The annual Nordic Film Fest starts on 9 April at Rome's Casa Del Cinema and runs until 13 April.

This is the third consecutive edition of the increasingly popular event and this year’s main theme is love and adventure. The film festival is a cooperation between the four Nordic embassies in Rome — Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden — with cooperation from the Icelandic embassy in Paris, a well-known practice within the Nordic countries.

"By pooling our resources five small countries can have a substantial impact", says the ambassador of Sweden, Ruth Jacoby.

Opening the festival is the Norwegian movie Kon-Tiki, about the explorer Thor Heyerdahl, while on 12 April the Swedish movie The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared will have its premiere in Rome. Denmark participates with the film The Expedition to the End of the World on 11 April.

On the theme of love, the Finnish film Open up to Me, about a transgender woman, deserves special attention and will be screened on 12 April.

Beside the films there are several events taking place at Casa del Cinema. There is a conference between Nordic producers and their Italian counterparts on 10 April.  

"We want to open up a window on co-production between the Nordic countries and Italy and create comprehension about Nordic founding of movies", says the cultural officer at the embassy of Sweden, Ann-Louice Dahlgren, who is organising the event.

This year there will also be a focus on children with films for younger viewers during the mornings of 12 and 13 April. In contrast to the other films, which are screened in their original versions with Italian subtitles, the films for children will have their original sound lowered and the dialogue will be read in Italian by trained staff. Iceland will show its first ever animated film, Thor – Legends of Valhalla.

On 13 April the Swedish actress Lia Boysen, known for her part in When Darkness Falls, will visit the festival and present the film The Last Sentence.

See full programme.  

Carl Löfvenborg