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The 23rd Arktisen Upeeta film festival is held at Kino Aurora between 19th – 25th of November. This year the festival is centered around the theme of DISTURBANCE, which is represented in the 17 screenings of the festival both as societal disturbance as well as personal disturbance. In addition to this, a portion of the films are just downright disturbing.
Out of the whole film program, of which a total of eight films are Finnish premiers, only one is not suitable for non-Finnish speaking audiences (that being the HOLY SPIDER preview on the closing day, being spoken in Persian and subtitled in Finnish). The rest of the film program is either subtitled or spoken in English.
In addition to the film screenings the festival also organizes a queer feminist self-defense workshop on Saturday the 19th (free for all, limited to sixteen people, registrations by email to mikko@arktisenupeeta.net) + a vegan brunch on Sunday the 20th.
Below you can check out this year’s festival trailer + trailers to the films, read short synopses & find links to buy tickets from Kino Aurora’s website (website in Finnish).
saturday 19.11.
13:00 - if I could wish for something
Dora García / 2021 / Belgium-France-Mexico-Norway / 68min. / R16 / language: Spanish / subtitles: English
Documentary film following the large-scale feminists demonstrations & the feminist uprising of Mexico City.
You can watch the trailer by clicking here.
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15:00 - triangle of sadness
Ruben Östlund / 2022 / Sweden-Germany-French-Turkey / 148min. / R12 / language: English / subtitles: Finnish
A 250 million dollar luxury yacht filled with mega rich oligarchs, gun dealers and other hoarders of wealth and power, together with the working class harnessed to serve them as cooks, cleaners and waitresses, gets struck by a storm & crashes on a deserted island.
18:00 - w
Anna Eriksson / 2022 / Finland / 101min. / R16 / language: Canton, French / subtitles: English
This dark and powerful expressionistic trip sees Madame Europe in a sick and dying state, addicted to a red liquid medicine, served to her by a cold & dominant man-machine. Outside their hideout, a war rages. Elsewhere, an institute of nurses keep performing their robot-like rituals in a belief that the totalitarian state they serve is still in power. Suddenly, a stranger appears, disturbing their trance.
20:30 - lamb
Valdimar Jóhannsson / 2021 / Iceland / 106 min. / R16 / language: Icelandic / subtitles: English
Maria and Ingvar, a married couple with a traumatic past, toil in toxic silence and raise sheep in the the vast rural Iceland. One day, a sheep gives birth to a mysterious and unnatural offspring. The unexplained descendant awakens the mothering instincts of Maria & eventually puts forth a chain of surreal and terrifying events.
sunday 20.11.
13:00 - vegan brunch & a collection of short films
The legendary local vegan collective TEIJÄN KEITTIÖ joins forces with Arktisen Upeeta for the fifth consecutive year to serve a delicious, affordable & 100% cruelty-free BRUNCH to the filmheads of our city! After the brunch, the festival screens a curated series of hand-picked short films.
Teijän Keittiö graphics by @kohina_art & @kunstiina
15:30 - gyres & quarries
Ellie Ga / 2020 & 2022 / USA-Sweden / 39 min. + 40 min. / no age limit / language: English / subtitles: no subtitles
In a combination of installation art & film making multimedia-artist Ellie Ga uses her photographs and stream of consciousness-narrative to form an informative, fascinating and stunning continuum that touches upon topics such as ocean debris, deaths of asylum seekers at sea, the history of stone masonry and personal family tragedies.
Ellie Ga participates in a Q&A session remotely after the screening!
You can watch a clip of Gyres by clickin here.
18:00 - outside
Olha Zhurba / 2022 / Ukraine-Denmark-Holland / 79 min. / R16 / language: Ukraine / subtitles: English
In the 2014 Maidan-revolution of Ukraine, an image of a little boy dressed in camouflage and riot gear throwing molotov coctails and rocks at the police became the face of the uprising of the Ukrainian people. The boy was Roma, a homeless street kid then 13-years of age, whom director Olha Zhurba befriended and followed with a camera for five years, documenting the effects of growing up in an unstable, harsh and often violent environment of Roma and his brother.
Director Olha Zhurba is present at the screening & will participate in a Q&A-session after the film!
monday 21.11.
