Discoveries from Faroe Islands World Cinema

Four stories from the Nordic region paint a picture of a changing natural world, where the elements rage and where being prepared proves to be much more than sandbags and fire extinguishers.

In the Faroe Islands, a family of theatre people are working on staging ‘King Lear’ with the mother in the lead role – a beloved actress who suffers from Alzheimer’s.

It tells the story of a theater actor fighting with his own demons.

Two friends, Rannvá and Barba, return to Faroe Islands after seven years abroad. The girls arouse both curiosity and outrage with their bizarre city appearance and emancipated behaviour. They embark on a road trip with one of the locals, Rúni, who - as it turns out - also carries a dark secret. The trio goes on a journey not just through the beautiful landscape of the Faroes but into the land of the past.

Two lost souls with incongruent world views meet again and again under strange circumstances and it will gradually become clear that they are connected by some force, which is bigger the they can fathom.

Two young women are preparing for a party. All is set, and the only thing remaining is a choice of hairstyle. Faced with each other in the mirror, tension is running high and it only takes the smallest thing to re-ignite a deep and lasting conflict between these two friends.

The whale hunters of the Faroe Islands believe that hunting is vital to their way of life, but, when a local professor makes a grim discovery about the effects of marine pollution, environmental changes threaten their way of life forever.

The story of a Grandmother who swims every day in the sea whatever the weather.

Presents a day in the life of a few inhabitants of Tórshavn in the Faroe Islands: A father and his daughter are having breakfast when the fire-brigade drive by. A woman and her child are looking at the fire and meet a married couple. The couple say hello to a man who is going out with his boat... and so on.

In 1993, the Faroe Islands faced one of the most dramatic and under-reported financial collapses in Nordic history. After years of rapid growth, the country’s two largest banks failed, triggering mass bankruptcies, evictions, and emigration. At the center stood Marita Petersen – the Faroe Islands' first female Prime Minister – tasked with averting total collapse. Under intense pressure, she negotiated with Denmark, managed deep internal party rifts, and made decisions that saved the nation but cost her everything.

Agnes Peterson is a student of journalism. Maria Guttesen suddenly disappeared in 1966 when she was 20 years old. 50 years later, Agnes will undertake an investigation to fulfill her grandfather's dream; to find his sister Maria, dead or alive, and solve the mystery of her disappearance. Jákup Jacobsen, a famous writer in Europe, was one of the main suspects, but evidence was never found against him. His latest published book talks about kidnappings of women. Agnes will move between reality and fiction to solve the case.

Dania is 21 years old and grew up in a Christian community in the Faroe Islands’ Bible belt. She has just moved to Tórshavn and is seeing Trygvi, a hip-hop artist and poet locally known as Silvurdrongur (Silver Kid). He comes from a secular family and writes poems and texts about the shadow sides of humanity. Dania herself sings in a Christian band but is fascinated by Trygvi’s courage to write brutally honest lyrics. As she tries to find her place in the world and understand herself, she starts to write more personal texts. Her writings develop into a collection of critical poems called ‘Skál’ (‘Cheers’), about the double life that she and other youths must live in the conservative Christian world.

Seals were believed to be former human beings who voluntarily sought death in the ocean. Once a year, on the Thirteenth night, they were allowed to come on land, strip off their skins and amuse themselves as human beings, dancing and enjoying themselves. This short film explores the legend of Kópakonan, literally meaning “the Seal Woman”, one of the best-known folktales in the Faroe Islands.

Rannvá is abandoned by her husband, and is now sitting alone in her appartment. While she is trying to pass time, the past comes back to hunt her.

A single mother (Óluva Johannessen) is frustrated to see her son (Sámal H.Hansen) lonely and unhappy, so she decides to buy him a new computer that is so brilliantly designed that it can give her son everything he longs for. A computer that can give him love and deeper understanding.

Summertime, teenagers and a cemetery. The film BOYS provides a glimpse of a group of teenagers on the Faroe Islands. What does a bunch of teenagers do in a cemetery in the middle of summer? Not what you should think. . Vimeo Password - boys

The young Julia – the priest's daughter – falls in love with the beautiful Barbara, who just moved to the island. A story about forbidden love and the hard choices it leads to.

An elderly man one day realises that he will leave his wife for the much younger Maria. His wife reacts stoically. She is neither angry nor unhappy but thinks he should be allowed to sow a few wild oats. She is convinced that he will come to his senses and return to her bosom. He does - but not quite in the way she had imagined...

