More than 30 cinemas across the Czech Republic will feel a gust of cool air over the next week as the Scandi festival of Scandinavian films returns to the country for its ninth edition.
In Prague, Scandi will take place at Edison Filmhub, where most films will screen in their original language with Czech and English subtitles, and Cinema City Slovanský dům, where most features will contain only Czech subtitles.
This year’s Scandi festival will be attended by Norwegian filmmaker Erik Poppe, best known for his 2010 romance 1,000 Times Good Night, starring Juliette Binoche and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, and his stark 2018 drama Utøya: July 22, about the 2011 mass murder on Norway’s Utøya island.
Poppe will bring his latest feature, The Emigrants, to the 2023 edition of the Scandi film festival in Prague. The filmmaker will personally present his movie, an adaptation of Vilhelm Moberg’s books that led to Jan Troell’s 1971 classic of the same name, during a screening at Edison Filmhub on January 19 from 7:00 p.m.
Norwegian director Kristoffer Borgli will also join this year’s Scandi film festival through online video. Borgli will present a screening of his latest film Sick of Myself, which premiered in the Un Certain Regard section of last year’s Cannes Film Festival, during a screening at Edison Filmhub from 7:00 p.m. on January 21.
Also attending Scandi 2023 will be Finnish filmmaker Hanna Bergholm, who will present her horror film Hatching at Edison Filmhub at 7:00 p.m. on January 21. Hatching screened in the midnight movies section at last year’s Sundance film festival and won an award for visual effects in Sitges.
Additional films screening at this year’s Scandi film festival include director Björn Runge‘s era-spanning drama Burn All My Letters, starring Bill Skarsgård, who shot The Crow in Prague last year and will return to the Czech capital next month to film Nosferatu; Hallvar Witzø‘s explosive comedy Everybody Hates Johan, Victor Danell‘s sci-fi adventure UFO Sweden, and many more movies.
As a special tribute, this year’s Scandi festival will also present the Pusher trilogy, a gritty and hard-hitting series of films about drug dealers the Danish underworld that introduced audiences to filmmaker Nicolas Winding Refn (Drive) and actor Mads Mikkelsen (Casino Royale).
The Scandi film festival was founded in 2014 as an initiative to introduce audiences to Scandinavian culture through contemporary films from Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, and Iceland. Additional information about the festival and a full schedule of this year’s screenings can be found at the official SCANDI website.