The Helsinki intl. Film Festival – Love & Anarchy is launching its 38th edition Thursday with Change in the Air, with the longtime artistic director and co -founder of the Pekka Lanerva festival announcing this week that he withdraws from the operational side of the popular Finnish event, and the executive director entering Pauliina Ståhlberg was preparing to exaggerate his first edition since the seasoning of the Pauliine Last Fall.
Talk to Variety Before the opening evening, Ståhlberg says that the transition – which will see the veteran of the Outi Rehn festival will play the role of programming chief – does not represent a “big change” of previous editions, as much as the arrival of “a new generation and a new way of working collaborative”.
“Change is always an opportunity to do things in a different and more modern way,” she says, noting how the creation of a new programming team for four people allows “more different voices and more different ways to see the world”.
The festival opens on September 18 with the “sentimental value” of Joachim Trier, winner of Cannes, and ends on September 28 with the Palme d’Or de Jafar Panahi “it was only an accident”. The protruding facts include the feeling of Cannes by Mascha Schilinski “Sound of Falling”, “Sirât” by Oliver Laxe – a winner of the jury prize on the Croisette – and the winner Queer Palm by Hafsia Herzi “The Little Sister”.
The projection will also be “new wave” by Richard Linklater and the post-apocalyptic musical by Joshua Oppenheimer “The End”, with Tilda Swinton, as well as the Icelandic director Hlynur Pálmason “The Love which remains”, anchoring the popular side bar of Nordic Gems.
In addition to these favorites from the festival, there are several provocative programming aspects that seek to highlight the problems with hot buttons of the day. Among them are the Fight The Power series, which highlights rebellion films, and the Free Palestine series, which the festival organizers say “highlights things that can no longer be invisible”. It includes the previous documentary of Sepideh Farsi “Put Your Soul On Your Hand and Walk”, about 25 years photojournalist Gaza, Fatma Hassona, which was killed on an Israeli air strike, and the price of the Doc nyc prize zuaitter “yalla park”.
Ståhlberg underlines programming choices such as proof of “enormous responsibility” that his team feels by organizing a selection of films for the Helsinki public, and a proof of the way in which the festival – and the filmmakers as a whole – “can be on the side of good”.
“We can actually make people a better place through the film, and through love and anarchy, choosing what films we show at our festival to raise voices from Palestine and others [places]… To expand the horizons of people and make other voices heard, ”she says.
Like many members of the Finnish cinema community, Ståhlberg has a longtime love story with the Helsinki Intl. Film Festival, and during her first year, she is already determined to extend her scope.
“I have been going to the festival since I was at [university]”, She said.” The Love and Anarchy festival is the highlight of the fall in Helsinki for the 60,000 people who come to watch our projections. I also want to call on more than young generation, and also open it in the suburbs of Helsinki, “where many members of the city’s immigrant communities have little access to the cinema.
The objective, she says, is to make the festival “more accessible to everyone”, which is why Ståhlberg also hopes to extend the popular Pulpettikino educational program. The initiative offers free projections to thousands of schoolchildren from Helsinki during the festival each year, Ståhlberg saying that she would like to double her scope to reach up to 20,000 children in the coming years.
Ståhlberg, who assumed the role of executive director after having served for four years as director of the Finnish Institute of Madrid, puts in position a long and much appreciated career in the cultural sector. She was director of the Finnish Institute in the United Kingdom and Ireland and built a commendable CV as a producer and journalist, notably at the Finnish Broadcasting Company. It may be better known for producing the Nordic Noir Crime series “Deadwind”, which was a worldwide success on Netflix.
It takes over at a time of growth in discomfort in the Finnish screen industries, which have faced assembly reductions in recent years with the country’s right -wing government. Next week, the Parliament will vote on a measure to considerably reduce the funding of the Film Film Foundation, Ståhlberg believing that such cuts could reduce the production of films and television in the country. She predicts to appear before the government to express her support for the cultural sector.
“We have to fight power, which is one of our themes at Love & Anarchy”, Ståhlberg said. “Like everywhere, money from culture and different voices is being cut. With the rise of ultra -conservatives around the world – or at least in Western democracies – it’s scary, and we have to do something together.”
This spirit of collaboration remains the engine of the Finnish film affair, the annual industry event parallel to the Helsinki festival, which takes place from September 24 to 26. Under the stewardship of the head of the incoming industry Lydia Taylerson, the event presents a range responsible for new Finnish projects, standards and Nordics and more. Among them, there are works of fiction, documentaries and series of emerging and established filmmakers.
Ståhlberg underlines the event, which is one of the main CONFABS in the Nordic industry, as a sign of the way in which filmmakers in the region remain attached to collaboration – both with neighboring countries and beyond – while proving that there is a number in number for their small -scale industries.
“I think that co-production and co-financing are currently essential for our industry,” she says. “The Nordic and the Balts, we are so small. We have to work together. “
The Helsinki intl. Film Festival – Love & Anarchy takes place from September 18 to 28.
