46th edition of Noordelijk Film Festival begins!
The 46th edition of the Noordelijk Film Festival kicked off on Wednesday evening with a screening of Brave New Love. This marks the start of five days of films, documentaries and a wide-ranging programme of supporting events at various venues across Leeuwarden.
“Sometimes you have to put your ego aside for a moment to make someone else happy.” That was the message conveyed to the audience on Wednesday evening by the Danish actor Simon Sears, one of the lead actors in Brave New Love. He attended the opening alongside director and screenwriter Maria Bäck.
In the Fellini Hall at Stadsschouwburg De Harmonie, the pair had a brief conversation with artistic director Henriëtte Poelman about the opening film. Bäck has been working on the story for several years. “I wasn’t looking for it, but the story found me,” she said. “I got this image in my head of a woman, naked, in a forest. And then I wanted to know who she was and why she was standing there.” Bäck suggests that you don’t necessarily have to draw a moral from it, but that she hopes the film offers insights you may not have had before. “Ultimately, I’m mainly curious about love.”
The rock band SLATT had kicked off the evening with a musical performance just moments earlier. “We hope you’ve all been rocked awake properly,” said Hester Terpstra, director of the organising foundation Film in Friesland, addressing the audience just after the mini-concert.
“Rock ’n’ roll, just like film, tells stories. Every generation picks out something that’s relevant to them and then makes it their own. And that actually puts us right at the heart of this festival’s theme: storytelling,” she continued after a brief Q&A with the band.
‘Stories about language, identity and culture’
“Over the next five days, we’re going to see a whole host of stories again. Stories from Fryslân, from the North and from further afield. Sometimes familiar, sometimes surprising and sometimes quite confrontational. In my view, that’s what makes film so interesting: you get a glimpse into someone else’s world.”
Terpstra highlighted, amongst other things, the films and documentaries from Sápmi – the traditional homeland of the Sámi in northern Europe – which have been brought together in the special programme section ‘Sámi Stories’, including the Dutch premiere of *Árru* on Thursday. “Stories in which language, identity and culture play an important role. Something we naturally recognise here in Fryslân as well.”
International guests
After expressing his gratitude to the many volunteers, the festival team and De Harmonie, Terpstra welcomed the international guests. Among them was Tim Kruithoff, the mayor of Emden. The Noordelijk Film Festival has a partnership with the Internationales FilmFest Emden-Norderney, a delegation from which is visiting Leeuwarden.
A special word of thanks was also extended to the embassies of Norway, Sweden and Finland. “For their valuable support, particularly in bringing Sámi stories and perspectives to our audience,” said Terpstra.
Artistic director Henriëtte Poelman then took over from Hester Terpstra. “Over five days, we will be screening around a hundred feature-length and short films, some of which are so new that they have not yet been shown in the Netherlands, or indeed may never be,” she explained. She also highlighted the ‘Private-Public-Political’ programme strand, which focuses on the consequences of the invasion and war in Ukraine for residents of Ukraine, Russia and Lithuania, and the choices they face in their daily lives.
Spotlight guest Sjón
This year’s Spotlight guest is the Icelandic screenwriter, author and poet Sjón, several of whose films will be screened during the festival. On Saturday afternoon, Sjón will be in conversation with film journalist Hugo Emmerzael during the Spotlight Talk, discussing his work and sources of inspiration. This will be followed by a screening of his brand-new short film Grylu Sker: an Icelandic Ghost Story. Sjón attended the opening film on Wednesday evening.
Theme
This year’s theme is ‘The Northern Film Festival continues the story…’ Poelman: “When you share stories, something changes. It changes the people who listen, the storytellers themselves, but also the world around them. The more often a story is told, the more the world is shaped by it. And so I ask you: which stories do we want to keep telling, which stories do we pass on? With which stories do we shape our world? I hope the festival inspires you. That it connects you with the people around you. And that you get a sense of that age-old tradition, that art of storytelling, the need to share stories with one another. And that it offers some grip on the world, which is sometimes so overwhelming.”
The Northern Film Festival runs until Sunday 8 November. The full programme, featuring many international titles alongside Dutch premieres and previews, can be found at www.noordelijkfilmfestival.nl.