Join us for a screening of Songs of Earth (dir. Margreth Olin, Norway, 2023) in the Nordic & Baltic Oscar Contenders series at Scandinavia House! The series returns this year with screenings of films chosen by the Nordic & Baltic countries to compete for the Oscar nomination for Best International Feature Film, including this year’s candidate for Norway.
“A remarkable, poetic meditation” (Vox) — a stunning documentary about life, mortality, and humanity’s place within nature, Songs of Earth was made over the course of a year that director Margreth Olin spent with her elderly father in his ancestral home of Oldedalen. Olin’s father becomes our guide to the majestic fjord-carved river valley — having lived in Oldedalen for most of his 85 years, he shares his deeply felt connection to a landscape that we learn to be both bountiful and unforgiving. Executive produced by Liv Ullmann and Wim Wenders, Olin’s breathtaking footage of primordial elements — wild mountains, calving glaciers, and bustling wildlife — propels profound, existential conversations between parent and child.
ABOUT THE DIRECTOR
Filmmaker Margreth Olin was born in Stranda in Western Norway. Her first documentary feature, In the House of Angels, won the Amanda Award, the Norwegian International Film Festival’s grand prize, in 1998. She received her second Amanda for My Body in 2002. Another documentary Raw Youth, presented by Lars von Trier, was nominated for a European Film Award in 2004. Her feature film The Angel was the Norwegian candidate for the 2010 Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film.