The Göteborg Film Festival is, next to those taking place in Rotterdam and Berlin, the most important film event at the beginning of each year. As the organizers argue, it is the largest film festival in the Nordic region and a vital meeting place for the local film industry. One of the integral parts of the event is the Nordic Competition, which presents productions from countries such as Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland and Iceland in a competition format. Interestingly, most of this year’s entries are the fruit of co-production between those Nordic countries, but there are also a few involving countries such as Poland and Croatia, for instance.
This year, the competition selection included nine feature films. The more seasoned filmmakers, such as Dag Johan Haugerud, Pirjo Honkasalo, Magnus von Horn and Rúnar Rúnarsson, were up against debutants and filmmakers just beginning their cinematic journey. They included Fanny Ovesen, Maria Eriksson-Hecht and Mathias Broe. There is no doubt in my mind that the former emerged victorious. The competition stood somewhat uneven, with two films setting themselves apart from the rest. Magnus von Horn’s The Girl with the Needle (2024), which continues to triumph since its Cannes premiere, the most recent proof being its Oscar nomination, and Rúnar Rúnarsson’s When the Light Breaks (2024), a moving study of repressed grief. This film has previously won awards in Chicago, Motovun and Palić, among others. It is encouraging to note that these productions played the most prominent role in the jury verdicts. The former won the FIPRESCI award (the decision was unanimous!), while the latter was honoured with the Dragon Award for Best Nordic Film, the Grand Jury Prize of this competition.
Of the remaining competition titles, Kevlar Soul (2025) by Maria Eriksson-Hecht stood out. Maintained in a realistic tone, it is a powerful drama about the problematic fraternal bond that connects two teenage protagonists living in a poor communal neighborhood with their alcoholic and violent father. Noteworthy are the poignant, evocative and, at times, unabashedly tender roles of Josef Kersch and Rio Svensson, both feature film debutantes. There are more first-timers here, by the way, as this is also the first film in the career of the Swedish director, who, interestingly enough, hails from Gothenburg. One can clearly see her inspiration in the socially sensitive cinema of the Dardenne brothers and Andrea Arnold. I am curious to see more productions signed by Maria Eriksson-Hecht.
Another interesting feature was the Danish Sauna (2025) by Mathias Broe, which was shown at the Sundance Film Festival at a similar time. Set in Copenhagen, it’s a multi-layered story of affection between homosexual Johan and transgender William. The story about gender as a cultural construct, identity and trying to be happy takes on another important theme: the issue of tolerance in the homosexual community, somewhat teasingly questioned by the Danish director. The least Nordic film among the competition’s nine was Eirik Svensson’s Safe House (2025). While the action of most productions is set in either of the above-mentioned countries, the Danish director takes us to the Central African Republic, engulfed in a religious civil war – between the Christians and Muslims. The Safe House of the title is a Doctors Without Borders field hospital, which is supposed to be the only local asylum for victims of brutal violence. The film is based on actual events that took place there on Christmas Eve in 2013. Interestingly, that was the very title chosen as the opening film of this year’s Göteborg Film Festival – a decision I didn’t quite understand, but one that also carried a specific political message.
What ultimately caught my attention when I watched the subsequent competition proposals was the large number of outstanding, powerful, uncompromising female roles. From the Dragon Award Best Acting winner Andrea Bræin Hovig (for Love) to Kristine Kujath Thorp in the aforementioned Safe House and Elin Hall in Rúnarsson’s film, to two outstanding performances in The Girl with the Needle – Vic Carmen Sonne and Trine Dyrholm. And this is probably the first thing that will come to my mind when I think about the Nordic Competition at the 48th edition of the Göteborg Film Festival.
Kuba Armata
©FIPRESCI 2025