All films are $9 ($6 ASF members).
The King of Ping-Pong (Ping-pongkingen)
Wednesday, February 4, 6:30 pm & Saturday, February 7, 3 pm
With Gyorgi Staykov, Ann-Sofie Nurmi, Frederik Nilsson, Jerry Johansson, and Hampus Johansson.
In Swedish with English subtitles. 107 min.
Directed by Jens Jonsson (2008). Rille, a portly 16-year-old outcast, finds his reigning position as the local ping-pong champion unexpectedly compromised when a series of long buried family secrets set him on an emotional collision course with his feisty younger brother Eric. Even though his home life is fractured by divorce and his love life is decidedly nonexistent, Rille does his best to endure with grace and dignity and is at least able to take solace in the fact that he is the most accomplished ping-pong player in town. The founder of a community-based ping-pong program for kids, Rille is admired by the young players and presides over his subjects with the zeal of jovial royalty. The delicate balance of Rille's life is suddenly thrown for a loop, however, when family secrets surface and immediately threaten to send the lives of both himself and Eric into an irreversible tailspin.
To Love Someone (Den man älskar)
Wednesday, February 11, 6:30 pm & Saturday, February 14, 3 pm
With Sofia Ledarp, Jonas Karlsson, Rolf Lassgård, Camilla Larsson, Gustav Hammarsten, and Mats Blomgren. In Swedish with English subtitles. 92 min.
Directed by Åke Sandgren (2007). Åke Sandgren’s devastating To Love Someone explores issues of domestic violence and obsession with empathy and clarity. At the story’s centre is Lena, who has rebounded from her disastrous marriage to the alcoholic and abusive Hannes, and built a home with Alf. But Lena’s hellish life with Hannes still haunts her, and when he’s released from prison, she finds herself slipping back into his orbit. Psychologically acute and fearless in its depiction of emotional perversity, this film becomes a pseudo journey to the end of night, realized within the context of a domestic triangle. Sandgren uses a variety of approaches to capture the plot’s emotional complexity. The interpersonal attachments here are explicitly unhinged and profoundly self-destructive, but recognizably human nonetheless.
Wonderful and Loved by All (Underbar och älskad av alla)
Wednesday, February 18, 6:30 pm & Saturday, February 21, 3 pm
With Martina Haag, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, and Ellen Mattsson. In Swedish with English subtitles. 102 min.
Directed by Hannes Holm (2007). Motivated by the looming end to a lackluster acting career, Bella tells a white lie to land a plum role, only to find that the truth catches up with her. Inching into her forties, she learns that Ingmar Bergman will be directing a new stage adaptation of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, and she decides to take a chance and show up for an open audition. After Bella's reading, one of the members of the production staff asks if she has a background in acrobatics. Eager to land the part, Bella says yes, and to her delight she's cast in a small role. However with each passing day, Bella becomes increasingly aware that if she doesn't confess the truth soon, her esteemed director will find out the hard way.
Kidz in da Hood (Förortsungar)
Wednesday, February 25, 6:30 pm & Saturday, February 28, 3 pm
With Gustaf Skarsgård, Beylula Kidane Adgoy, Embla Hjulström, Christopher Mhina and Jennifer Brown. 96 min.
Directed by Ylva Gustavsson and Catti Edfeldt (2006). Winner of five Swedish Film Awards, Kidz in da Hood is a gripping and touching story of Amina, who came to Sweden with her grandfather from northern Africa three years ago. Still without a residency permit, Amina’s life turns into a chaotic game of survival after her grandfather dies, having to outsmart social service agencies and evade curious neighbors. She lives in a Stockholm suburb with Johan, an edgy, tattooed rocker who takes on a parental role in Amina’s life, while the street-smart neighborhood kids complete her surrogate family circle. Set to a potent soundtrack of impromptu rap and rock numbers, this film blends serious drama and playful hijinks, exploring themes of personal responsibility, loyalty, grief, and socio-economic class structures.
Northern Transmissions 2
Thursday, April 30, 7 pm, $9 ($6 ASF members)
Scandinavia rocks in this program of music videos from across the Nordic region. The lineup presents a cross-section of Scandinavia’s geographically, aesthetically, and aurally diverse output. From Sweden’s macabre dark-wave, to upbeat Norwegian pop, to the pastoral digital bliss of Iceland and Finland, to the next wave of indie rock exported from Denmark, these videos will delight the ears and eyes.
