator, and Head of Kunstnernes Hus Cinema in Oslo since its establishment in 2016, as part of the artist-owned institution Kunstnernes Hus. She has a background in film production and studied at the European Film College in Ebeltoft, Denmark and the Norwegian Film School, and holds a Master in Aesthetics from the University of Oslo.
Looking for the Sami Film Festival? Find out more about this February event here.
