The Rise of Scandinavia Cinema

There has been a steady rise over recent years in the popularity of the Scandinavian film industry. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo franchise is widely perceived as being the series that kick-started this interest, in addition to a flurry of exceptional hit TV shows including The Killing and The Bridge to name but a few.

With Hollywood gazing admiringly at Scandi output, what better time to look at the cream of the crop, so here’s our guide to the very best output from our blonde haired friends:

The Hunt

- Gripping, compelling and devastatingly dramatic The Hunt is one of the most searingly intelligent feature releases in recent years. Mads Mikkelson plays lead character Lucas who is just starting to pull his life back together following a divorce. But when a little girl at the nursery where he works tells a random lie that is impossible to ignore, Marcus’ world begins to fall apart. As shock turns to mistrust and then malice, it doesn’t take long before the local community is in a collective state of hysteria, igniting a witch-hunt that threatens to destroy an innocent man’s life.

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

– It all started when Stig Larson introduced his hugely popular trilogy of novels a few years ago. One of the most popular series crime books ever written, there was huge expectation and anticipation when the movie adaptation was announced. 2012 saw the first instalment hit cinema screens and fans weren’t left disappointed. Not only a huge critical success, the film became a worldwide phenomenon with Hollywood eventually snapping up the rights to this movie franchise. A visually stunning thriller, this trilogy grabs fans attentions from the moment the opening credits roll with its complex series of twists and turns. The cast help to propel this franchise, most notably lead character Noomi Rapace who took on the role of iconic character Lisbeth Salander.

Headhunters

– Another novel (this time Jo Nesbo), and another hit – Headhunters follows a corporate headhunter and part-time art thief who bites off more than he can chew when his latest mark turns out to be a very different kind of head hunter... One of the highest grossing foreign films of 2012, Headhunters continued Scandinavia’s continuing success at the box office.

Let The Right One In

– Ahead of its time, Let The Right One In is a simply stunning horror movie concerned with examining the vampire myth – Twilight this is not! Following the theme of film adaptations, Let The Right One In started life as a novel by author John Ajvide Lindgvist, and is anything but a slasher fest instead intelligently focusing on friendship, love and loneliness.

King Of Devil’s Island

– Hollywood heavyweight Stellan Skarsgard returns to his Scandinavian roots in this indie flick. King of Devil’s Island is based on a true story telling the unsettling story of young delinquents banished to a remote prison of Bastoy.

Valhalla Rising

– starring The Hunt’s Mads Mikkelson as One Eye, a mute warrior of supernatural strength, who has been held prison by the chieftain Barde. Aided by a boy, Are, he kills his captor and together they escape, beginning a journey into the heart of darkness.

Nightwatch

– Focusing on a young law student, Martin Waldau, who takes a job at the local morgue, this edgy thriller is a gripping tale of mistaken identity. When the victims of a serial killer of prostitutes are deposited at the morgue, scary things begin to happen and before long the police suspect Martin is the killer!

Show Me Love

– Set in small town Sweden, Show Me Love explores the lives of two teenage girls. Elin is beautiful, popular, and bored with life. Agnes is friendless, sad, and secretly in love with Elin. This coming of age movie explores the growing pains of turning from child to young adult

Deliver Us From Evil

- This Danish classic focuses on a father who returns to his old hometown with his young family. Events force him to face the small town's xenophobia.

Jackpot

– This edgy thriller starts with a terrified and bloody man, Oscar Svendsen, who wakes up gripping a shotgun in a strip joint, surrounded by eight dead men and with the police aiming squarely at him. To Oscar it's clear that he is innocent, but how does he prove he is the victim here?!

Feature - Money’s Too Tight To Mention

Jo Nesbo’s Jackpot tells the story of a bunch of criminals who go four ways on a winning lottery ticket, leaving them to share 1,739,361 kroner that they struggle to divide into four equal pay-outs. When we say 'struggle', it’s not just that they can’t do the maths, but rather that Jackpot unravels into a crime caper that divides more body parts than it does winnings.

