the blessed ones photo courtesy of Magika Film

Source: Magika Film

‘The Blessed Ones’

The Nordisk Panorama Forum for Co-financing of Documentaries, which runs September 22-27 in Malmo, Sweden, will welcome more than 800 industry delegates, including a special delegation of seven director/producer teams from Ukraine.

The Ukrainian teams will present works in progress on September 25 to an invited group of international producers and decision-makers.

Scroll down for list of projects

While some of the projects of course cover the war– such as Olha Zhurba’s Displaced, and a disabled activist’s displacement during the war in Listening To The World; some of the other films are about topics such as protecting a nature reserve in Lagoons. Battle For Paradise directed by Serhiy Lysenko; and the portrait of an artist and inventor, The Blessed Ones by Andrii Lysetskyi.

The Ukrainian programme was developed in collaboration with the Ukrainian Institute (led by film team Nataliia Movshovych and Iryna Kyporenko) and veteran Danish documentary producer Sigrid Dyekjær. 

Special events at Nordisk Panorama will include a Rock In Reykjavik 40th anniversary screening and masterclasses related to composing, immersive storytelling and animation (the latter with Michelle and Uri Kranot, the subjects of a festival retrospective).

The festival, which concentrates on documentaries and shorts, also has other competitions for Best Nordic Short Film, New Nordic Voice and Young Nordic. 

The seven Ukrainian works in progress are:

  • A Bit of a Stranger, dir Svitlana Lishchynska, prod Anna Kapustina
  • Displaced, dir Olha Zhurba, prod Darya Bassel
  • Flowers of Ukraine, dir Adelina Borets, prods Glib Lukianets and Natalia Grzegorzek
  • Lagoons. Battle for Paradise, dir Serhiy Lysenko, prods Anna Kapustina and Oleksandra Kravchenko
  • Listening to the World, dir Yelizaveta Smith, prods Olga Beskhmelnytsina and Yevhenii Rachkovskyi
  • The Blessed Ones, dir Andrii Lysetskyi, prods Gennady Kofman and Olga Beskhmelnytsina, co-prod Uldis Cekulis
  • The Shadows, dir Polina Kelm, prod Valeria Sochyvets

The 15 films selected for the Best Nordic Documentary competition are:

  • A House Made of Splinters, Simon Lereng Wilmont (Den-Fin-Ukr-Swe)
  • Band, Álfrún Örnólfsdóttir (Ice)
  • Budding Humans, (Store små mennesker), Gunhild Westhagen Magnor (Nor-Swe)
  • Daughters, (Döttrar), Jenifer Malmqvist (Swe-Den)
  • Golden Land, (Kultainen maa), Inka Achté (Fin-Nor-Swe)
  • How to Save a Dead Friend, Marusya Syroechkovskaya (Swe-Nor-Fr)
  • Invisible Demons, Rahul Jain (Fin-Ger)
  • King of the Butterflies, Olaf de Fleur (Ice)
  • Nelly & Nadine, Magnus Gertten (Swe-Bel-Nor)
  • Ruthless Times – Songs of Care, (Armotonta menoa – Hoivatyön lauluja), Susanna Helke (Fin)
  • Sabaya, (Sabaya), Hogir Hirori (Swe)
  • The Eclipse, (Formørkelsen), Nataša Urban (Nor)
  • The Killing of a Journalist, Matt Sarnecki (Den-Cz-US)
  • The Silence in Sápmi, (Tystnaden i Sápmi), Liselotte Wajstedt (Nor-Swe)
  • Tsumu – Where Do You Go With Your Dreams?, Kasper Kiertzner (Den-Swe)