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Polar FILM FESTIVAL 2008
Festival 2009

 

WINNERS 2009:

Best International Feature:
KILL KILL FASTER FASTER -- Gareth Robert

Best Nordic Country Feature:
JETSAM -- Simon Wellsford

Best International Documentary:
THE DAY AFTER PEACE -- Jeremy Giley

Best Nordic Country Documentary:
A SEA CHANGE -- Barbara Ettinger

Best International Short Film:
DRUMHEAD -- Alan Coltman

Best Nordic Country Short Film:
GRISEN -- Tivi Magnusson and Dorte Høgh

Best International Short Documentary:
SEVERING THE SOUL -- Barbara Klutinis

Best Nordic Country Short Documentary:
LAW OF NATURE - Neittaanmäki, Juutilainen, Chrzu, Suominen

Best International Music Video:
POWER NIGHT -- Max Butler

Best Nordic Country Music Video:
LINN -- Patrik Granroth

Best International Feature Screenplay:
LOVE'S TSUNAMI -- Greg Barker
1st Runner Up: DEVIL FOOD -- Samantha Raymond
2nd Runner Up:  TIM -- Siggi Newlplough

Best Nordic Country Screenplay:
PAPPA'S FLICKA -- Sten Wildmark

 

OFFICIAL SELECTION 2009

Click here for the 2009 screening schedule

FEATURES

Jetsam (83m, Ireland, Denmark), dir. by Simon Wellsford, Feature Film  -- Thriller

When the ice cold North Sea spits out a young woman onto a desolate beach we are immediately thrown into the atmospheric world of Jetsam. This contemporary thriller follows the story of the washed up woman as she tries to find out the how and why of her immediate life.

Along with a lost memory, to further complicate her situation a man who she discovers washed up on the same beach attacks her. Fighting to stay alive she goes on the run from the stranger and desperately tries to piece her memory back together.

 

The Burial (89m, France), dir. Danille Bouchier, Feature Film -- Comedy

When three estranged brothers gather for their mother’s funeral the last thing they expected was a family road trip. Mother’s final wish was clear: “Take me to the river and bury me with your Father”.

 

The reluctant sons, a girlfriend and a coffin squash into a vintage hearse, bumble their way from France to England, and realise that to bury the past there’s some digging up to do.

 

Kill Kill Faster Faster (97m, USA)

dir. Gareth Robert, Feature Film -- Thriller

The story of Joe One-Way, a man serving a life stretch for

the passion murder of his teenage bride Kimba. Inspired to write by Clinique, his Jamaican cellmate, mentor and lover, Joe pens the play ‘White Man: Black Hole’. New York film producer, Markie Mann, wanting to make the play into a film, pulls

strings to have Joe paroled and contracts him to write the screenplay.

Fleur is Markie Mann’s beautiful wife, a one-time hooker and ex-con, who can’t help but fall for kindred spirit Joe. Joe One-Way soon discovers that life on the outside may be too dangerous even for him

 

Automatons (88m, USA), dir. James McKenny

Feature Film – Sci-Fi

Somewhere in the distant future, The Girl is alone. She is the last of her people, the others having died in a generations-long war that the girl continues to fight with the assistance of a group of antiquated robot helpers and soldiers.

 

Her only connection to her long-dead people is a collection of recorded journal entries made by the scientist who cared for her as a baby. His is the only friendly human face she’s ever seen. The regular transmissions from her enemy's leader are always filled with threats and taunts. The girl responds to these invasions by attack of her own, carried out by her mechanical soldiers on the contaminated surface where no human can survive. Men started this war. The machines will finish it.

 

The Blue Tower (88m, India, UK), dir. Smit Bhide

Feature Film – Drama

Mohan is a young dreamer, unhappy in his marriage, pressured by his father-in-law into joining the family firm.  With his parents dead, he relies for money on the support of his tyrannical bed-ridden Auntie, Kamla, who delights in tormenting her innocent nephew. A stunning cross-cultural drama.

 

Blessed (83m, Scotland),   dir. Mark Aldridg.  Feature Film – Drama

After the death of his family a grieving man retreats to an isolated Scottish island where his life is shaken up by the unexpected arrival of a young girl.

 

DOUMENTARIES

The Day After Peace (81m, England), dir. by Jeremy Gilley

The Day After Peace charts the remarkable 10-year journey taken by award winning filmmaker Jeremy Gilley to establish a day of Peace on September 21st. During the course of his mission the camera follows Gilley as he galvanizes the countries of the world to recognize this as an official day of ceasefire and non-violence.

 

2nd Verse (86m, USA) dir. by Carl Brown

Following several Bay Area teens as they prepare for — and compete in — the 8th annual Brave New Voices International Poetry Slam Competition in San Francisco, 2nd Verse goes beyond the words to explore each of their lives within the Bay Area’s ethnic and economic melting pot. Drawing strength from one another, these powerhouse poets are truly transformed by their engagement with spoken word.

 


Mari Carmen España - Tystnadens slut [Mari Carmen España – The End of Silence] (75m, Sweden)
dir. by
Martin Jönsson, Pontus Hjorthén
Feature Documentary

A documentary roadmovie by two swedish guys driving around Spain searching for the historical verdict over Hitler's and Mussolini's old companion Franco. A roadmovie in rental cars featuring Olof Palme, the world's biggest cross and a woman determined to put her family history in order.

 

  

A Sea Change (85m, Norway)
dir. by
Barbara Ettinger
Feature Documentary

Imagine a world without fish. Combining personal odyssey with scientific discovery, 'A Sea Change' is the first documentary to explore the threat of ocean acidification, the flip side of climate change.

