Scandinavia’s biggest film-TV event, the Göteborg Film Festival, has unveiled the complete lineup for its 48th edition, due to unspool Jan. 24-Feb. 2 in Sweden’s second largest city. For her first gig as artistic director, Pia Lundberg and her team will be treating the festival’s usual 270,000-plus film fans in theaters and online to a rich program of 270 films from 83 countries, including 25 world premieres. Setting the tone for this year’s overarching theme of “Disobedience” and civil resistance will be the opening film “Safe House” by Norwegian helmer Eirik Svensson starring “Sick of Myself”’s Kristine Kujath Thorp and “Gladiator 2”’s Alexander Karim. Based on the real-life story of Doctors Without Borders’ Director General in Norway Lindin Hurum, the story is set in a refugee camp during the 2013 civil war in the Central African Republic. Norwegian aid worker Linn is under severe pressure as she strives to protect a man without endangering her colleagues’ safety. ”We’re thrilled to open the festival with such a gripping and deeply moving film,” said Lundberg who feels the main protagonist’s challenge of regulations and immense courage “resonate strongly with this year’s program focus: “Disobedience.”
The festival will close with the world premiere of the Danish epic revenge thriller “Stranger” set in prehistoric Scandinavia. Mads Hedegaard’s debut feature starring Angela Bundalovic (“Copenhagen Cowboy”) and Danica Curcic (“The Chestnut Man”) is produced by Motor, with REinvent handling sales.
Read the full story here.