Film on top of the world - The Midnight Sun Film Festival, Lapland
Film on Top of The World
- Michael Skurko
The first time. Ever. Sure. You know what I’m talking about. That first kiss. Years later there are still “first ever” moments that continue to amaze. There’s always anticipation on the approach. The next ‘first?’ Many of these are greatly thought out and with lots and lots of pondering. All the agonizing and butterflies before jumping out of an airplane for the first time and then free falling towards earth. SCUBA diving into the gin clear waters of Belize where The Blue Hole drops off, seemingly to infinity. Climbing up the limestone cliffs of Thailand, high above jade green waters and surrounded by stalactites… The list goes on and on and on. I travel. I plan. I travel. The more I travel the more of these “first ever” experiences reveal themselves.
Lapland. The Midnight Sun Film Festival.
When it became clear that I was setting off on a trip to Lapland to attend The Midnight Sun Film Festival there were many questions from friends and co-workers. “Where is it?” “North of where?” “How do you get there?” “Will it be snowing?” There was also opportunity for clever humorous asides… No, Lapland is not the name of a strip joint in Las Vegas where scantily clad girls in Santa’s Helper outfits offer lap-dances.
I’ve been a film fanatic for quite some time and have attended many film festivals. After reading ‘From Sundance to Sarajevo – Film Festivals and The World They Made’ by Kenneth Turan I became inspired. Lapland was now on my radar. “The Midnight Sun Film Festival.” Ahh, this sounds so incredibly romantic. This legendary festival is held yearly in Sodankyla in the Arctic Circle during the summer. The sun does not set for 53 days in the summer. Films play all night. This place is a twelve hour train ride north of Helsinki. You’d really have to dig deep to find a location quite as spectacular as this one. “Reindeer, gold miners and drunks.” This is what my friend from Helsinki assured me would await us in Lapland. Clearly a “unique” setting and a festival not to be skipped. Yes, there are many places to go. Yes, there are other film festivals that are easy for me to access. I’ve been to Tribeca in New York, The Chicago International Film Festival, The Boise International, The S.F. International, S.F. Indie Fest and many off shoot festivals involving short films, Documentary Films, Splatter Flicks, Animation, Sci-Fi and documentaries along with all the attendee film freaks, film fanatics and film makers. Film Festivals are, unquestionably, seriously fun. So, I decide to go to Lapland. A year ago we put the stake in the sand and begin to make plans. A year ago? I was told booking a room in Sodankyla is going to be “a challenge.” There are only two hotels in town. Both are booked, apparently, several years in advance. This is not good. I really have a hard time getting my head around this concept. Is the festival that popular? Yes. Is Sodankyla that remote? Yes. We exchange e-mails with his buddy who lives in Helsinki. There are options. There is camping. However, I am told our tent will never get dark. This sounds like a bit of a nightmare. A week of jet lag and then attempting sleep in a continually glowing jack-o-lantern tent? I will lose my mind! I’ve heard of this level of sleep deprivation and understand, from the press, that this is an effective way to torture prisoners. Light, coupled with loud campers? Images of Guantanamo and Camp X-Ray continually flooded by the blue glow of halogen search lights. I think I will lose my mind and my girlfriend will quickly succumb to insanity. In a less extreme e-mail I communicate that “perhaps there are some options aside from the camp sites…” Hmm… There is housing a thirty-minute drive from the festival. The three of us quickly agree that this is a bad option as we are all planning to drink, watch films and drink. No one wants to drive. I recall being told the area is filled with “drunks, gold-miners and reindeer hunters.” Great. We are not going to be driving around at 4am from the festival only to run head on into a blind drunk gold miner, likely just returning from an early morning reindeer hunt. Nope. I am amused by my co-worker’s gentle suggestion that these locals were quite capable of running fatly amuck by continually drinking grain alcohol that could just as easily fuel the fighter planes of the Finland’s air-force. Yep. We decide that for safety we’ll simply stay within walking distance of the festival. No hotels. I really can’t imagine. Perhaps they are holding them all for Robert Deniro and his pals… Options? I am told there will be “student housing.” We can get in there. It’s cheap and close. Sold! We make a commitment and are ready to rock. The festival is coming up in 12 months.
Nearly a year later I am now in Helsinki with my girlfriend. We are very close to Russia. This fact becomes increasingly obvious as boatloads of drunken Russian soccer fans are unleashed on the city to attend a match. These are the infamous “booze cruise” boats that go from Helsinki to St. Petersburg. It’s been over a decade since an Israeli owned software company sent me to Norway and Sweden on a series of trips to set up channels of distribution for Northern Europe. Memories of tall women with piercing blue eyes and the chiseled features of super models. Helsinki does not disappoint. An attractive population of industrious and meticulous people. I’m told there is “virtually no petty crime.” The trains run on time and the architecture coupled with this complete lack of crime gives this place the feel of Paris. If the Swiss ran it. Good coffee, excellent food and alcohol that is heavily taxed, seemingly to encourage a cottage industry of moonshine that I’m told thrives in the wilderness. We are staying at the Klaus K Hotel, a moderately priced business hotel that is centrally located and seems to have been constructed with the approval of the editors of ID Magazine for their ‘modern’ approach to everything. We have very little agenda here. We would like to eat, drink and be merry. Helsinki is a damn fine place for this. Our flight arrived at half past eleven p.m. and upon landing we were witness to an amazing pink and red sunset. By the time we made it to the hotel we are bleary eyed from the flight from Amsterdam via Munich and ready for a drink. The hotel bar? Ahhh… I’m sure we can do better, but we are tired and ready to relax over icy cocktails. The Klaus K has a “nightclub,” with a DJ, where I would normally expect to find a simple hotel bar. I find this greatly amusing. It’s past 1am and the bar is nearly empty aside from two girls at the bar with really big hair. I wonder if they are hookers while ordering drinks. Mental note: In Finland they are very precise with drinks measures. Wine and hard liquor are measured out before being poured. I suggest you order a double.
