Opening day highlights

The Opening Screening, Mike Leigh's Vera Drake, attracted a full house of festival visitors. Image: Santeri Happonen

The 30th edition of The Midnight Sun Film Festival got started on Wednesday June 10 in a festive atmosphere. The life and works of longtime Festival Director Peter von Bagh were celebrated in an extensive five-hour-long matinee, but the festival also turned its gaze into the future. The festival audience got to experience films in a new, bigger and bolder version of the classic festival tent.

The official opening screening at Cinema Lapinsuu attracted a full house of festival visitors and special guests. This year’s opening film was Mike Leigh’s Vera Drake - after decades of anticipation, the celebrated British director has finally arrived at the festival. In the coming days, Leigh will be enjoying the festival atmosphere, with an extensive look into his career and thoughts coming up on Saturday’s morning discussion.

In his opening speech, the festival’s Artistic Director Timo Malmi gave an assertive list of reasons for the festival’s continuing existence after the passing of Peter von Bagh: Midnight Sun Film Festival is an absolutely essential champion of film culture in Finland. Malmi noted that the recent case of Helsinki’s Maxim cinema shows that it is possible to gain victories in this struggle.

The new Big Tent, capable of hosting more than one thousand people, also had its very own opening ceremony. The opening film was Peter von Bagh’s The Count (1971). One of the film’s female stars, Titta Karakorpi was present at the screening to share memories of the The Count’s making, and after the film ended, surprise guest Kiti Neuvonen gave an emotional performance of the film’s theme song.

However, another event attracted festival visitors to the Big Tent already before the official opening. The festival’s long-time partner Kemijoki Oy presented a film about the company’s growth and served the audience liquorice and refreshments. The film “Padottu voima - Kemijoen tarina” showed that Lapland’s modernization process was not painless. Director Michael Franck referred to the film as an instrument of redemption and compared the filmmaking process to a therapy session. Many families financed their children’s education with money from the reservoirs, but some of those children lost their childhood landscapes underwater.

With the first festival day turning into night, this year’s series of 70mm films also got its noble start. Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey held the audience in its intensive grip long into the night, leaving everyone hungry for more masterpieces in the 70mm format.