The extremely enjoyable Nordic Film Festival is about to hit the UK for another year, taking in London, Nottingham, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Newcastle between November 26 and December 22. The festival opens in London with director Iram Haq’s I Am Yours (2013) at Hackney Picturehouse and closes with Hotel (2013) on December 7, also at Hackney Picturehouse. A final screening of Hotel rounds things off in Glasgow on December 22. Here, Mairéad Roche shares her thoughts on a small selection of festival offerings: Paris of the North, Ai Weiwei: The Fake Case and festival opener, I Am Yours.
Paris of the North (2014) (Director: Hafsteinn Gunnar Sigurðsson)
Set in a remote Icelandic fishing village, Paris of the North follows the low key story of thirtysomething Hugi (Björn Thors), a primary school teacher who has spent the winter in the village and is now on summer vacation. His quiet routine of running, learning Portugese and going to local AA meetings is disturbed when his father Veigar (Helgi Björnsson) arrives at his door from Reykjavik. While Hugi is still pining for his ex-girlfriend, his father is a little more than a beer swilling ladies man without any concept of his son’s boundaries or appreciation of his personality.
The beautiful, but bleak dramatic setting of the film allows the story to be subtly underplayed visually as dynamics between the various kinds of father/son relationships are explored in a delightfully near submerged manner throughout the film. The themes of rehab, vulnerability and what is hiding or liberating oneself are woven within the film. Gentle comedic touches nudge home its darker emotional themes, making Paris of the North a quiet gem of a film which brings one softly through its narrative accompanied by a robust modern Icelandic soundtrack. Three Torches of Truth.
Ai Weiwei: The Fake Case (2013) (Director/Writer Andreas Johnsen)
Danish documentary writer/director Andreas Johnsen’s film Ai Weiwei: The Fake Case captures the period immediately after the release of Beijing artist Ai Weiwei’s release from a three month detention by the Chinese government and the subsequent court case for alleged tax evasion alongside his company, titled The Fake Company. Ai Weiwei is an artist in nearly all aspects of the word and is internationally known for his large installations, sculptures and photography. He is also never shy and certainly is shown in what could be considered a companion piece to this documentary, director Alison Klayman’s 2012 documentary Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry, to push political buttons in his native China, challenging the political status quo in his work and via social media.
Johnsen’s documentary portrays the constant, intent and usually deceptively subdued workings of Ai Weiwei’s political and therefore artistic vision along with the artists obvious and deep exhaustion as his own relentless innovation of cultural peaceful protest constantly battles the Chinese States’ own relentless pursuit of him. Ai Weiwei: The Fake Case deftly shows the progressive artistic community in Beijing who labour under the Chinese party, a system persistently on their heels. Ai Weiwei’s stance against government oppression does not make him out to be a hero – which he clearly never seeks to be – but a man with a well concealed fury at the system he is clearly risking everything to dismantle through peaceful but determined artistic vision. Four Torches of Truth.
I Am Yours (2013) (Director/Writer: Iram Haq)
Norwegian-Pakistani writer director Iram Haq’s feature film debut I Am Yours plants her main character Mina (Amrita Acharia) within the Norwegian-Pakistani community as Mina attempts to create relationships outside of her Pakistani community while she shares custody of her young son Felix (Prince Singh) with her ex-husband. An aspiring actress and in her mid 20s, Mina has all the freedom of life in Norway but with the restrictions of traditional Pakistani expectations and of the responsibilities of being a single mother to a young son. Suffering the inevitable persistent rejection of auditions, Mina whole heartedly devotes herself to the near indie-film perfection of her new relationship with Swedish director Jesper (Ola Rapace). As the relationship with Jesper continues, we see Mina dilute her own identity more and more in an effort to belong to someone while never satisfying or unifying the various aspects of her life.
Haq has created a stylish, cinematic film on an admittedly minuscule budget with Acharia’s central performance never once betraying the film’s humble financial funds. At times Mina’s inability to see the windows of opportunity opened to her is completely devastating; I Am Yours is a fine piece of film making with a central character of real complexity. Four Torches of Truth.
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