 

 

Liberty of Norton (75m, Belgium, UK)
dir. by
Julian Tempel
Feature Documentary

Madness performs it’s first concert in 10 years. Join artistes, musicians, orchestral ensembles, top hatted scoundrels, pearly kings & queens, ladies of

the night and hundreds of dancing, skanking Londoners on a journey through the band Madness's musical past, present and future, culminating in a celebration of difference, of variety, and of the human spirit – a slice of urban magic.

 

SHORTS

Gone Fishing (12m, UK)
dir. by Chris Jones  Short film

An old man tells a young boy about the greatest fishing story of his life.

 

The Key (USA, UK)

Dir by Paul Street

 

Two lost souls meet in a world of surveillance and mysterious events. This elegiac, almost-silent film is an examination of loneliness and longing in a dystopian near future, a story set in a timeless society where water is at a premium. In a depopulated city, a traumatized loner and a vertical farmer attempt to find human connec-tion while living in self imposed isolation.

 

Out of the Blue (France, Ireland)

Dir by Michael Lavalle

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A man’s life changes for the better when he finds a mermaid living in his television set.  But what price will he pay to keep this good thing he’s found?

 

Homoworld (18m UK)

Dir. by Max Barber

What does the world look like through different eyes.

 

A Juicy Turkey (13m France)

Dir. by Benoit Ameil

The last thing you’d ever want to be served for dinner.

 

Leaving (22m UK)

Dir. by Sam Hearn

Leaving an abusive relationship is never easy.

 

Pussyfooting (29m, Sweden)
dir. by
Lisa James-Larsson
Short Film

How can Joan find the courage to open up to her beloved family when she can't even look at herself in the mirror? It's time for the truth to be told. Anything else is Pussyfooting.

 

 

Hur man förbereder sig för en dejt och finner sin tvillingsjäl med mobiltelefonen [How to prepare for a date and find your soulmate with your cell phone] (6m, Sweden)
dir. by Josefin Sundberg,
Hans Montelius
Short Film

 

A man prepares for a date. But everything goes wrong and he ends up dating his cell phone.

 

Milbe (6m, Germany)
dir. by
Karl Tebbe
Short film

A stop motion tale of the dangers of failing to clean properly.

 

 

Lesson from the Man (9m, Finland)
dir. by
Altsi Toiviainen
Short Film

A man transforms himself with a self help program. In the
process he succeeds in upsetting his employer, his wife
and even God.

 

 

Den Inneboende [The Lodger] (27m, Sweden)
dir. by
Sten Rosendahl
Short Film

Carl, a burned-out heating engineer, is possessive and paranoid. But when his girlfriend Emma leaves him, his mysterious lodger starts to take control of his life.

 

Severing the Soul (12m, USA)
dir. by Barbara Klutinis
Short Doc

Found footage interweaves an account of Rosemary Kennedy’s lobotomy procedure in 1941 with an overview of the psychosurgery movement of the 1930’s-1960’s in the US.

 

Auf der Strecke [On the Line] (Switzerland, Germany/30 mins)
dir. by
Reto Caffi   Short Film

A department store security guard is secretly infatuated with a clerk in the store's bookshop. When he witnesses a love rival being attacked on a train, he abandons him. A decision that carries with it devastating consequences.

 


Manon sur le Bitume [Manon on the Asphalt] (France/15 mins)
dir. by
Elizabeth Marre  Short Film

A girl has an accident while riding home on her bicycle.


 

 

New Boy (Ireland/11 mins)  dir. by Steph Green  Short Film

Based on a Roddy Doyle short story, a young African immigrant struggles to find a place for himself during his first day at an Irish school.

 

 

Grisen [The Pig] (Denmark/22 mins)
dir. by
Tivi Magnusson and Dorte Høgh

Short Film

When Asbjorn is admitted to hospital, he finds comfort in a painting of a whimsical pig - until it is removed by the request of another patient.


Spielzeugland [Toyland] (Germany/14 mins)
dir. by
ochen Alexander Freydank

Short Film

Germany 1942. A mother convinces her son that the Jewish neighbors are going on a journey to 'Toyland'

.

Drumhead (UK, Germany/6 mins)
dir. by
Alan Coltman

Short Film

Sean Bean reads a poem about non-violence set to images of the 2nd World War.

 

Elephants (Malta, UK, 12 mins)
dir. by
Sally Pearce

Short Film

In an entirely grey world, a little girl's life is turned upside down by an infestation of elephants.

 

Domestic Flite (UK, Austira/18 mins)
dir. by
Jules Edwards

Short Film

Sometimes a dream world is preferable to the real one.

 

Lucy Wants to Kill Herself ( USA 13 mins)
dir. by
Blue Dhalia

Short Film

Lucy Trout is the acrimonious, insalubrious and pessimistic

love child of Sylvia Plath and Hunter S. Thompson and owner

of an anxious, soft hearted and scraggy cat Mishima.

Good Stuff, Finland 2009
Director: Niina Suominen
Runtime: 8min

English Lessons, Finland 2008
Directors: Neittaanmäki, Wahl, Järvenpää, Rapeli, Juutilainen, Suominen, Chrzu, Kukkonen
Runtime: 20min

Curse of the remote island, Finland 2008
Director: Chrzu
Runtime: 16min

CMX Punainen komentaja -musicvideo, Finland 2008
Directors: Samppa and Janne Kukkonen
Runtime: 5min

The Anchor, Finland 2007
Directors: Tommi Juutilainen
Runtime: 7min

Law of Nature -series (episodes 3, 6, 8,18), Finland 2007
Directors: Neittaanmäki, Juutilainen, Chrzu, Suominen
Runtime: 10min

LINN - Over you (4m, Finland)
dir. by
Patrik Granroth