The fourteenth annual Scandinavian Film Festival L.A. comes to the Writers Guild Theater, Beverly Hills over two weekends: January 12-13, 19-20, 2013. The yearly showcase of Nordic films and filmmakers, launched in 2000, screens the year’s Scandinavian films submitted to the Academy as nominees for Best Foreign-Language Film as well as other current feature, documentary, and short films.
Saturday.January 12
10:30 am
9 METER
9 METER from director Anders Walter is on the “short list” of films under consideration for the “Best Live Action Short” Academy Award. The film comes to SFFLA from M&M Productions who have been recognized by the “Oscar” for their films – Election Night (1999), This Charming Man (2002), and The Next Tenant (2009).
GULF STREAM UNDER THE ICEBERG
11:00 am
Adam’s first wife Lilith is mentioned in ancient Oriental legends, in Talmud and in the medieval books of Cabala was not recognized by Adam as his equal and left him. She has no soul, and is immortal. Lilith assumes different names, can change her appearance, and takes possession of men against their will. Once it’s accomplished, she leaves her victims forever, marking them for either spiritual, or physical death. The story consists of three interrelated stories: “Escape” (1664, Hanseatic League); “Loss” (1883, Russian Empire/France); “Aberration Feelings” (1990, Latvia).
THE DEEP
1:45 pm
Based on actual events, a fisherman tries to survive in the freezing ocean after his boat capsizes off the south coast of Iceland.
KIRUNA-KIGALI
3:45 pm
A young woman in Rwanda is about to give birth. The baby is turned the wrong way and her life is in danger. At the same time the water breaks for a woman in Sweden. She decides that she will cope with it herself; she refuses to accept any help. These two stories of women giving birth are woven into each other and appear to go on simultaneously in two completely different parts of the world
THE LAST SENTENCE
4:00 pm
Torgny Segerstedt was one of the leading journalists in Sweden in the 20th century. He fought a one man battle against Hitler and the Nazi regime until his death in 1945. During these tumultuous times his private life was marked by a world in chaos, as he fell in love with his friend’s wife while he himself was married
Opening Gala
6:00 – 7:30 pm
Great Food & Drinks and KON-TIKI Norway’s “short-listed” submission for the “Best Foreign Film” Oscar already nominated for a Golden Globe! Purchase a Festival Passport or Gala Pass and join in the festivities with Directors Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg, Screenwriter Petter Skavian, & Actor Pål Hagen
KON-TIKI
8:00 pm
Special Guests at this screening – Directors Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg, Screenwriter Petter Skavian, & Actor Pål Hagen – 
In 1947, the world is gripped with excitement as the young Norwegian adventurer Thor Heyerdahl embarks on an astonishing expedition – a journey of 4,300 nautical miles across the Pacific Ocean on the Kon-Tiki raft…..
Sunday.January 13
SWEDISH SHORT FILMS
10:30 am
LATTE MOMS – Two friends meet over a cup of coffee. Julia met a new boyfriend and Louise is going to an audition. Desire, freedom, friendship, honesty, love, closeness- babies crying. Is anybody listening?
OUR NEED FOR CONSOLATION – Stig Dagerman was a Swedish literary sensation who published a rash of influential works in the cauldron of post-WWII Europe. Then, suddenly, he fell silent with writer’s block, and two years later, was dead. This richly textured documentary, narrated by Stellan Skarsgard, resurrects Dagerman’s profoundly resonant words.
SILENT VOICES
11:00 am
Silent Voices is a story of the land that is threatened by heavy industry projects, told by the humble people who live on this land, love it and respect it.
THALE
12:30 pm
Two crime scene cleaners discover a mythical tailed, female creature in a concealed cellar. She never utters a word, unable to tell her story, but the pieces of the puzzle soon come together; she’s been held captive for decades for reasons soon to surface.
PURGE
2:30 pm
Two women from two different eras linked by separate tales of deceit, desperation – and fear. Aliide has experienced the horrors of the Stalin era and the deportation of Estonians to Siberia. Zara has just escaped from the claws of the Russian mafia who held her as a sex slave
STARS ABOVE
5:15 pm
STARS ABOVE follows the stories of three women from the same family across three different decades – war time 1942, colorful 1978, and our present time
THE HUNT
7:30 pm
Following a tough divorce, 40-year-old Lucas has a new girlfriend, a new job and is in the process of reestablishing his relationship with his teenage son, Marcus. But things go awry. And as the snow falls and the Christmas lights are lit, the lie spreads like a virus. The shock and mistrust gets out of hand, and the small community finds itself in a collective state of hysteria, while Lucas fights a lonely fight for his life and dignity.