We wake up, find coffee, and begin to wander the downtown area. It’s a beautiful place with an incredible amount of ‘design stores’ selling the coolest stuff you’ve ever seen. A clear sense of the bright and the bold is evident in all of their stores and I’m finding a wide selection of items that are sadly too big to bring home and in many cases nose bleed expensive. (Found a lovely set of five hand blown Italian drinking glasses for about $800. They were quite nice.) Down by the waters edge by the tourist boats that ferry drunkards to and from St. Petersburg we find the local outdoor ‘craft market.’ A lively place where it’s effortless to find hunting knives with hand carved handles, colorful woolen caps, scarves and socks. There are food vendors everywhere. A gorgeous young girl with dreadlocks is busy working a massive grill enveloped in the steam of cooking sardines, shrimp and veggies. Mental note: She would make an ideal souvenir.
We meander and take a nice walk to the Helsinki Botanical Gardens. It is incredible and comes highly recommended from this tourist. Eventually we are ready for snacks. I have this notion that due to the proximity to Russia we should have access to cheap and plentiful caviar. Beluga anyone? I consult the guidebook and find a perplexing heap of information. Eventually we wander into a nice place and ask about caviar. Yes, they have it. No, there is no Russian caviar. They have only “the farmed French” variety. This is fine by me. We order a portion and vodka. I am expecting to see clear glasses of ice cold vodka appear at our table and am a bit confused when she brings a bucket of ice and a full bottle. Did she think I wanted an entire bottle? For the two of us? Hmm… She brings out a couple of iced glasses and pours us shots. When in Rome? We knock them back and are quickly refilled. Eventually the caviar arrives. Beautiful black eggs served in a gold tin from France and the requisite side dishes of minced onion, crème fraise, and cute little wedges of crust free toast. Oh, this is fun. We continue to knock back icy glasses of Finnlandia vodka and enjoy the caviar. This is good. This is fun. We are having a blast. A full view of the harbor and ice-cold glasses of local vodka. Granted the fish eggs hail from France, but they are good and we are loving this. Our lovely snack puts us in an elevated state. The caviar, the vodka? In combination they are an effective anti-depressant. Floating around Helsinki on Zoloft could not have put us in a better mood. We wander in and out of local shops frequently needing to wipe the drool from the corners of our mouths as eye-popping design continually amazes us. Helsiniki is ground zero for the coolest stuff you could possibly buy for your kitchen, living room or bathroom. Nothing compares. I found a kaleidoscope of colors, patterns and designs.
We wander on and on along the green belt in the center of town with it’s statues and collection of “free day use bicycles.” Hip, urban Helsinki! Deposit a two-euro coin and it’s returned when you return the bike. Neat. My book on Finland has explained that Finland is one of the safest countries in the world. There is very, very little crime here and these ‘free rental’ bicycles are a great example of this. Sadly in “my country” these bikes would be a two-euro purchase, as they would simply not be returned. Yep. Here, they are jetting around town and seemingly in near constant use around the downtown area. I love this place. This notion of free rentals is amazing having just spent a week in Amsterdam filling out rental agreement forms, running the credit card, renting our bicycles and locking them up with equipment that was both heavy and absolutely necessary to keep the local criminals from stealing them. Amsterdam is the bike capital of the world and it is also, sadly, the bike theft capital of the world. Here? I am told you can leave your wallet out over night and it will be waiting for you. Fantastic.
Our three nights in Helsinki are fantastic. We wound up having a somewhat heavy dinner at The Seahorse where I was introduced to the local beer, Lapin Kulta. Seems low alcohol beer is the norm the world over with the possible exceptions being Belgium, Portland and San Francisco. I like my beers at 7% or above and found the “light, refreshing beers” to be a bit of a disappointment. Ah, well there is also Vodka here... Still, we were greatly amused in our wanderings of Helsinki and enjoyed the fresh sea air and the non-ending stream of coffee, red wine and tasty treats. There is no lack of good food in this town and we were happy to take it all in.
The ultimate goal here is, of course, to go north. My former co-worker had arranged for us to meet with one of his pals and head out on the train together. We had been hoping to lock in plans a week ago, but the “local pal” was proving elusive. Eventually after lobbing a double fistful of text messages and having already checked out of our hotel with internet access, I finally got a call on my cell. He’d meet us at a bar near the train station in two hours. Perfect. What a relief! Soon we were winding our way to the station greatly amused by Russian soccer fans that were in a frenzy of pre-game drinking, flag waving and what appeared to be some serious shit talking and shouting. The cops were everywhere and I was certain we would witness a full-scale riot and tear gas canisters lobbed into the mass of unruly Russians. Sadly for my general tourist agenda this did not quite happen, but it was a fun bit of mob watching and by the time we made it to the bar we were both in a festive mood from the streets teeming with pre-game shenanigans. Ah, a fine day. The main Helsinki train station looks amazing. I half expected to see Franz Kafka bustling off to catch a train to a literary conference. The bar was, predictably packed.
Kustaa and Kata were able to locate us, clearly the American non-soccer fans, we marched off to the train station. They had already picked up the tickets and taken their car onto the car train. We found our private sleeping car and began the voyage. Clean and comfortable. We were in the first class sleeper with an attached bathroom. Perfection. Lapland anticipation is now at an all time high and as the train silently departs we are sipping tins of the local beer and watching the rolling view. This is as good as it gets. A perfect travel moment. We are heading north on what will be a twelve-hour journey taking us to the Arctic Circle. Twenty-four hours of daylight! This is amazing. I’m jazzed beyond belief. Eventually we tumble into our bunks and are soon sleeping along the rails to The Midnight Sun Film Fetival! Sweet. We wake up too early and are looking out the window to an expanse of trees. Continually passing trees in every direction. We are getting closer. Are we in Lapland? We are only an hour shy of the train station. Soon we are there and I am in dire need of strong coffee. Strong beer I can almost live without. Strong coffee is absolutely a requirement. My heart does not beat without it and my only thoughts now are where this critical first cup of coffee will appear. Kustaa is busy dealing with getting the car off the train and I usher the girls to the café. There is a huge line of people waiting for donuts and coffee. I join them and hope the coffee is strong. I feel like I’m in a Soviet era cafeteria and am hoping that, in my fragile pre-coffee hour, that this counter woman does not yell at me. I am fragile. I need my coffee. I get the coffee and a sugar donut. It’s moments like this where I wish I were a smoker. A smoke would undoubtedly make it all fine… I carefully balance the coffee and my sugary donut and make it back to the table. The girls seem in fine spirits. I put my coffee into my belly as quickly as possible and then line up for a second round of java. The coffee is not strong. I must make due.
