Midnight Sun Film Festival 10–14 June, 2020

L'Année dernière à Sodankylä: Midnight Sun Film Festival, 2019. Photo: Juuso Hirvonen.

Due to the corona lockdown, Midnight Sun Film Festival (10–14 June, 2020) took place online as the first Finnish online film festival. It also became my first experience of an online film festival. The experience was far from the real thing, but the organization succeeded in creating access to a smoothly operating screening platform. I saw many great films.

In the middle of the festival I moved to a forest retreat by the lake. The sublime sunlight of the white nights was doubled by its reflection in the lake. Despite super weather, it was not necessary to close the curtains of the many windows of the lakeside viewing room at the forest cabin. The presence of the surrounding brilliant sunlight elevated the viewing experience.

These films I saw:

Abrir puertas y ventanas / Back to Stay (Milagros Mumenthaler, AR/CH 2012).

Adults in the Room (Costa-Gavras, FR/GR 2019).

El diablo entre las piernas / Devil Between the Legs (Arturo Ripstein, MX 2019).

Dylda / Beanpole (Kantemir Balagov, RU 2019).

Es gilt das gesprochene Wort / I Was, I Am, I Will Be (Ilker Çatak, DE/FR 2019).

L'extraordinaire voyage de Marona / Călătoria fantastică a Maronei / Marona's Fantastic Tale (Anca Damian, FR/BE/RO 2019).

Frantsuz / Француз / The Frenchman (Andrei Smirnov, RU 2019).

Intemperie / Out in the Open (Benito Zambrano, ES/PT 2019).

Le jeune Ahmed / Young Ahmed (Luc Dardenne & Jean-Pierre Dardenne, BE/FR 2019).

Medena zemja / Медена земја / Honeyland (Tamara Kotevska, Ljumobir Stefanov, MK 2019).

Official Secrets (Gavin Hood, GB/US/CH/CN 2018).

Peterloo (Mike Leigh, GB 2018).

Šarlatán / Charlatan (Agnieszka Holland, CZ/IE/PL/SK 2020).

Sid al-mghul / سيد المجهول / Le Miracle du saint inconnu / The Unknown Saint (Alaa Eddine Aljem, MA/FR 2019).

Sorkhpoost / سرخ‌پوست / The Warden (Nima Javidi, IR 2019).

Surematu / Nemirstīgie / Бессмертный / Immortal (Ksenia Okhapkina, EE/LV 2019).

Le Tableau / The Painting (Jean-François Laguionie, FR/BE/CA 2011).

Všechno bude / Winter Flies (Olmo Omerzu, CZ/SI/PL/SK/FR 2018).