Scandinavia House

NORWAY
Together/Sammen

September 29 & October 2

Directed by Matias Armand Jordal (2009). Together is a drama about loss and love, told in a realistic style with a great deal of humor and warmth. It is a story of a father and son’s journey through a landscape of sorrow after they tragically lose the one person they love the most. It’s about how they deal with their new everyday life without her, and their strain to win control over a new situation. The woman who dies was the glue that kept the family together, and without her they feel like they have to make a new start, a situation that exhausts them both. They realize that they haven’t spent much time together, and have a hard time trying to communicate with each other. Even simple things like making a meal become a challenge. The father experiences the loss of this woman so strongly that he isn’t able to pull himself together and take responsibility of his own and his son’s life. In pure desperation he meets with child welfare services, and when his son is temporarily sent to an orphanage, he isolates himself from his surroundings and rejects every attempt at contact, even from his own son. But the son refuses to give up hope that they can become a family again, and fights bravely to bring his father back to life. 100 min.

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The Storm in My Heart/Jernanger

October 6 & October 9

Directed by Pål Jackman (2009). The Storm in My Heart is a tale about the short-tempered Eivind who isn’t scared of anything- except love. Eivind lives aboard a boat in Southern Norway. The boat lies low and lopsided in the water. Thirty years ago Eivind left his homestead and his teenage sweetheart behind, and he has not been back since. He meant to go back when everything was okay - only that never happened. One day young Kris appears. He wants to travel the world but didn’t get any further than to the lifeboat of Jernanger. The two men find one another and together they hatch a great plan. 96 min.

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The Angel/Engelen

October 13 & October 16

Directed by Margreth Olin (2009). Lea grows up in a home where she is unprotected. From being a cheerful, curious little girl, Lea sees her life brutally change when her mother returns to her ex-husband Ole. The death dance between the two adults damages the child growing up between them.

Lea turns to drinking in order to cope with everyday life in her family. When Lea gives birth to her daughter Sonja, she tries to make a clean break with her family and start a new life. Despite wanting to take care of her child and provide her with the protection she herself was deprived of, Lea soon realizes she lacks this ability. As a consequence, she must make an impossible decision. 97 min.

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Upperdog

October 20 & October 23

Directed by Sara Johnsen (2009). As young children, half-siblings Axel and Yanne are adopted to Norway - he to material wealth on Oslo’s west side, and she to an average family on the east side of town. With his well-meaning, but indulgent adoptive parents, Axel grows into a spoiled brat who hides the insecurity of his troubled past behind an indifferent façade. In contrast to her younger brother, Yanne remembers their journey to Norway, but because they were separated upon arrival, she has no idea where or who he might be now.

However, all this changes when Yanne’s Polish friend Maria starts working as a maid for Axel’s parents, and discovers a photograph of him as a young boy. Maria saw the same picture on the wall of Yanne’s flat, and with an outsider’s enthusiastic lack of restraint, she takes on the task of reuniting them.

Yanne isn’t immediately convinced that contacting her brother after all these years is such a good idea; she’s already got her hands full with Per, a tormented ex-marine with a full load of demons in his baggage after serving in Afghanistan. For her part, Maria becomes much more intimately involved with the son in the house than would seem proper for a maid, and soon finds herself entangled in a turbulent affair with her friend’s little brother. Before she has time to realize the consequences, she has sparked a chain of events which involves many more feelings than just her own.

Upperdog is a vibrant relational dramedy with a wide thematic palette, where young people’s longing and search for themselves and for love, their vulnerability and conceit, is addressed with both liberating buoyancy and thoughtful gravity. With elegant narrative flair and direction, the team behind Upperdog has created a truly heartfelt film in this entertaining and moving story from contemporary Norway. 100 min.

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Shabana’s Choice/Shabanas valg

October 27 & October 30

Directed by Martin Rehman Gaarder (2010). Shabana's Choice is an account of the remarkable life and provocative work of a standup-comedian and a special Norwegian woman with an immigrant background. It is a story of the personal risks, advantages and disadvantages of chasing a radical dream: claiming the freedom to choose for herself who she wants to be, without being dictated by ethnicity, religion, gender, prejudices or ignorance. In a small country on the edge of Europe, an immigrant girl grows up to become a highly rebellious and provocative Muslim woman. Her shocking political stunts, sexy stand-up performances and satirical columns catapult her to fame as a champion of liberal Muslim women aspiring to the Scandinavian lifestyle of gender equality and freedom of expression.