Soon we are rolling along in a car and then make a stop at “Santa Claus World Headquarters,” or something like that. Incredible. What on earth are we doing here? I am really sleep deprived. Why would adults go to Santa Land? I really do need another coffee. So, this place is predictably filled with tourists, there is a line painted where you can literally “step into the Arctic Circle.” This is neat, but coffee…. We wander the gift shops and get to the place where you can go and actually meet Santa. This is now getting creepy. Adults surely do not need to have a morning visit with Santa. I know that I really don’t need this at all. Nope. We are ushered to another café where I am handed another cup of watery coffee. You’d think they’d want strong coffee in this town. It gets well into the negatives up here in the winter. Do they drink only local moonshine? Coffee! Lapland needs strong coffee. Not that I’d be the one to suggest setting up a Starbucks here, but damn, they sure could use one. Note to self: Move to Lapland and establish the very first “Ass Whompin Coffee Shop. Fresh Roasted Daily. Black as Sin! Stronger than God!” It’s a great idea. Will need to revisit that idea once I wake up.
Our local hosts have figured out that we are happy to leave Santa behind and head North to the festival. Yes, bring it on! We hit the road and in no time at all see our first Reindeer trotting along the road. Incredible. These things really don’t seem real until you’re there. It’s real! We’re here. There are very few cars on the road here and I’m happy to see we are quickly deep in the forest. Trees everywhere and this expanse of trees is part of the Finland “internal wealth.” (insert statistics here on the forest industry – sustainable etc. etc.)
After a couple of hours we roll into the weird little town of Sodankyla. Not sure exactly what is up, so we head to the film festival HQ and I buy a couple of program guides. I flip through it and there’s a photo of Burt Reynolds in “The Deliverance.” OK, now we’re talking festival! I haven’t seen this film since it played on T.V. in the 70s in California. Good lord, what a great pick! We are, in fact a day late, to the festival. Ah, well. I wonder if they are even screening this or if it’s just an image for the guide. Kustaa clears this up. “It is playing in two hours.” Well, hop damn. Let the games begin!
At this point I flip through the program guide and begin to read the covering notes by Perter von Bagh. The first paragraph gives perfect insight into what makes the Midnight Sun an amazing and singular experience:
“First, let me tell our guests why they are so far away and in such a strange place. It is all about light, or actually two different, encountering lights. First and more obviously, the nature: the midnight sun, which exactly at this time of the year does not set at all. Secondly, the light of the film, which is also natural light, because we respect the light of the film copies and annually prove, without picking a fight, that the electronic light of the digital world cannot reach the same mystical dimension – which is also transferred to the common experience of the viewers – as traditional film.”
After reading this paragraph it became increasingly clear that I’d be in for a rare and spectacular treat. This is exactly what I’d been hoping for and I am getting more and more fired up as we continue to walk around the festival arena.
So, next we head over to “student housing.” I have absolutely no expectations here and am not sure what we’ll find here. Guessing accommodations will be ‘rustic’ and/or ‘Spartan.’ In front of a dilapidated building we are met by an older bearded man who looks shockingly like Rasputin. I find this more amusing than unsettling considering the building looks like the Lapland version of The Bates Motel from Hitchcock’s film ‘Psycho.’ We walk in and find, much to our mutual delight, the wooden halls are jauntily decorated with colorful erotic paintings and collages some of which are crudely rendered and constructed with cut-outs from porno magazines. I find this genuinely amusing and we all go on to select our rooms. Each of them is filled with a bizarre assortment of flannel shirts, cassette tapes and/or more erotic art on the walls. After Rasputin has wandered off we all share tales of the bizarre things that are in these small rooms and their accompanying tiny beds. This is fun. There is a cassette tape in our room with a topless lass and a caption across her bared breasts reading what I am later told means “Sexy Songs” in Finnish. There is also an old can of whip cream in the closet of our room. Clearly this is a festive place.
Not sure if it’s the residual effects of jet lag or if Lapland is naturally a place of great hilarity. I am having a fine time and am laughing. Continually. The housing situation is so weird that I can’t take it. My belly hurts from laughing and I am just getting warmed up for the festival. Now, it’s time to get back to the festival. We drive the short distance across the river and approach the festival HQ. I’d been hoping for a festival pass, but apparently after missing the critical first day of the festival this is a “losing money option” and we go with the twelve film punch pass. I buy one and we head to the parking lot where the massive blue big top circus tent awaits us. We are now at the tail end of the line and slowly make our way into the tent. The tent has massive steel support beams that obscure the view of many of the participants. Bummer. We get seats in the back and eventually give up on them as we are sitting behind one of these beams. We move to the far side. Lousy seats. Still, John Boorman was there to talk about the film and nothing brings film to life like this. Boorman is on stage, casually chatting with an audience about “nearly drowning” several members of the cast in the river. Amazing. Awesome. I can’t believe we are here and about to see a film that’s burned in indelible ink on the retina of anyone who’s ever seen it. The Deliverance. This is awesome!
We eventually see Boorman’s “The Emerald Forest” as well. Here’s a list o every film we saw in the festival over the next handful of days/nights:
Chabrol; “Bellamy”
Kaurismaki; “Three wise Men”
Jarmusch; “The Limits of Control”
Von Bagh; “Helsinki Forever”
Flaherty; “Nanook of the North”
Karukoski; “Forbidden Fruit”
Meals – After meeting up with Kustaa and Kata we headed over to the pizza place for a quick meal. Now, we are in Soldankyla and this is in the Arctic Circle. Given this fact I do not have high expectations for the pizza. There is good pizza in Italy and in New York. Beyond that? It’s a crap shoot. So, I had thought the pizza here would, at best, fill my belly…. The pizza here is actually great. Better than good. Because the festival is unquestionably the biggest event of the year there is a “festival pizza” on the menu. Salami and Jalapenos. Fine by me. Bottles of cold ‘Koff’ brand beer from Finland and I am ready to rock. This town is tiny, but by the grace of the great white north they seem blessed with a good pizza place. My belief is that this is essential to the success of the festival. I am a happy man.
Meals – Dinner. Shredded reindeer atop mashed potatoes and a side of berries and pickles. Perfection. Served with beer. This is another tasty meal in a tiny town. Did I roll in here with some notions? Yes, I did. Small town U.S.A. generally coughs up some pretty bad food. Fast food usually. Here? Thus far seems fine. We even saw a Tex Mex place near the train station. The wonders never cease.
