This fall at Scandinavia House, experience Nordic comedy at its darkest with “Svart Humor”! “If there’s a dead body in Denmark, someone is going to make a joke about it,” director Anders Jensen once said; Nordic comedies are as known for their deadpan, dry wit as for their occasionally noir subject matter, celebrating the “svart/sort” (dark) side of life’s hilarities.
On October 11, see Marianne Blicher’s Miss Viborg (Denmark, 2022). Former beauty queen and senior citizen Solvej (Ragnhild Kaasgaard) lives alone with her dog in a social housing area on the outskirts of Danish provincial town Viborg. Each day, she performs the same old routines — roaming around on her scooter dealing her prescription drugs, dreaming of a world outside Viborg and reminiscing over old love letters from her past.
When unforeseen circumstances bring her neighbor’s daughter, rebellious 17-year-old Kate (Isabella Møller Hansen) into her life, an unlikely friendship forms, bringing new hope for the future.
Winner of awards including Best Picture and Vision Award from IndiePix; Best Feature, Best Written Film, Audience Award at Mag Film Fest; and Special Jury Award at Monte-Carlo Film Festival, Miss Viborg is an ode to eccentricity, and a celebration of community found in unexpected places.
“A terrifically entertaining and funny adventure of an unlikely friendship…the chemistry between Ragnhild Kaasgaard and Isabella Møller Hansen is a lot of fun to watch”—FilmCarnage
“Blicher mixes humor with compassion in the right proportions to concoct this hopeful tale of alliance between the young and old”—HighOnFilms
“Solvej is a wonderfully rich character and Kaasgaard is clearly enjoying herself”—EyeForFilm
About the Director
Marianne Blicher is a graduate from the Danish film school Super16. Blicher started her career working as a stage manager in theater and as a producer in film before she found her right path as a writing director. Her award-winning short films Belinda Beautiful, Reflections, and Odd Job Man have been competing at more than 100 festivals and are used for educational purposes. In 2019 Blicher developed and was the head writer on the award-winning annual season of Circus Summarum for the Danish Broadcasting Corporation, which was considered the most successful season to this date. In 2022 Blicher premiered with her first feature film Miss Viborg which has already won several main prizes at film festivals around the world and has also been sold to several countries.
Director statement: “My heart is filled with stories about the hidden and forgotten voices in our society! I grew up in a social housing area, in a small provincial town in Denmark, where I was mostly looked at as the odd one out or a charity case, by people who didn’t live there and didn’t know me. Everyday life was often tough and the money small, but also filled with understanding and love. In my films I want to address the prejudice that follows you when living and growing up in places like that; stressing the importance of community, friendship, a basic respect and tolerance for each individual and the transformative power of open-mindedness towards one another. I want to give a voice to the ordinary extraordinary and show that there are real people with a story behind the prejudices, presented from a female perspective with sincerity and a touch of humor.”