Distributed for Intellect Ltd
The Intellect Handbook of Nordic Cinema
The Intellect Handbook of Nordic Cinema offers a comprehensive overview of cinema in the Nordic region—Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Iceland, and Sápmi. While each nation has distinct cinematic traditions and media histories, they also share many institutional and thematic features. A key example is the reliance of film production across all five countries, and in Sápmi, on various forms of government support.
Focusing primarily on feature films, the volume also addresses documentaries and animation, situating Nordic film production within today’s evolving media landscape where television and streaming services act as both partners and competitors. Combining detailed case studies with thematic explorations, it broadens understanding of genres such as occupation dramas, comedies, disaster movies, and children’s films while offering in-depth examinations of recurring cultural motifs and themes, including nature, nationality, sexuality, and digital piracy. With contributions from leading scholars, this handbook provides an essential reference for anyone seeking to understand the diversity, commonalities, and global relevance of Nordic cinema.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Gunnar Iversen and Mariah Larsson
Section 1: General overview
Section 1 Introduction
Gunnar Iversen and Mariah Larsson
Chapter 1: The Sámi Film Wave: Sápmi and Sámi Film Culture
Stine Agnete Sand
Chapter 2: Ultrasmall Cinemas of the North Atlantic: Greenland and the
Faroe IslandsAnders Grønlund
Chapter 3: What Makes a Film Nordic? The Evolution of ‘Immigrant’ Filmmaking in the Nordic Countries
Linda Haverty Rugg
Chapter 4: Nordic Cinema and Film Politics: The Norwegian Case
Ove Solum and Dag Asbjørnsen
Chapter 5: Sustainable Nordic Screens: Environmental Content, Banal Materialism and Sustainable Production Practice in Nordic Film, TV, and Streaming Media
Pietari Kääpä
Section 2: Nation, Identities, History
Section 2 Introduction
Mariah Larsson and Gunnar Iversen
Chapter 6: Norwegian Apocalypse: The Happiest People in the World Imagines Disasters
Gunnar Iversen
Chapter 7: The Auteur as Bergman’s Persona
Jan Holmberg
Chapter 8: Vikings and Nordic Film Culture
Bodil Petersson and Jes Wienberg
Chapter 9: Sweden’s Top Comedians. An Introduction to Hasse & Tage for Non-Swedish Audiences
Emilio Audissino
Chapter 10: The Danish Bedside comedies
Isak Thorsen
Chapter 11: Heroes, Collaborators, Fighters, and Right-wing Populists: A Comparative Study of Contemporary Nordic Second World War-Films
Erik Hedling
Section 3 Gender and Sexuality
Section 3 Introduction
Mariah Larsson and Gunnar Iversen
Chapter 12: Curating the Archive of Nordic Queer Cinema
Dagmar Brunow
Chapter 13: Feminist Interventions and Film Policy: The Work for Gender Equality in Nordic Film Production
Ingrid S. Holtar
Chapter 14: “One must alternately reconstruct as an archaeologist, search as a criminalist, or try to decipher like a psychoanalyst of the unconscious”: The Reception of “Homosexual” Film Characters in the 1940s and 50s
Ingrid Ryberg
Chapter 15: Obscene Films and Obscenity Law in the Nordic Countries
Mariah Larsson
Section 4: Social Critique and Documentary
Section 4 Introduction
Gunnar Iversen and Mariah Larsson
Chapter 16: Framing the Nation. Spaces of Everyday Life in Scandinavian Documentaries
Ib Bondebjerg
Chapter 17: Radical Scandinavian Documentary Culture in the 1970s
Bjørn Sørenssen
Chapter 18: Screen Stories of Growing Up: Nordic Children’s and Youth Films
Anders Lysne
Chapter 19: On the Critical Edge of Nordic Cinemas: Award-Winning Nordic Films as Social Critique
Jonathan Rozenkrantz
Chapter 20: Competing Screens? The Relation Between Cinema and Television in a Swedish Context
Per Vesterlund
5. Futures
Section 5 Introduction
Gunnar Iversen and Mariah Larsson
Chapter 21: Piracy and Digital Film Culture
Pelle Snickars
Chapter 22: Negotiating Content Rights with Global Streamers in Small Markets: A Case Study of Denmark’s ‘Streaming Crisis’
Nina Vindum Rasmussen and Vilde Schanke Sundet
Chapter 23: Nordic Animation and the Digital Revolution
Jonas Lindkvist
Chapter 24: Nordic Film History, Digitization and Online Access
Eirik Frisvold Hanssen
Bibliography
Index