What makes a good film festival? Clearly it’s the films and a chance to meet up with the actors and directors. It’s a chance to see film in a real shared experience and then chat about the films (over pancakes, beer and sausage in an ideal world) “Festival moments” are generally too many to mention and depending on the level of emersion can range from a chance meeting with a director, to the ethereal dream state that can set in after seeing the fifth film of the day and having almost no recollection of the first two films of the day. Talking about the films and then left with that sense of utter befuddlement when asked about a film. “Oh, I can’t recall the name. It’s the one with….” The Midnight Sun delivers! Having only delivered The Deliverance I was set to say that this was already tracking to be one amazing festival.
The big top circus tent itself at The Midnight Sun Film Festival? A huge blue tent, complete with the requisite rigging and poles set in the middle of what looks very much like a parking lot. There are signs out from that remind people to “Hyst!” I am told this means “Shh!” The tent seats some seven hundred people and there is a single entry point that guides film viewers through a black painted pine doorway. Once past this wooden door/light barrier there is the expanse of theater. Folding seats are lined up in front of the big screen. Perfect. Getting in to the tent after waiting in the end of the line generally means a seat well off to the side or one right in the back with view of the screen obscured by one of the many sturdy steel poles that keep the tent upright. Another strategy for the really packed house is to sit very, very close to the screen. On the occasion where sub-titles are above the screen instead of at the bottom? This will make your neck hurt. . At one point while reading subtitles above the screen I recall thinking it could not have been much worse had they screened the film on the ceiling. So, the tent clearly had some challenges, but also some fantastic aspects that continually delight. Hanging high above the audience were a chandelier and multiple strings of white lights. This is unquestionably a visual feast and the films had yet to begin! When the lights go down I notice that it’s not entirely dark. Looking up to the blue, glowing expanse above I am beginning to understand. Yes, I am now fully aware that the sun will not set on this festival! The light will shine on the blue tarp above and it’ll glow softly for films that screen at noon and for films that screen at 3am. Additionally this blue expanse of fabric has seen many years of active duty here in the Arctic Circle. There are many tiny holes in the fabric. When the house lights go down these holes shine like stars in the night sky and at times give me the feeling that we are not confined to this tent, but rather out in a distant galaxy. The tent walls and this blue canvas sky above ebb and flow, I am aware of them as structure and at other times I feel they are a visceral expression of the films themselves. As the winds pick up, the canopy thunders and the breathes rhythmically, a living diaphragm. An extension of film that shudders, flows and in moments of down pouring rain feels like the gods have blessed this tent with a life form that awakes the minute the silver screen sparks to life.
The pancake tent? I noticed there was a tent near the festival head quarters and it seemed to be the focal point of great activity and merry making. There were people drinking beers and eating sausage. Clearly this was the place to be! They also sold wonderful crepe-like pancakes that were delivered either “sweet” or “salty.” I’m not sure about the salty option, but the sweet ones were served up with jam and a sprinkling of sugar. Nice. I had more than a few of them while I was at the festival and was also quite happy to drink beer and eat the sausage. Not sure what type of sausage I was eating at the ‘pancake tent.’ What they were really didn’t matter much to me at the time. They were hot and amazing. Served wrapped in paper and then dipped in mustard. It really can’t get better than pancakes, beer and sausage. Nope. This is as good as it gets. Do they have a ‘pancake tent’ at Cannes or Sundance? I have my doubts.
Random Festival Moments -
The line to get into the main blue circus tent was quite long. Each time I looked at this winding group of film fans there was a sense of the party. The party was clearly going down in the line and many of these people had brought their own bottles of rum, whiskey, wine and beer. It was a happy crew passing a bottle and sharing a collective cheer. At the entryway of the pancake tent there were one or two large guards. They were there to ensure no wine or beer left the premises. Beer and wine were served in a plastic cups. We were, I thought, on some semblance of private property? No, that’s wrong. It’s got to be attached to some kind of school. Saw films in what appeared to be a wood floored gym. So, it just killed me that two paces from the guard that does not allow a plastic cup to pass, is a couple passing a bottle of rum. Odd. Yes, well oddness is clearly part of the experience. There is a juggler and a mime entertaining the crowds waiting in the meandering line extending from the theme set by the big top circus tent.
The midnight sun? I was half expecting to be in need of midnight sun block. Not quite. The weather was mainly cloudy with some rain and a few days of sun. So, this notion of the sun out for 53 days is partially true, but it’s hardly time for sun tanning at 3am. Our innkeeper, Rasputin, was however sighted gardening at 3am. Incredible. Wake up to use the restroom at 4am and, well, it’s disorienting to see that outside it’s just as light as it was pretty much any time throughout the day. Amazing. The sleep deprived, the jet lagged and the up all night party set were clearly in for a treat here. Granted, Sodankyla is pretty much in the middle of nowhere, so if you are up at 3am you will certainly find your options limited for entertainment. Oh, wait! They were actually screening films at 3am and even 6am. Not sure if the pancake tent was open at that point, but still… Films all night in these nights of the midnight sun!
The Midnight Sun Film Festival in Lapland is fantastic, it’s exhausting. I’d like to go back in the winter to see the Northern Lights and snow shoe or cross country ski in the forest. I’d like to return to log more time in the sauna and to drink more of the local fortified grain alcohol (the one with a single star that was “flavored” with a bit of cognac.) I’d like more tasty reindeer treats, sausage and pancakes. I’d like to trek in the woods in the fall in search of cloudberries. I’d like to wander the outdoor market of Helsinki again and continue in my quest of the best caviar. I’d like more shots of iced vodka and an opportunity to buy a colorful array of amazingly designed things for the house and the kitchen… Oh, the list goes on and on and on… Sitting in the blue glow of that big top circus tent? Ahh, that beautiful tent situated well within the arctic circle and playing host to 24 hours of film in a land where the sun has not set of the indelible ink of celluloid film. 35 mm prints, no digital here! There is still a place in the world where the film festival remains absolute perfection. The Midnight Sun Film Festival is a visual gem, perfectly placed in Lapland, the crown jewel of Finland. Make your plans now and GO NORTH! THERE IS NOTHING LIKE THIS ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD!!
