2023 Saxo Scandinavian Film Festival

Melbourne is experiencing big cinema blockbuster mania with the much-anticipated releases of Oppenheimer and Barbie. For cinephiles out there who (1) have already consumed both films (2) seek a gritty, absorbing and vibrant foreign film and (3) are fans of Scandi noir, the 2023 Saxo Scandinavian Film Festival will be right up your cultural alley. Presented by Palace Cinemas, this year’s festival showcases the best contemporary cinema from Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. Milk Bar is on hand to offer its best recommendations.

Based on true events, Let the River Flow stars the charismatic and proud Sámi Ella Marie Hætta Isaksen and follows the journey of Ester, a young woman who is unexpectedly ensnared into a protest against a dam that may flood Indigenous Sámi land. Powerful and vivid, this moving story explores the inherent link between identity, land and culture, and finding a voice – collective or otherwise – to fight for what you believe in.

Discover how a constitutional monarchy operates in the fascinating and thought-provoking documentary The King, focusing on the life of Swedish King Carl XVI Gustaf, who became the world’s youngest king in 1973. For two years and over roughly two thousand emails later, journalist Karin af Klintberg was given exclusive access to the Swedish Royal Court and the king himself. The doco is an intimate portrait of the monarch, featuring him in formal and informal settings, including state visits and an exclusive one-on-one interview.

Copenhagen Does Not Exist is an intriguing psychological drama about isolation and depicts an unconventional love story between two complex people, Ida and Sander, who cut themselves off from the world in search of deep intimacy, shutting out the hustle and hubbub of a big city. When Ida vanishes without a trace, Sander is interrogated to uncover what really happened. Based on the novel Sander and with a screenplay by Oscar-nominated screenwriter and director Martin Skovbjerg (The Worst Person in the World), this is one film not to miss.

The acclaimed Godland is award-winning writer/director Hlynur Pálmason’s follow-up to his hit A White, White Day and is a stunning historical drama of a Danish priest who goes on a pilgrimage across a largely unexplored Iceland in the 1800s. Lucas (Elliot Crosset Hove) is an idealistic yet naïve young Lutheran clergyman, who ventures out to a remote part of Iceland to build a church, but his journey is challenged by an unforgiving terrain, dangerous glaciers and rivers. Breathtaking, epic and simply extraordinary, Godland is truly unique.

Go north this winter and check out the Scandinavian Film Festival. It’s screening at selected Palace Cinemas in Melbourne until Wednesday 2 August 2023.