Oscar-winning director Bille August in Prague for 10th SCANDI festival

Photo: Film Europe

The annual SCANDI film festival, curated by Prague’s Edison Filmhub, showcases the best of contemporary Nordic cinema. For this year’s edition, Academy Award and two-time Cannes winning Danish director Bille August is in attendance to promote his latest work, The Kiss. I caught up with him ahead of the film’s screening.

Back in 2015 you said that the more Nordic cinema is, the more popular it’s become, and that staying true to that genre has brought much success. Do you still feel the same way today?

“I think film in general has become more international in the sense of the storytelling. What I think is unique about Nordic films is the way of storytelling, but also the light, the way we live with the dramatic changes of seasons. In the winter it’s cold, it’s almost a monochromatic world with snow everywhere, and the lack of ability to meet others because of the cold, but in the summer, all emotion comes out and it’s very colourful. I think these changes have a big impact on the way we live and our culture.”

See the rest here.

Author: Amelia Mola-Schmidt