- Michael Skurko
The first time. Ever. Sure. You know what I’m talking about. That first kiss. Years later there are still “first ever” moments that continue to amaze. There’s always anticipation on the approach. The next ‘first?’ Many of these are greatly thought out and with lots and lots of pondering. All the agonizing and butterflies before jumping out of an airplane for the first time and then free falling towards earth. SCUBA diving into the gin clear waters of Belize where The Blue Hole drops off, seemingly to infinity. Climbing up the limestone cliffs of Thailand, high above jade green waters and surrounded by stalactites… The list goes on and on and on. I travel. I plan. I travel. The more I travel the more of these “first ever” experiences reveal themselves.
Lapland. The Midnight Sun Film Festival.
When it became clear that I was setting off on a trip to Lapland to attend The Midnight Sun Film Festival there were many questions from friends and co-workers. “Where is it?” “North of where?” “How do you get there?” “Will it be snowing?” There was also opportunity for clever humorous asides… No, Lapland is not the name of a strip joint in Las Vegas where scantily clad girls in Santa’s Helper outfits offer lap-dances.
I’ve been a film fanatic for quite some time and have attended many film festivals. After reading ‘From Sundance to Sarajevo – Film Festivals and The World They Made’ by Kenneth Turan I became inspired. Lapland was now on my radar. “The Midnight Sun Film Festival.” Ahh, this sounds so incredibly romantic. This legendary festival is held yearly in Sodankyla in the Arctic Circle during the summer. The sun does not set for 53 days in the summer. Films play all night. This place is a twelve hour train ride north of Helsinki. You’d really have to dig deep to find a location quite as spectacular as this one. “Reindeer, gold miners and drunks.” This is what my friend from Helsinki assured me would await us in Lapland. Clearly a “unique” setting and a festival not to be skipped. Yes, there are many places to go. Yes, there are other film festivals that are easy for me to access. I’ve been to Tribeca in New York, The Chicago International Film Festival, The Boise International, The S.F. International, S.F. Indie Fest and many off shoot festivals involving short films, Documentary Films, Splatter Flicks, Animation, Sci-Fi and documentaries along with all the attendee film freaks, film fanatics and film makers. Film Festivals are, unquestionably, seriously fun. So, I decide to go to Lapland. A year ago we put the stake in the sand and begin to make plans. A year ago? I was told booking a room in Sodankyla is going to be “a challenge.” There are only two hotels in town. Both are booked, apparently, several years in advance. This is not good. I really have a hard time getting my head around this concept. Is the festival that popular? Yes. Is Sodankyla that remote? Yes. We exchange e-mails with his buddy who lives in Helsinki. There are options. There is camping. However, I am told our tent will never get dark. This sounds like a bit of a nightmare. A week of jet lag and then attempting sleep in a continually glowing jack-o-lantern tent? I will lose my mind! I’ve heard of this level of sleep deprivation and understand, from the press, that this is an effective way to torture prisoners. Light, coupled with loud campers? Images of Guantanamo and Camp X-Ray continually flooded by the blue glow of halogen search lights. I think I will lose my mind and my girlfriend will quickly succumb to insanity. In a less extreme e-mail I communicate that “perhaps there are some options aside from the camp sites…” Hmm… There is housing a thirty-minute drive from the festival. The three of us quickly agree that this is a bad option as we are all planning to drink, watch films and drink. No one wants to drive. I recall being told the area is filled with “drunks, gold-miners and reindeer hunters.” Great. We are not going to be driving around at 4am from the festival only to run head on into a blind drunk gold miner, likely just returning from an early morning reindeer hunt. Nope. I am amused by my co-worker’s gentle suggestion that these locals were quite capable of running fatly amuck by continually drinking grain alcohol that could just as easily fuel the fighter planes of the Finland’s air-force. Yep. We decide that for safety we’ll simply stay within walking distance of the festival. No hotels. I really can’t imagine. Perhaps they are holding them all for Robert Deniro and his pals… Options? I am told there will be “student housing.” We can get in there. It’s cheap and close. Sold! We make a commitment and are ready to rock. The festival is coming up in 12 months.
Nearly a year later I am now in Helsinki with my girlfriend. We are very close to Russia. This fact becomes increasingly obvious as boatloads of drunken Russian soccer fans are unleashed on the city to attend a match. These are the infamous “booze cruise” boats that go from Helsinki to St. Petersburg. It’s been over a decade since an Israeli owned software company sent me to Norway and Sweden on a series of trips to set up channels of distribution for Northern Europe. Memories of tall women with piercing blue eyes and the chiseled features of super models. Helsinki does not disappoint. An attractive population of industrious and meticulous people. I’m told there is “virtually no petty crime.” The trains run on time and the architecture coupled with this complete lack of crime gives this place the feel of Paris. If the Swiss ran it. Good coffee, excellent food and alcohol that is heavily taxed, seemingly to encourage a cottage industry of moonshine that I’m told thrives in the wilderness. We are staying at the Klaus K Hotel, a moderately priced business hotel that is centrally located and seems to have been constructed with the approval of the editors of ID Magazine for their ‘modern’ approach to everything. We have very little agenda here. We would like to eat, drink and be merry. Helsinki is a damn fine place for this. Our flight arrived at half past eleven p.m. and upon landing we were witness to an amazing pink and red sunset. By the time we made it to the hotel we are bleary eyed from the flight from Amsterdam via Munich and ready for a drink. The hotel bar? Ahhh… I’m sure we can do better, but we are tired and ready to relax over icy cocktails. The Klaus K has a “nightclub,” with a DJ, where I would normally expect to find a simple hotel bar. I find this greatly amusing. It’s past 1am and the bar is nearly empty aside from two girls at the bar with really big hair. I wonder if they are hookers while ordering drinks. Mental note: In Finland they are very precise with drinks measures. Wine and hard liquor are measured out before being poured. I suggest you order a double.
We wake up, find coffee, and begin to wander the downtown area. It’s a beautiful place with an incredible amount of ‘design stores’ selling the coolest stuff you’ve ever seen. A clear sense of the bright and the bold is evident in all of their stores and I’m finding a wide selection of items that are sadly too big to bring home and in many cases nose bleed expensive. (Found a lovely set of five hand blown Italian drinking glasses for about $800. They were quite nice.) Down by the waters edge by the tourist boats that ferry drunkards to and from St. Petersburg we find the local outdoor ‘craft market.’ A lively place where it’s effortless to find hunting knives with hand carved handles, colorful woolen caps, scarves and socks. There are food vendors everywhere. A gorgeous young girl with dreadlocks is busy working a massive grill enveloped in the steam of cooking sardines, shrimp and veggies. Mental note: She would make an ideal souvenir.
