Almodóvar’s Julieta and Abba karaoke at Midnight Sun Film Festival
(Picture: Polar Music International.)
The works of Spanish film director Pedro Almodóvar are the main subject of the Master Class lecture of FRÉDÉRIC STRAUSS (b. 1964), the former editor in-chief of Cahiers du cinema magazine, currently writing for cultural weekly Télérama.
Strauss is the leading Almodóvar expert in the world. His interview book Almodóvar on Almodóvar is generally known as the best Almodóvar book available. Even director himself has authorized the book and considers it as his official film companion.
Strauss is coming to Sodankylä to introduce Almodóvar’s latest work, Cannes Palme d’Or contenstant Julieta (2016). Based on three short stories by Alice Munro, Julieta is a drama about women, love and broken hearts, about mother’s struggle against uncertainty as well as a tale about fate, guilt and the meaning of lost love.
ABBA KARAOKE
Lasse Hallström’s early cult favorite Abba the Movie is one of the karaoke screenings of Midnight Sun Film Festival 2016 alongside Finnish films The Saimaa Gesture and Ricky the Rapper.
Eighteen of ABBA’s greatest hits are heard in the film and seen in grainy 16mm concert footage shot in March 1977 – not to forget corney lurex capes and bell bottom trousers galore!
MIDNIGHT SPECIAL
Michael Shannon, Kirsten Dunst and Sam Shepard star in Jeff Nichols’s road movie about a father and his eight-year old son who possesses mysterious powers.
Jeff Nichols, one of the most interesting present day American directors, combines ingredients from science fiction and fantasy with small town America paranoia in this Berlinale sleeper.
TAANILA GOES AVANTGARDE
Mika Taanila, a true pioneer of Finnish video art, has programmed a 66-minute avant-garde short film screening When the heavens fall, including international avant-garde greats such as Anouk De Clerq, Ivan Galeta and Peter Tscherkassky.
MASTERS OF ANIMATION
Works of Émile Cohl, Chuck Jones, Norman McLaren, Rein Raamat, Ub “The Father of Mickey Mouse” Iwerks and Lucian Dembinski will be screened in MSFF’s Small Tent in Masters of Animation screenings.