17:30 - so damn easy going
Christoffer Sandler / 2022 / Sweden-Norway / 90 min. / R12 / language: Sweden / subtitles: English
Joanna has a father that lives in a catatonic state of depression after the death of her mother & a pile of unpaid pharmacy bills that prevent her from getting the ADHD medication she needs. Being off the meds sets off a light show of electric shocks in her brain and makes life an unbearable chaos, which is not helped by her intense crush towards Audrey, the new student at her high school. Joanna has no other option than to gather the money for the medication, whether it be through selling condoms or by heisting a drug deal.
19:30 - maya nilo (laura)
Lovisa Sirén / 2022 / Belgium-Sweden-Finland / 102 min. / R16 / language: Swedish / subtitles: English
Maya is a devil-may-care musician that smashes her head against walls on the streets of Stockholm to stop men from harassing her. Nilo, her sister, is a serious feminist writer that has a cheating husband. Laura, Nilo’s teenage daughter, is being played be a fuckboy. The three of them, deeply disappointed in men and the state of their own lives, head on a road trip to visit Maya’s and Nilo’s mother living in Portugal, after they receive word she is sick with cancer.
tuesday 22.11.
17:30 - all of our heartbeats are connected through exploding stars
Jennifer Rainsford / 2022 / Sweden-USA-France / 77 min. / R16 / language: English, Japanese / subtitles: English
A beautiful hybrid between documentary film, art film and nature film, that through the stories of Japanese tsunami survivors explores loss and growth & the universal breathing motion of a beginning and an end that connects all things in existence.
19:30 - the eclipse
Nataša Urban / 2022 / Norway / 110 min. / R16 / language: Serbian / subtitles: English
Visually imposing documentary on growing up in war-torn Serbia during the the Yugoslav Wars, that uses the solar eclipse of 1999 both as a motif and a metaphor for a nations unclean conscience about its political choices and wartime crimes.
wednesday 23.11.
17:30 - the bubble
Aleksi Salmenperä / 2022 / Finland / 103 min. / R12 / language: Finnish / subtitles: English
In Truffaut’s 400 Blows-esque setting, a teenage daughter sees her mother kissing another woman and becomes dead set on keeping her parents together and keeping their bubble from bursting, no matter the means or costs.
20:00 - clara sola
Nathalie Álvarez Mesén / 2022 / Belgium-Costa Rica-Sweden-Germany / 106 min. / R12 / language: Spanish / subtitles: English
A film brimming with magical realism and mystic in the vein of Carrie (1976) that follows Clara, a childlike 40-year old woman showing clear signs of neurodivergent symptoms, that her deeply religious and controlling mother sees as a gift from the Virgin Mary. Clara’s expressions of sexuality are punished by her mother, that claims to guard her innocence, as she offers her as a miracle healer to passing travelers. However, Clara’s suppressed independency is beginning to break free.
thursday 24.11.
17:30 - heartbeast
Aino Suni / 2022 / France-Finland-Germany / 102 min. / R16 / language: French, Finnish / subtitles: English
A neon-drenched modern psychological thriller that explores the use of power in relationships through a young rapper Elina, that relocates with her mother to the luxurious villa-surroundings of Southern France & develops engulfing feelings towards her step-sibling Sofia, that steadily escalates towards obsession.
Director Aino Suni is present at the screening & will participate in a Q&A session after the film!
20:30 - that's amore
Malthe Saxer / 2021 / Denmark / 49 min. / R16 / language: Danish / subtitles: English
An anti-romantic comedy about falling out of love, where we see Woman and Man living together in a lighthouse. They are in a blossoming new relationship, filled with touch, sex and laughter. Before long, the Woman realizes that she cannot defecate while the Man is present & that she is slowly and steadily growing more and more irritated of him.
department of detachment
As an opening short film for That's Amore we see Elina Sahlin's The Lobster-esque story of an institute that helps people with heartbreak to distance themselves from the troublesome feelings of a broken relationship.
friday 25.11.
20:00 - sick of myself
Kristoffer Borgli / 2022 / Norway-Sweden / 97 min. / R16 / language: Norwegian / subtitles: English
This deeply dark body horror-comedy tells the absurd and shocking story of Signe, a waiter who feels unseen in her life, especially next to her companion Thomas, whose career as a contemporary artist is just starting to take off. After Signe is involved in a dog attack, she realizes that everyone’s sympathy and interest was briefly bestowed upon her. In an attempt to keep peoples attention aimed at her, she orders herself pills that have been banned for causing extreme skin conditions & takes her quest of being seen to strange and dangerous heights.