We meander and take a nice walk to the Helsinki Botanical Gardens. It is incredible and comes highly recommended from this tourist. Eventually we are ready for snacks. I have this notion that due to the proximity to Russia we should have access to cheap and plentiful caviar. Beluga anyone? I consult the guidebook and find a perplexing heap of information. Eventually we wander into a nice place and ask about caviar. Yes, they have it. No, there is no Russian caviar. They have only “the farmed French” variety. This is fine by me. We order a portion and vodka. I am expecting to see clear glasses of ice cold vodka appear at our table and am a bit confused when she brings a bucket of ice and a full bottle. Did she think I wanted an entire bottle? For the two of us? Hmm… She brings out a couple of iced glasses and pours us shots. When in Rome? We knock them back and are quickly refilled. Eventually the caviar arrives. Beautiful black eggs served in a gold tin from France and the requisite side dishes of minced onion, crème fraise, and cute little wedges of crust free toast. Oh, this is fun. We continue to knock back icy glasses of Finnlandia vodka and enjoy the caviar. This is good. This is fun. We are having a blast. A full view of the harbor and ice-cold glasses of local vodka. Granted the fish eggs hail from France, but they are good and we are loving this. Our lovely snack puts us in an elevated state. The caviar, the vodka? In combination they are an effective anti-depressant. Floating around Helsinki on Zoloft could not have put us in a better mood. We wander in and out of local shops frequently needing to wipe the drool from the corners of our mouths as eye-popping design continually amazes us. Helsiniki is ground zero for the coolest stuff you could possibly buy for your kitchen, living room or bathroom. Nothing compares. I found a kaleidoscope of colors, patterns and designs.
We wander on and on along the green belt in the center of town with it’s statues and collection of “free day use bicycles.” Hip, urban Helsinki! Deposit a two-euro coin and it’s returned when you return the bike. Neat. My book on Finland has explained that Finland is one of the safest countries in the world. There is very, very little crime here and these ‘free rental’ bicycles are a great example of this. Sadly in “my country” these bikes would be a two-euro purchase, as they would simply not be returned. Yep. Here, they are jetting around town and seemingly in near constant use around the downtown area. I love this place. This notion of free rentals is amazing having just spent a week in Amsterdam filling out rental agreement forms, running the credit card, renting our bicycles and locking them up with equipment that was both heavy and absolutely necessary to keep the local criminals from stealing them. Amsterdam is the bike capital of the world and it is also, sadly, the bike theft capital of the world. Here? I am told you can leave your wallet out over night and it will be waiting for you. Fantastic.
Our three nights in Helsinki are fantastic. We wound up having a somewhat heavy dinner at The Seahorse where I was introduced to the local beer, Lapin Kulta. Seems low alcohol beer is the norm the world over with the possible exceptions being Belgium, Portland and San Francisco. I like my beers at 7% or above and found the “light, refreshing beers” to be a bit of a disappointment. Ah, well there is also Vodka here... Still, we were greatly amused in our wanderings of Helsinki and enjoyed the fresh sea air and the non-ending stream of coffee, red wine and tasty treats. There is no lack of good food in this town and we were happy to take it all in.
The ultimate goal here is, of course, to go north. My former co-worker had arranged for us to meet with one of his pals and head out on the train together. We had been hoping to lock in plans a week ago, but the “local pal” was proving elusive. Eventually after lobbing a double fistful of text messages and having already checked out of our hotel with internet access, I finally got a call on my cell. He’d meet us at a bar near the train station in two hours. Perfect. What a relief! Soon we were winding our way to the station greatly amused by Russian soccer fans that were in a frenzy of pre-game drinking, flag waving and what appeared to be some serious shit talking and shouting. The cops were everywhere and I was certain we would witness a full-scale riot and tear gas canisters lobbed into the mass of unruly Russians. Sadly for my general tourist agenda this did not quite happen, but it was a fun bit of mob watching and by the time we made it to the bar we were both in a festive mood from the streets teeming with pre-game shenanigans. Ah, a fine day. The main Helsinki train station looks amazing. I half expected to see Franz Kafka bustling off to catch a train to a literary conference. The bar was, predictably packed.
Kustaa and Kata were able to locate us, clearly the American non-soccer fans, we marched off to the train station. They had already picked up the tickets and taken their car onto the car train. We found our private sleeping car and began the voyage. Clean and comfortable. We were in the first class sleeper with an attached bathroom. Perfection. Lapland anticipation is now at an all time high and as the train silently departs we are sipping tins of the local beer and watching the rolling view. This is as good as it gets. A perfect travel moment. We are heading north on what will be a twelve-hour journey taking us to the Arctic Circle. Twenty-four hours of daylight! This is amazing. I’m jazzed beyond belief. Eventually we tumble into our bunks and are soon sleeping along the rails to The Midnight Sun Film Fetival! Sweet. We wake up too early and are looking out the window to an expanse of trees. Continually passing trees in every direction. We are getting closer. Are we in Lapland? We are only an hour shy of the train station. Soon we are there and I am in dire need of strong coffee. Strong beer I can almost live without. Strong coffee is absolutely a requirement. My heart does not beat without it and my only thoughts now are where this critical first cup of coffee will appear. Kustaa is busy dealing with getting the car off the train and I usher the girls to the café. There is a huge line of people waiting for donuts and coffee. I join them and hope the coffee is strong. I feel like I’m in a Soviet era cafeteria and am hoping that, in my fragile pre-coffee hour, that this counter woman does not yell at me. I am fragile. I need my coffee. I get the coffee and a sugar donut. It’s moments like this where I wish I were a smoker. A smoke would undoubtedly make it all fine… I carefully balance the coffee and my sugary donut and make it back to the table. The girls seem in fine spirits. I put my coffee into my belly as quickly as possible and then line up for a second round of java. The coffee is not strong. I must make due.