But the publicity comes at a price. Suddenly her life is at stake and she escapes to New York. This real-life journey jump-starts an internal one. The long-hidden, painful story of her youth begins to surface. It is time to confront her own inner demons and show the world how this victim became a freedom fighter. Outwardly she is tough, but inside she is still vulnerable. And in love.

This is her personal story as seen through the eyes of her Norwegian husband about a modern cross cultural marriage. 69 min.

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SWEDEN
Sebbe

November 3 & November 6

Directed by Babak Najafi (2010). Duct tape, electric wires, trigger, explosives. Sebbe never planned on building a bomb, things just turned out that way. Sebbe is fifteen and lives with his mother in an apartment that is much too small. He does his best. He never hits back. Sebbe loves his mother because he has no other choice.

Sebbe escapes to the junk yard, and in his hands, dead things come to life. He has the power to create. Here he is free, but alone. His detachment increases at the same pace that his world shrinks, until finally, one day he is completely isolated, without anyone except his mother. When she fails him, all else fails. 83 min.

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A Rational Solution/Det enda rationella

November 10 & November 13

Directed by Jörgen Bergmark (2009). Erland is working in a paper mill in a small industrial town together with his best friend Sven-Erik. In his spare time he is, together with his wife May, running an evening marriage discussion group at the local church. At a party Erland is overcome by a strong attraction and soon begins a love affair with Sven-Erik’s new wife Karin. Erland’s rational solution is that the four of them should sit down and discuss the situation. They decide that Sven-Erik and Karin should move in with Erland and May. Furthermore they set up 10 rules for their new life together. This experiment really puts them to the test, threatening to plunge them all into the abyss. 104 min.
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BANANAS!*

November 17 & November 20

Directed by Fredrik Gertten (2009). BANANAS!* is a suspenseful, layer-peeling, court room drama chronicle contextualized within the global politics of food and developing world dynamics. Directed by Fredrik Gertten, Sweden’s preeminent documentarian and investigative journalist, BANANAS!* focuses on a slippery fact trail and a landmark and highly controversial legal case pitting a dozen Nicaraguan plantation workers against Dole Food Corporation and its alleged usage of a deadly banned pesticide and its probable link to generations of sterilized workers.

Central to both the film and case is Juan “Accidentes” Dominguez, a Los Angeles-based personal injury attorney who, although iconic within the Latino community for his ubiquitous billboard ads, is unquestionably facing the biggest case and challenge of his career. As the legal representation on the first Nicaraguan sterility case to be tried in U.S. courts, Dominguez and his colleague, Duane C. Miller, are breaking new ground. Theirs is a bellwether case: The first of thousands of cases awaiting trial in Nicaragua and the first legal case where foreign farm workers were allowed to testify against an American multinational corporation before a full jury on U.S. soil. At stake are the futures of generations of workers, their families, as well as the culture of global, multinational business.

This case has been followed by experts and companies all over the world. If Dominguez is successful, it could rock the economic foundations of Dole and Dow, and would open the U.S. courts to other global victims of U.S.-based multinationals. It would represent a new day in international justice, and there are further cases of a similar nature coming up next in many jurisdictions. BANANAS!* is a court room drama covering the case of the 12 Nicaraguan banana workers who have sued Dole in what has become an extremely controversial trial. Cameras inside the court and interviews with Dominguez and the plaintiffs take the audience directly to the story. 87 min.
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Starring Maja/Prinsessa

December 1 & December 4

Directed by Teresa Fabik (2009). Maja, 18 years old, lives in a hopelessly backward small town in Sweden. Her life’s dream is to become an actress. She wants to be the center of attention and for everyone to see the beautiful person she is on the inside. Only it’s a little hard to see, since Maja is heavily overweight, clumsy, and socially inept.

Erika Sohlman is a 28 year-old documentary filmmaker from Stockholm. When she meets Maja, she sees an excellent opportunity to create a reality show about Maja’s life, a tragicomic piece of entertainment, at Maja’s expense. Happy to finally get the attention she deserves, Maja gratefully embraces the opportunity to be on camera.

