Best of Norden - festival celebrates the Nordic Council’s Prizes

On 1 November we will finally know who are the winners of the Nordic Council’s prizes for the environment, film, literature, music, and children’s and young people’s literature. Ahead of the award ceremony, you will be able to enjoy the best of Nordic culture at the culture festival Best of Norden

This year, for the first time Best of Norden will be held at the Nordic Museum at Djurgården in Stockholm.
All the films nominated to the Nordic council Film prize will be screened between 20-22 October with English subtitles

During the weekend there will also be performances devoted to Nordic literature and the Nordic Council prizes, for example their will be poetry reading readings in Arabic and Swedish, translated to English, accompanied by soft meditative music played by violinist Annika Nummelin.

The Finnish novelist Laura Lindstedt, nominated to the Nordic Council Literature Prize 2017, for Oneiron – will be interviewed in English by the journalist Malin Ullgren, Dagens Nyheter.

Schedule for Best of Norden, activities in English

October 20
5:00 – 5:45pm
Laura Lindstedt:
Laura Lindstedt talks about her bestselling and award winning novel Oneiron, now nominated to the Nordic Council Literature Prize 2017 and translated to English and eleven other languages. In Oneiron seven women, each from a different country and unfamiliar to one another, come together in a white, undefined space just seconds after their respective deaths.
With Malin Ullgren, Dagens Nyheter.

6.00-7.45pm
Filmscreening: Little Wing (Finland)Little Wing tells the story of 12-year-old Varpu (Linnea Skog), who is rapidly approaching adulthood while her mother Siru (Paula Vesala) refuses to grow up. One night, Varpu has had enough of her horse-riding friends and her mother. She steals a car and drives north in search of the father she has never met. Finding him awakens something in both Varpu and Siru, and they begin to realise the roles they play in each other’s lives and in the world. Little Wing is directed by Selma Vilhunen and is nominated for the Nordic Council’s Film Prize 2017.

October 21

11.00-1.10pm
Filmscreening: Heartstone (Iceland)In a remote Icelandic fishing village, teenage boys Þór and Kristján experience a turbulent summer of emotional discovery and sexual awakening. As one tries to win the heart of a girl, the other begins to recognise new feelings toward his best friend. As summer ends, and harshness of Icelandic nature starts to reassert itself, the time has come to leave the playground and face adulthood.
Heartstone is directed by Guðmundur Arnar Guðmundsson and is nominated for the Nordic Council’s Film Prize 2017.

3.00-4.30pm
Filmscreening: Parents (Denmark)When their son Esben moves away from home, middle-aged Danish couple Kjeld and Vibeke are left with a sense of uncertainty and lack of purpose. In an attempt to reignite the magic of their younger days, they move into the old student apartment where they first fell in love. The experience changes them in strange and unexpected ways. Literally recapturing their youth, they wake up one morning to find themselves 30 years younger – and they are forced to recognise that the past they once knew might no longer exist.
Parents is directed by Christian Tafdrup and is nominated for the Nordic Council’s Film Prize 2017.

October 22

10.00-11.45pm
Filmscreening: Hunting Flies (Norway)Hunting Flies is a political metaphor about the rise and fall of dictatorship set in a classroom over the course of one intense day. Ghani, an idealistic teacher, loses his job on the first day of school. Making one last attempt to get it back, he locks his students inside the classroom, forcing them to resolve a generation-long conflict between their villages. Hunting Flies is directed by Izer Aliu and is nominated for the Nordic Council’s Film Prize 2017.

1:30 – 2:00pm
Nordic poetry
Birgitta Lillpers, nominated to the Nordic Council Literature Prize 2017 will read her own poems. Poet Jasim Mohamed, who has translated Swedish poetry into Arabic will read the the Swedish poet Bruno K Öijer in Arabic. The reading will be accompanied by soft meditative music played by violinist Annika Nummelin. With Åsa Beckman, Dagens Nyheter.

5.30-7.20pm
Filmscreening: Sami Blood (Sweden)Fourteen-year-old Elle Marja is a reindeer-herding Sámi girl. Confronted by the racism of the 1930s and demeaning racial examinations at her boarding school, she starts to dream of another life. But to realise her dream, she must become someone else, which means severing all ties with her family and culture. Sami Blood is directed by Amanda Kernell and is nominated for the Nordic Council’s Film Prize 2017.

Full program: https://www.nordiskamuseet.se/kalendarium/best-norden-kulturfestival

About the Nordic Council’s prizes

The Nordic Museum is situated on Djurgården, next to Djurgården bridge.

The Best of Norden Festival is included in the price for visitors.

Admission: Adults 100 SEK
Children/Youth 18 years and under: free

About the Museum