The University of Oregon Department of Landscape Architecture presents a new lecture series THE NORDIC LANDSCAPE IN CONTEMPORARY FILM 115 Lawrence Hall—Free and open to the public All showings at 7:00 p.m. All five Nordic countries—Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, and Iceland—have remarkably active film industries. Come sample a rich variety of contemporary films, all of them in the original language with subtitles in English. Each film in the ten-week series is preceded by a brief lecture by instructor Whitey Lueck, and is followed by discussion and Q&A. Films are screened under the Educational Fair Use provision of U.S. Copyright Law. Maximum seating in 115 Lawrence is 120; seating is first-come, first-served. Friday, 13 January Rams (Hrútar) 2015 Directed by Grímur Hákonarson In a secluded valley in Iceland, brothers Gummi and Kiddi live on adjacent farms, tending to their sheep—although they’ve not spoken to each other in four decades. When a lethal disease infects Kiddi's sheep, the economy of the entire valley is threatened and the authorities decide to cull all the animals in the area to contain the outbreak. Each brother tries to stave off this disaster to their livelihoods in his own fashion, and save the award-winning sheep breed, unique to that valley, from extinction. (Iceland, 93 minutes) Friday, 20 January Old, New, Borrowed, and Blue (Se til venster, der er en svensker) 2003 Directed by Natasha Arthy Katrine, who’s Danish, is getting married. She’s got a great boyfriend, a nice apartment, and gets along well with her new in-laws. Then Thomsen—a Swede who used to be Katrine’s sister Mette’s boyfriend—arrives on her doorstep the day before the wedding, after being in Africa for two years. The next 24 hours leading up to Katrine’s wedding become one very wild ride, in part because Katrine has great difficulty telling people important news that might upset them. (Denmark, 90 minutes) Friday, 27 January Friday, 3 February So Different (Så olika) 2009 Elvira Madigan 1967 Directed by Helena Bergström Directed by Bo Widerberg This film is a comedy about love that revolves around two sisters. Based on the true story of a handsome young Swedish army Lotta is a recently divorced mother of two girls who’s just become officer who in 1889 falls in love with a beautiful Danish a finance commissioner. Sanna is a successful TV producer who’s circus performer. He gives up everything—his family, his career, and his social standing—to flee to Denmark and in charge of overseeing a live musical program to be filmed among embark on a passionate, summer-long affair. Then, as the the animals at Stockholm’s Skansen zoo. It's about falling madly money runs out, the atmosphere changes. The film’s in love with your worst enemy; about people getting together sumptuous photography is accompanied throughout by despite being complete opposites; and about how, in the end, love Mozart’s lovely Piano Concerto No. 21 in C major. conquers all. (Sweden, 108 minutes) (Sweden, 91 minutes) Friday, 10 February Friday, 17 February The Wave (Bølgen) 2015 Ariel 1988 Directed by Roar Utlaug Directed by Aki Kaurismäki Geologist Kristian Eklund lives in tiny Geiranger—at the head of After Finnish coal miner Taisto Kasurinen’s father commits the spectacular Geirangerfjord—where he’s part of a team that suicide, he drives to the bank in his father’s convertible— monitors a nearby mountain that someday will slide into the fjord even though it’s winter—and cashes out his savings account and wreak havoc. But Kristian has found a new job in the big before heading south to Helsinki and a hopefully happier life. west-coast city of Stavanger. On the eve of his family’s departure When he meets and falls in love with Irmeli, he seems to be for Stavanger, he makes a remarkable discovery that will change on his way to realizing his dreams. But for Taisto, things him and the village of Geiranger forever. (Norway, 105 minutes) seldom go as planned. (Finland, 73 minutes) Friday, 24 February Friday, 3 March Buddy 2003 Children of Nature (Börn náttúrunnar) 1991 Directed by Morten Tyldum Directed by Friðrik Þór Friðriksson Kristoffer is a 24-year-old billboard hanger in Oslo. For fun, he Old Thorgeir has to leave his home in rural Iceland and move makes little videos of his roommates—Geir and Stig Inge—doing into an assisted-living residence in Reykjavik. There, he silly things. When some of his videos end up in the hands of a TV meets Stella, an old friend from his childhood. Thorgeir soon talk-show host who finds the young man’s work amusing and grows unhappy living there and, together with Stella, worth sharing with his audience, he fast becomes a local celebrity. embarks on a trip to return to Stella’s old home in Along the way to (and then from) stardom, he and his buddies northwestern Iceland. This drama—filmed in some of encounter their share of bumps on the highway of life. (Norway, Iceland’s most spectacular landscapes—asks us how 100 minutes) important a long life is, if you have to leave everything behind that has meaning to you. (Iceland, 82 minutes) Friday, 10 March A Second Chance (En chance til) 2014 Directed by Susanne Bier Detectives and best friends Andreas and Simon lead very different lives. Andreas has settled down with his beautiful wife and son, while Simon, recently divorced, spends most of his waking hours getting drunk at the local strip club. But all of this changes when the two of them are called out to a domestic dispute that initially looks routine—until Andreas finds the quarreling couple’s filthy infant son crying in the couple’s closet. That sets in motion a series of events during which Andreas slowly loses his grip on the difference between right and wrong. (Denmark, 102 minutes) Friday, 17 March Under the Sun (Under Solen) 1998 Directed by Colin Nutley It’s 1956. Forty-year-old, never-married Olof lives alone on his family’s farm after the death of his mother. Unable to read or write, he is dependent on his young friend, Erik, who helps him with the business aspects of the farm. Olof decides one day to advertise in a local paper for a housekeeper, and Ellen, a middle- class city woman, arrives to take over the house and—as the summer progresses—Olof’s heart and Erik’s desire, as well. (Sweden, 130 minutes) .