What happens is  Oscar Svendsen wakes up, terrified and bloodied; a shotgun in his hands, in what was once a respectable strip joint near Svinesund, Sweden. He is surrounded by eight bodies, and police detective Solør has a gun aimed at his chest. Solør is convinced of his guilt, but Oscar persistently denies any wrongdoing.

Reluctantly Oscar starts relating the incredible story of four men who won top prize in a soccer pool and suddenly found themselves 1,739,361 kroner richer. But it turned out to be difficult to divide the money by four.

Jackpot is an exciting, playful and bloody comedy from the producer of Cold Prey. It is based on a story by Norway's leading crime writer, Jo Nesbø. We meet a group of scruffy young men, all of them with a criminal background. Oscar (Kyrre Hellum), Thor (Mads Ousdal), Billy (Arthur Berning) and Tresko (Andreas Cappelen). They work at a factory in the middle of nowhere that makes plastic Christmas trees. And they bet on soccer…

To celebrate the film’s release in cinemas across the UK on friday. August 10th, we’re looking back at five other movies where the principal protagonists come into a princely sum of money overnight...

It Could Happen To You
There’s a theory on the internet that Nicholas Cage has never starred in a bad movie, and It Could Happen To You is no exception to that rule. Also featuring Rosie Perez and Bridget Fonda on top form, the movie tells the story of a cop who gives his lottery ticket to a waitress as her tip, promising half if it turns out to be a winning ticket (which, of course, it does). In a stranger than fiction twist, the plot is actually based on real-life events, making for a heart-warming tale of money’s trappings, its pitfalls, and how it really can’t buy you love.
Lucky Numbers
Lucky Numbers is another true story inspired lottery flick, but this one’s certainly not of the heart-warming variety. John Travolta plays the role of a weatherman with money troubles who attempts to rig the lottery with his wife (played by Lisa Kudrow), who’s the beautiful assistant on the state lottery draw. Both possess somewhat psychopathic personality traits – a complete lack of empathy or guilt alongside their superficial charm – and this kind of character-play is where much of the film’s comedy emerges from. Lucky Numbers is also noteworthy for featuring Michael Moore in one of his rare acting appearances on film.
Waking Ned
When Ned Devine dies of shock after winning the lottery, his fellow inhabitants of a tiny Irish village do their best to fool a lottery representative that Ned is still alive and well, and therefore the lottery money can be paid in full. The Tullymore villagers manage to convince themselves that this plan of action is for the greater good – as Tullymore is in dire need of a bob or two anyway – and what ensues from here on out is a warm and life-affirming comedy. Writer and Director, Kirk Jones received a BAFTA nomination for his work on the film, and widespread favourable reviews to boot.
Shallow Grave
Before the London Olympic Games opening ceremony, Slumdog Millionaire, 127 Hours, 28 Days Later, and Trainspotting came the first theatrical movie that Danny Boyle directed back in 1994, Shallow Grave. Also starring Ewan McGregor, who would accompany Boyle on his first three directorial ventures, the movie spins a yarn about a group of housemates who take on a new tenant that promptly dies of a drug overdose. When a huge stash of money is discovered in the departed’s suitcase, and the housemates decide whether to inform the authorities or conceal the death (and keep the money), the film’s ominous title comes into play.
Mr Deeds
He’s been an unlikely golfing talent, a water boy turned linebacker, the son of Beelzebub, an Israeli counter-terrorist agent turned hairdresser, and a reluctant father figure. In most of his movies, however, Adam Sandler seems to maintain a lot of himself in a character, and that’s never been truer than of Mr Deeds. When Longfellow Deeds (Sandler) comes into a fortune, he buys Corvettes for the inhabitants of his small-town American home; when Sandler finished production of Grown-Ups in 2010, he bought $250,000 Maserattis for the rest of the cast. And that’s really the point of Mr Deeds: regardless of the fortune you find yourself to be the unlikely heir of overnight, the money by itself doesn’t mean a thing.
Jackpot is in cinemas, Friday August 10th.

Who Are Your True Friends? Trailer For Black Norwegian Action Comedy Arme Riddere (Jackpot)