Soon we are rolling along in a car and then make a stop at “Santa Claus World Headquarters,” or something like that. Incredible. What on earth are we doing here? I am really sleep deprived. Why would adults go to Santa Land? I really do need another coffee. So, this place is predictably filled with tourists, there is a line painted where you can literally “step into the Arctic Circle.” This is neat, but coffee…. We wander the gift shops and get to the place where you can go and actually meet Santa. This is now getting creepy. Adults surely do not need to have a morning visit with Santa. I know that I really don’t need this at all. Nope. We are ushered to another café where I am handed another cup of watery coffee. You’d think they’d want strong coffee in this town. It gets well into the negatives up here in the winter. Do they drink only local moonshine? Coffee! Lapland needs strong coffee. Not that I’d be the one to suggest setting up a Starbucks here, but damn, they sure could use one. Note to self: Move to Lapland and establish the very first “Ass Whompin Coffee Shop. Fresh Roasted Daily. Black as Sin! Stronger than God!” It’s a great idea. Will need to revisit that idea once I wake up.
Our local hosts have figured out that we are happy to leave Santa behind and head North to the festival. Yes, bring it on! We hit the road and in no time at all see our first Reindeer trotting along the road. Incredible. These things really don’t seem real until you’re there. It’s real! We’re here. There are very few cars on the road here and I’m happy to see we are quickly deep in the forest. Trees everywhere and this expanse of trees is part of the Finland “internal wealth.” (insert statistics here on the forest industry – sustainable etc. etc.)
After a couple of hours we roll into the weird little town of Sodankyla. Not sure exactly what is up, so we head to the film festival HQ and I buy a couple of program guides. I flip through it and there’s a photo of Burt Reynolds in “The Deliverance.” OK, now we’re talking festival! I haven’t seen this film since it played on T.V. in the 70s in California. Good lord, what a great pick! We are, in fact a day late, to the festival. Ah, well. I wonder if they are even screening this or if it’s just an image for the guide. Kustaa clears this up. “It is playing in two hours.” Well, hop damn. Let the games begin!
At this point I flip through the program guide and begin to read the covering notes by Perter von Bagh. The first paragraph gives perfect insight into what makes the Midnight Sun an amazing and singular experience:
“First, let me tell our guests why they are so far away and in such a strange place. It is all about light, or actually two different, encountering lights. First and more obviously, the nature: the midnight sun, which exactly at this time of the year does not set at all. Secondly, the light of the film, which is also natural light, because we respect the light of the film copies and annually prove, without picking a fight, that the electronic light of the digital world cannot reach the same mystical dimension – which is also transferred to the common experience of the viewers – as traditional film.”
After reading this paragraph it became increasingly clear that I’d be in for a rare and spectacular treat. This is exactly what I’d been hoping for and I am getting more and more fired up as we continue to walk around the festival arena.
So, next we head over to “student housing.” I have absolutely no expectations here and am not sure what we’ll find here. Guessing accommodations will be ‘rustic’ and/or ‘Spartan.’ In front of a dilapidated building we are met by an older bearded man who looks shockingly like Rasputin. I find this more amusing than unsettling considering the building looks like the Lapland version of The Bates Motel from Hitchcock’s film ‘Psycho.’ We walk in and find, much to our mutual delight, the wooden halls are jauntily decorated with colorful erotic paintings and collages some of which are crudely rendered and constructed with cut-outs from porno magazines. I find this genuinely amusing and we all go on to select our rooms. Each of them is filled with a bizarre assortment of flannel shirts, cassette tapes and/or more erotic art on the walls. After Rasputin has wandered off we all share tales of the bizarre things that are in these small rooms and their accompanying tiny beds. This is fun. There is a cassette tape in our room with a topless lass and a caption across her bared breasts reading what I am later told means “Sexy Songs” in Finnish. There is also an old can of whip cream in the closet of our room. Clearly this is a festive place.
Not sure if it’s the residual effects of jet lag or if Lapland is naturally a place of great hilarity. I am having a fine time and am laughing. Continually. The housing situation is so weird that I can’t take it. My belly hurts from laughing and I am just getting warmed up for the festival. Now, it’s time to get back to the festival. We drive the short distance across the river and approach the festival HQ. I’d been hoping for a festival pass, but apparently after missing the critical first day of the festival this is a “losing money option” and we go with the twelve film punch pass. I buy one and we head to the parking lot where the massive blue big top circus tent awaits us. We are now at the tail end of the line and slowly make our way into the tent. The tent has massive steel support beams that obscure the view of many of the participants. Bummer. We get seats in the back and eventually give up on them as we are sitting behind one of these beams. We move to the far side. Lousy seats. Still, John Boorman was there to talk about the film and nothing brings film to life like this. Boorman is on stage, casually chatting with an audience about “nearly drowning” several members of the cast in the river. Amazing. Awesome. I can’t believe we are here and about to see a film that’s burned in indelible ink on the retina of anyone who’s ever seen it. The Deliverance. This is awesome!
We eventually see Boorman’s “The Emerald Forest” as well. Here’s a list o every film we saw in the festival over the next handful of days/nights:
Chabrol; “Bellamy”
Kaurismaki; “Three wise Men”
Jarmusch; “The Limits of Control”
Von Bagh; “Helsinki Forever”
Flaherty; “Nanook of the North”
Karukoski; “Forbidden Fruit”
Meals – After meeting up with Kustaa and Kata we headed over to the pizza place for a quick meal. Now, we are in Soldankyla and this is in the Arctic Circle. Given this fact I do not have high expectations for the pizza. There is good pizza in Italy and in New York. Beyond that? It’s a crap shoot. So, I had thought the pizza here would, at best, fill my belly…. The pizza here is actually great. Better than good. Because the festival is unquestionably the biggest event of the year there is a “festival pizza” on the menu. Salami and Jalapenos. Fine by me. Bottles of cold ‘Koff’ brand beer from Finland and I am ready to rock. This town is tiny, but by the grace of the great white north they seem blessed with a good pizza place. My belief is that this is essential to the success of the festival. I am a happy man.
Meals – Dinner. Shredded reindeer atop mashed potatoes and a side of berries and pickles. Perfection. Served with beer. This is another tasty meal in a tiny town. Did I roll in here with some notions? Yes, I did. Small town U.S.A. generally coughs up some pretty bad food. Fast food usually. Here? Thus far seems fine. We even saw a Tex Mex place near the train station. The wonders never cease.
