Tromsø: 'The coolest festival I've been to'

Published on Thursday 29 January 2009 18:45

IT'S on the same latitude as Siberia, around a fifth of its population consists of students, and when the sun goes down there on 21 November it doesn't rise above the horizon for two months.

More importantly, the Norwegian city of Troms, is home to the Troms International Film Festival (TIFF), which took place this month amid blizzards, 21 hours of darkness per day and probably the best beer in the Nordic territory.

While lightweights flock to Robert Redford's Sundance each January, those made of sterner stuff head to the Arctic Circle, sitting next to locals who book time off work to pack screenings that begin at 9am and finish as late as 3am.

These not only take place in centrally located cinemas, but also in the city's main hospital, the local prison and on an outdoor screen in the main square. And while it boasts a full line-up of industry seminars and events, 98 per cent of TIFF's audience is made up of film-hungry members of the public.

"It's my favourite festival of any genre or type of art," says Trond Giske, Norway's culture minister, who has been a regular for the past 11 years and even makes a point of attending the party for the dozens of festival volunteers.

"The organisers are impressively clever in finding good films. I've had some of my greatest film experiences here at Troms."

TIFF was launched in 1991, when it sold 5,200 tickets. This year it boasted a record 48,300 admissions, for a diverse programme that included English language hits such as The Wrestler, Hunger and Slumdog Millionaire, as well as a Czech retrospective and films from as far away as Korea and Senegal.

However, one of TIFF's most special aspects is its Films From The North category, which concentrates on movie shorts made in the Polar region including Alaska, Greenland, Russia and the Nordic Arctic Circle.

The key decision-maker when it comes to the programme is American-born director Martha Otte. Appointed as TIFF director in 2004, her working life in Norway began with a five-year stint picking potatoes and milking cows on a small island. This was followed by a move to Troms, where she took a degree in philosophy and had her first taste of the cinema scene as a member of the university movie society. Otte is in no doubt about what sets TIFF apart. "There is a film festival in every corner of the world, but with Films From The North we have something you can't get anywhere else," she says.

The category boasts its own award, the Troms Palm, the local name given to the Giant Hogweed plant that has proliferated in this part of Norway, after allegedly being introduced by a Brit in the 19th century. This year the gong was picked up by Hanne Larsen for her short Varde (Cairn], which she shot in her old school in Troms with a cast of local children aged between nine and 13.

The jury singled out the Varde – which deals with bullying and a prank gone wrong – because of the performances she elicited from her young actors. And in many respects it also symbolises how TIFF has come to inspire successive generations to work in film.

Larsen recalls that as a teenager she and her mother would see up to ten movies a day, often taking a Thermos flask and snacks because they had no time to fetch food between screenings. However, when she finished school in the late 1990s, her aspirations to become a director encountered a setback.

"There was nowhere to go if you wanted to make films," says Larsen. She moved to Denmark in 2000 to get a grounding in her trade, before being admitted to the recently founded Norwegian film school. Her graduation film was shown at TIFF, as have all her subsequent shorts. Larsen regards this as a reflection of how the festival has developed its role as an incubator for young people keen to work in film.

TIFF has a strong focus on supporting budding talent, both in its seminars and opportunities to show work. This is even evident at the awards ceremony, which begins with a film made by a team of local and international students during the festival.

"People who live in a marginal place like northern Norway don't have regular, direct contact with the industry like they do in Oslo or Hollywood, so we provide that (professional] input," says Otte.

Moreover, she also has an ability to find work by students from outside the Arctic circle that can strike a chord with the paying public. Of particular note is Sleeping Nights Awake, a charming behind-the-scenes documentary about seminal New York band Sonic Youth, directed by Michael Albright. Shot by high school students from the American desert town Reno, it had screenings both in the hospital and main square, as well in several cinemas.

"This is the coolest festival I've been to, it brings light to the city," says Albright, who has shown his film at numerous events around the world. He requested that Sleeping Nights Awake be screened outdoors after seeing dozens of nursery school children glued to the giant screen showing cartoons. "They deliberately have a community aspect to the festival," he adds.

At times this also manifests itself offscreen, such as when the cast and director of the festival's opening film, Jernanger, perform a free concert of songs they had practised on set.

The outdoor gig begins with one of the movie's stars, who is also part of the indigenous Sami community, singing in the traditional style of yoiking. It serves as a reminder that TIFF also gives a voice to the cultures of the Polar region, many of whom, including the Sami, have suffered state-sanctioned discrimination and abuse in the countries they were first to inhabit. "It tells the world where we are and adds to our uniqueness," says Otte. At this festival, the latter is never in doubt.

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