Norway

Norwegian filmmaker Benedicte Orvung makes a horrific discovery about her past: facing the shame of a hidden history with the revelation that one of her family members was a prominent Nazi collaborator.  Karl Marthinsen, a brutal police leader, fanatic nationalist, and great uncle of the film's director, is the subject of this personal document of familial healing.

Europe’s Backyard documents the lives of four women from former Soviet Republic Moldovia, each at a crossroads in their lives, and struggling to survive in the poorest nation in Eastern Europe.

They come from many parts of the world. They have the smallest schoolyard of Norway, only two stonethrows away from the Royal Castle. They are 12 years old, and wish for a world without beggars, with big houses for everyone and that the leaders don’t involve the citizens when they make war. But how do conflicts arise between the kids themselves, what is it like to follow them home, and who would they like to meet, if they could choose between all the people of the world?

On a sunny summer Oslo day, fun-guy Gunnar, friends, and family are enjoying a lakeside barbeque when he is struck by an imminent existential realization: my life is unfulfilled. Successful ad man and documentarian, he plans to upturn his middle class Scandinavian life in search of answers, which leads to interminable travels to mentors in Egypt, Jerusalem, India, and a monastery in the desert.

Relentlessly incriminating, this hard-hitting film by Andrei Nekrasov and his recently deceased wife Olga Konskaya tells a vastly complicated geopolitical story... - Variety

Director Bent Hamer Present

Mirth and misfortune go hand-in-hand in veteran director Bent Hamer’s (Factotum, Kitchen Stories, O’Horton) sixth feature.

Opening Night Film

Norwegian mockumentary “The Troll Hunter” offers high-caliber entertainment despite a low-budget production. The shaky camera suggests “The Blair Witch Project,” but writer-director Andre Ovredal’s impressive array of fantastical creatures, and the film itself, plays more like “Jurassic Park.”  - IndieWire.com

Sewitsky directs the performances and camera with confidence and flair, although the succession of Christmastime interiors is rather repetitive, in contrast to the exterior scenes, which breathe fresh dynamism into the pacing. - Hollywood Reporter

Awarded the Narrative World Cinema Grand Jury Prize at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, Happy, Happy, reminiscent of French romantic comedy, shines new light on the intricacies and resilience of adult relationships.