Waste youth - but not with the wrong cigarette brand. Even on the Faroes, being young is an issue of style and distiction. And the difference between "Kings" and "Prince" is the difference between provincial backwaters and the big, wide world

Elinborg accidentally runs into her friend Marita at the supermarket. The conversation is civil yet slightly awkward, as Elinborg has forgotten Marita's birthday. However, something else is nagging Marita, who decides to corner her friend and ask if Elinborg has blocked her on Facebook.

The young Julia – the priest's daughter – falls in love with the beautiful Barbara, who just moved to the island. A story about forbidden love and the hard choices it leads to.

Elinborg accidentally runs into her friend Marita at the supermarket. The conversation is civil yet slightly awkward, as Elinborg has forgotten Marita's birthday. However, something else is nagging Marita, who decides to corner her friend and ask if Elinborg has blocked her on Facebook.

A psychological drama taking place during a day and a night in the life of a young family living in a beautiful house by the sea in the village of Sandur in the Faroe Islands. At a first glance it seems like an ordinary, happy family - mum and dad and their 11-year-old daughter - but soon we realize that something dark and sinister lies lurking behind the facade waiting to explode.

A nurse is taking care of an elderly dying woman on a small island near the Torshavn. An old repressed memory of the island resurfaces to haunt the nurse and, as the elderly lady's health deteriorates, so does the sanity of the nurse.

A documentary about The Faroe Islands' relationship to Denmark and the negotiations about further Faroese self-government.

Ester (16) lives a safe but mundane life, in a small town on an island together with her religious and conservative parents. One day, when she’s in Sunday school, she meets Ragna, a girl who has just moved to the same small town with her alcoholic mother and her 8 year-old brother. In Ragna, Ester sees what she has been looking for her whole life. Unaware that Ragna sees the exact same thing in Ester, and especially Ester’s father. The attraction of opposites makes them best friends. Together they dream about getting away from their boring life on the island, but soon they realize that it’s only their own self that they want to escape from.

About a popular Faroese character.

Legend has it that those who drown themselves turn into seals. Once a year they return to shore in their human shape. In the hopes of reuniting with his late wife, Aske seeks out this mythical place of transformation. Desperate not to lose her again, he hides her sealskin so she can’t return to sea. She doesn’t remember their past together but as her memory returns a dark and menacing story unfolds.

Peter the troll runs in to trouble with the pirates

A music video for Linda Catlin Smith’s contemporary piece, Wanderer. Performed by the Thin Edge New Music Collective in Toronto and filmed on location in the Faroe Islands.

A short film from 2009. The film was shot in one long take.

Ivar is stranded on a mountainous country road on the Faroe Islands and the only person he can ask for help is his estranged brother.

STAY is a short film depicting two people going their separate ways. A story about connecting while departing. About loneliness in togetherness. A love story about sharing, taking, losing, wanting and not wanting one another.

A woman finds out that her boyfriend has been cheating on her for very a long time. In a fit of rage she seeks out the unknown temptress to confront her. But this hunt unleashes unexpected consequences.

Tomorrow Remains Unknown follows 18-year-old Bjørt through a single day that quietly changes her life. Living with her mother and younger brother, she struggles between teenage freedom and the weight of responsibility.

"12" is a poetic short film about a 12-year-old boy. The boy is looking forward to growing up and becoming an adult. He shares his hopes and dreams about the future. But in the end he concludes, that it's cool to be 12-years-old and that he's going to enjoy the present moment just as it is.

A seal woman gets taken hostage by a man.

A modern tale about the impossible love of a schoolgirl and her older teacher.

Maria hesitates when her best friend Birita offers her some pills, but – what the hell? Her mother’s away and they are both desperate to have some fun tonight. They set off and, once the drug takes effect, start euphorically planning how they might finally escape their dreary island...

A guilt-ridden taxi driver takes a desperate passenger to her destination. On the journey their fates collide and they both realize that they have to make a final sacrifice in order to be redeemed.

Film version of Dagmar Joensen-Næs' novel.

Unemployed and lazy Martin, spends his days playing videogames at home. His mother, fed up with his unambitious lifestyle, forces him to get a job as a pizza delivery man for local pizza franchise; Wünder Pitsa, where things start to go awry.

Annika Samuelsen lives in the Faroe Islands and is transgender. She is in the process of correcting her physical sex but this is a long and often very demanding process, that would be made a little easier, if she were able to legally change her gender while she waited. In the Faroe Islands, you are not legally allowed to change your gender before you've changed your physical sex, even if you are receiving treatment where sex correction surgery is the desired end result.

Peter troll and grandma troll have travel to Italy, to get, the stolen, money back from the mafia

Ámæli is about the old tradition of pilot whale hunting on Faroe Island. Trough one summer we follow three people, a whale hunter, fisherman and a musician. We experience the old traditions and the new environment on this small archipelago.