Midsummer Night Film Festival 2014

This year's star in Sodankylä was absolutely Alice Rohrwacher, the young Italian  director and screenwriter. Her debut film "Corpo Celeste" and "The Wonders", which won the Cannes Grand Prix this year, were fantastic! And it's not only her films, but her lovely personality too. She's so sympathic!

Had the pleasure - by accident - travel from Rovaniemi to Sodankylä in the same car with her and also the German short film director Willy Hans and Russian film critic Boris Nelepo. 

As we passed the Santa Claus village at Arctic Circle she told that she's scared of Santa Claus. In her family it was a tradition that Santa Claus was a scary figure who chased the children out of the house and when they came back home the presents were there waiting for them.

This year there was only one film that made me cry and that was the Swedish comedy HallåHallå by Maria Blom. Finnish actress Maria Sid played the part of the main character Disa. Even though it was a kind of comedy and there were moments for laugh, it was pretty heavy. These are the pics of Maria Sid introducing the film, but after the film she was crying too and she told that it wasn't an easy film for an actress either. There were strong lines with full of deep meaning to say throughout the whole film.

Other good films that saw in Sodankylä:

Romanian Andrei Gruzninscky: Quod erat demonstratum 
Italian Roberto Rossellini: Voyage to Italy
Serbian Emir Kusturica: When father was away on business
Swedish Victor Sjöström: The Outlaw and his wife
Swedish Ingmar Bergman: Wild strawberries
African Mahamat Saleh Haroun: Dry season
Polish Pawel Pawlikowski: Last resort 

 The food was actually pretty good this year. Both in Sodankylä hotel and in Päivin Kammari.

Icy cranberries with hot caramel sauce, yummy!

Rovaniemi airport

The weather was a typical Lappish weather - not too warm, but with properly dressed not too cold either. Note: you needed a pair of Ugg, warm jacket (windproof/down), gloves...

Next year it will be the 30th anniversary of the festival!