What makes a good film festival? Clearly it’s the films and a chance to meet up with the actors and directors. It’s a chance to see film in a real shared experience and then chat about the films (over pancakes, beer and sausage in an ideal world) “Festival moments” are generally too many to mention and depending on the level of emersion can range from a chance meeting with a director, to the ethereal dream state that can set in after seeing the fifth film of the day and having almost no recollection of the first two films of the day. Talking about the films and then left with that sense of utter befuddlement when asked about a film. “Oh, I can’t recall the name. It’s the one with….” The Midnight Sun delivers! Having only delivered The Deliverance I was set to say that this was already tracking to be one amazing festival.
The big top circus tent itself at The Midnight Sun Film Festival? A huge blue tent, complete with the requisite rigging and poles set in the middle of what looks very much like a parking lot. There are signs out from that remind people to “Hyst!” I am told this means “Shh!” The tent seats some seven hundred people and there is a single entry point that guides film viewers through a black painted pine doorway. Once past this wooden door/light barrier there is the expanse of theater. Folding seats are lined up in front of the big screen. Perfect. Getting in to the tent after waiting in the end of the line generally means a seat well off to the side or one right in the back with view of the screen obscured by one of the many sturdy steel poles that keep the tent upright. Another strategy for the really packed house is to sit very, very close to the screen. On the occasion where sub-titles are above the screen instead of at the bottom? This will make your neck hurt. . At one point while reading subtitles above the screen I recall thinking it could not have been much worse had they screened the film on the ceiling. So, the tent clearly had some challenges, but also some fantastic aspects that continually delight. Hanging high above the audience were a chandelier and multiple strings of white lights. This is unquestionably a visual feast and the films had yet to begin! When the lights go down I notice that it’s not entirely dark. Looking up to the blue, glowing expanse above I am beginning to understand. Yes, I am now fully aware that the sun will not set on this festival! The light will shine on the blue tarp above and it’ll glow softly for films that screen at noon and for films that screen at 3am. Additionally this blue expanse of fabric has seen many years of active duty here in the Arctic Circle. There are many tiny holes in the fabric. When the house lights go down these holes shine like stars in the night sky and at times give me the feeling that we are not confined to this tent, but rather out in a distant galaxy. The tent walls and this blue canvas sky above ebb and flow, I am aware of them as structure and at other times I feel they are a visceral expression of the films themselves. As the winds pick up, the canopy thunders and the breathes rhythmically, a living diaphragm. An extension of film that shudders, flows and in moments of down pouring rain feels like the gods have blessed this tent with a life form that awakes the minute the silver screen sparks to life.
The pancake tent? I noticed there was a tent near the festival head quarters and it seemed to be the focal point of great activity and merry making. There were people drinking beers and eating sausage. Clearly this was the place to be! They also sold wonderful crepe-like pancakes that were delivered either “sweet” or “salty.” I’m not sure about the salty option, but the sweet ones were served up with jam and a sprinkling of sugar. Nice. I had more than a few of them while I was at the festival and was also quite happy to drink beer and eat the sausage. Not sure what type of sausage I was eating at the ‘pancake tent.’ What they were really didn’t matter much to me at the time. They were hot and amazing. Served wrapped in paper and then dipped in mustard. It really can’t get better than pancakes, beer and sausage. Nope. This is as good as it gets. Do they have a ‘pancake tent’ at Cannes or Sundance? I have my doubts.
Random Festival Moments -
The line to get into the main blue circus tent was quite long. Each time I looked at this winding group of film fans there was a sense of the party. The party was clearly going down in the line and many of these people had brought their own bottles of rum, whiskey, wine and beer. It was a happy crew passing a bottle and sharing a collective cheer. At the entryway of the pancake tent there were one or two large guards. They were there to ensure no wine or beer left the premises. Beer and wine were served in a plastic cups. We were, I thought, on some semblance of private property? No, that’s wrong. It’s got to be attached to some kind of school. Saw films in what appeared to be a wood floored gym. So, it just killed me that two paces from the guard that does not allow a plastic cup to pass, is a couple passing a bottle of rum. Odd. Yes, well oddness is clearly part of the experience. There is a juggler and a mime entertaining the crowds waiting in the meandering line extending from the theme set by the big top circus tent.
The midnight sun? I was half expecting to be in need of midnight sun block. Not quite. The weather was mainly cloudy with some rain and a few days of sun. So, this notion of the sun out for 53 days is partially true, but it’s hardly time for sun tanning at 3am. Our innkeeper, Rasputin, was however sighted gardening at 3am. Incredible. Wake up to use the restroom at 4am and, well, it’s disorienting to see that outside it’s just as light as it was pretty much any time throughout the day. Amazing. The sleep deprived, the jet lagged and the up all night party set were clearly in for a treat here. Granted, Sodankyla is pretty much in the middle of nowhere, so if you are up at 3am you will certainly find your options limited for entertainment. Oh, wait! They were actually screening films at 3am and even 6am. Not sure if the pancake tent was open at that point, but still… Films all night in these nights of the midnight sun!
The Midnight Sun Film Festival in Lapland is fantastic, it’s exhausting. I’d like to go back in the winter to see the Northern Lights and snow shoe or cross country ski in the forest. I’d like to return to log more time in the sauna and to drink more of the local fortified grain alcohol (the one with a single star that was “flavored” with a bit of cognac.) I’d like more tasty reindeer treats, sausage and pancakes. I’d like to trek in the woods in the fall in search of cloudberries. I’d like to wander the outdoor market of Helsinki again and continue in my quest of the best caviar. I’d like more shots of iced vodka and an opportunity to buy a colorful array of amazingly designed things for the house and the kitchen… Oh, the list goes on and on and on… Sitting in the blue glow of that big top circus tent? Ahh, that beautiful tent situated well within the arctic circle and playing host to 24 hours of film in a land where the sun has not set of the indelible ink of celluloid film. 35 mm prints, no digital here! There is still a place in the world where the film festival remains absolute perfection. The Midnight Sun Film Festival is a visual gem, perfectly placed in Lapland, the crown jewel of Finland. Make your plans now and GO NORTH! THERE IS NOTHING LIKE THIS ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD!!
posted by skurko at 11:36 AM
1 Comments:
Good to see you writing again.
Post a Comment
<< Home