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Zürich- and Berlin-based sales outlet First Hand Films has acquired world rights (excluding Norway) for Håvard Bustnes’ “Name of the Game” ahead of its world premiere in IDFA’s Frontlight section, Variety has learned. The director’s previous credits include IDFA 2017 competition entry “Golden Dawn Girls” and “Two Raging Grannies.”

Bustnes’ new effort centers on controversial politician Trond Giske, who was for many years the “crown prince” of the Norwegian Labor Party. When his left-wing party loses popularity and the #MeToo movement raises awareness about sexual harassment, however, the tide turns for the once so popular Giske. Long-standing rumors of inappropriate behavior toward young party members are thrown into sharp relief when a number of women accuse him of sexual assault. The flood of media attention, leaked videos and testimonials, and the ensuing political power struggle, bring about his downfall.

Nevertheless, Giske decides to travel the country in a self-refurbished...

I first encountered Joonas Neuvonen’s Lost Boys, a sort of “unintended sequel” to 2010’s spectacular look at self-destructive Subutex addicts in rural Finland, Reindeerspotting: Escape from Santaland – which was co-written and edited by Lost Boys co-director Sadri Cetinkaya – at this year’s virtual Cph:dox. At the time I tried but failed to take notes while watching. The film just got under my skin in a way that froze me to my laptop screen. Atmospherically, Neuvonen’s decade-later doc brought to mind the sensation of being trapped inside a Nine Inch Nails video. Memorably narrated by Pekka Strang (Tom of Finland), Lost Boys picks up where Reindeerspotting left off: After […]

The post “A Deteriorating Mind Condemned to Hell…”: Sadri Cetinkaya on Fantasia Doc Lost Boys first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

I first encountered Joonas Neuvonen’s Lost Boys, a sort of “unintended sequel” to 2010’s spectacular look at self-destructive Subutex addicts in rural Finland, Reindeerspotting: Escape from Santaland – which was co-written and edited by Lost Boys co-director Sadri Cetinkaya – at this year’s virtual Cph:dox. At the time I tried but failed to take notes while watching. The film just got under my skin in a way that froze me to my laptop screen. Atmospherically, Neuvonen’s decade-later doc brought to mind the sensation of being trapped inside a Nine Inch Nails video. Memorably narrated by Pekka Strang (Tom of Finland), Lost Boys picks up where Reindeerspotting left off: After […]

The post “A Deteriorating Mind Condemned to Hell…”: Sadri Cetinkaya on Fantasia Doc Lost Boys first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

There’s a nightmarish quality to this documentary from Joonas Neuvonen and Sadri Cetinkaya, which entirely befits the subject, namely a descent into drugs from which, for one man, at least, there was no return. Its story is related in the first person – although Tom of Finland’s Pekka Strang narrates Neuvonen’s thoughts – as Neuvonen attempts to play detective after his friends go missing in Thailand, while also offering a sort of psychological confessional of his own mental state.

It helps if you know that Neuvonen was a drug dealer, with reference to his subsequent jailing providing a framing device of sorts for this film, and that he previously made Reindeerspotting – Escape From Santaland, which documented the exploits of young Finnish drug users Jani an Antii. They are central to this follow-up, which unfolds after the pair of them had finished serving a seven-year sentence and the trio go.

Award-winning filmmakers and a documentary from ‘The Act Of Killing’ producer Signe Byrge Sørensen among those selected.

Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival (Cph:Dox) has revealed its line-up of competition titles for 2021, set to run April 21 to May 2.

The programme includes films that focus on the dominance of tech giants, new democratic movements, decolonization and climate change among other topics.

The competition programmes consist of 64 titles with 47 world premieres, nine international premieres and six European premieres. In total, 58% of the titles (37 films) are directed by one or more women. This increases to 66% when including films co-directed by male and female directors.

The recent DocPoint NYC featured 47 Finnish documentaries in celebration of the Helsinki festival’s 10th anniversary. Here, Stuart Nusbaumer considers two in a weekend that bounced him between DocPoint and the Brooklyn Film Festival.

Part 2: DocPoint New York City

Reindeerspotting: Escape from Santaland

Reindeerspotting is set in northern Finland in the town of Rovaniemi, which is not important since a junky is never part of a town. The central character, 19-years-old Jani, is not particularly important since junkies are nearly all young and mostly all alike. The overwhelming importance of their drug addiction makes the junkies overwhelming the same. The drug of addiction in this documentary is Subutex, probably the least important fact since any drug of addition qualifies for the addicted soul.

Yet, Reindeerspotting has a way of quickly touching and drawing you into the story.

Jani is not that dark urban version of a junkie without...