Maja struggles to realize her dream and establish her own identity during her final term of high school. Her road to success is lined with comedy and tragedy: she is dogged by the prejudices against someone with the “wrong” appearance; she is caught between a self-centered mother and an indifferent father; her timid crush on the popular guy reveals that even he harbors hidden secrets and disappointments.

Over time, Maja realizes that Erika may be using her, and she must ask herself if the attention is worth the price. Their roles are suddenly reversed when Maja grasps that Erika needs her more than she needs Erika. In the end Maja finds the strength and the self-assurance necessary to really take center stage – on her own terms. 94 min.
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The Torso
Based on the novel Tatuerad Torso by Helene Tursten

October 8 & October 9

Part of a dismembered corpse is washed up on a rocky shore on the outskirts of Göteborg. The only worthwhile lead Detective Inspector Irene Huss has to go on is a striking tattoo on the torso.

Her investigations lead her to Copenhagen, where she is plunged into a manhunt for a depraved and vicious killer. A killer she knows will soon strike again, and who is becoming far too interested in her family.

The Horse Figurine
Based on the novel Den Krossade Tanghästen by Helene Tursten

October 22 & October 23

A man jumps from a balcony and dies. His terrified wife witnesses the event in a nearby taxi cab. Once D.I. Irene Huss arrives on the scene, it soon turns out that what appeared to be a tragic suicide is actually a brutal murder, and the victim is one of Göteborg's wealthiest men.

When it becomes clear that a biker gang is involved, the investigation gets even more complicated and Irene finds herself tracking down a shrewd and dangerous murderer among ex-millionaires, motorcycle gangs, drug-dealers and blackmailers. Suddenly, the lives of Irene, her family and her colleagues are in danger. At the same time, she has to deal with everyday life and a teenage daughter who has decided to join a gang of skinheads with neo-Nazi tendencies.

The Fire Dance
Based on the novel Eldsdansen by Helene Tursten

October 29 & October 30

Göteborg is struck by a series of fires. Irene Huss starts investigating an arson case that may be connected to an event that occurred fifteen years ago, a tragic unsolved case that challenged the D.I. when she first came to the Violent Crimes Unit. The population is unnerved by the thought of an arsonist on the loose, and the pressure on Irene and the rest of her team is immense.

In the midst of everything else, a woman has been stabbed to death. The victim, a reclusive elderly woman, seems to have little in common with the fires that ravage the mainland. But as Irene digs deeper into the case, she reveals secrets from the past.

The Night Round
Based on the novel Nattrond by Helene Tursten

November 5 & November 6

A blackout leaves the distinguished halls of the Löwanderska Hospital in complete darkness. Doctor Sverker Löwander hears the alarm when one of the ventilators goes off, and rushes to the intensive care unit only to find the nurse in charge dead in the stairwell and the other missing without a trace.

When D.I. Irene Huss arrives, the sole witness claims to have seen Nurse Tekla doing her rounds. There's only one slight problem: Nurse Tekla committed suicide at the hospital sixty years ago.

Irene is challenged by an intriguing case and dramatic relations, all spiced up with wandering ghosts from the past.

The Glass Devil
Based on the novel Glasdjävulen by Helene Tursten

November 12 & November 13

In a small village near Göteborg, three members of the Schyttelius family are brutally murdered in their respective homes, and the victims’ blood is used to draw upside-down pentagrams on the walls. The investigators soon learn that the upside-down pentagrams symbolize the face of Satan.

Irene Huss learns that Sten Schyttelius, a minister, and his family, were trying to investigate a local Satanist movement in their parish. Irene pursues the lead, but is the answer really a satanic cult? And do only the good go to church?

The Gold Digger
Based on the novel Guldkalven by Helene Tursten

November 19 & November 20

An online poker company promises fame and fortune, but when the bubble bursts, it’s not only the dream of big money that bites the dust: three separate men are all brutally executed in one of Göteborg's most fashionable areas.

But that's all they appear to have in common. The complex investigation of the three dead men immerses D.I. Irene Huss and her colleagues into a world of expensive cars, fancy homes and impressive castles in the air.

Meanwhile, the normally peaceful atmosphere of the Huss family is disturbed by marital tension as Irene suspects her husband Krister of a having an affair with a younger woman.