The Nordic Heritage Museum brings more than a dozen films from all five Nordic countries to Seattle for the Nordic Lights Film Festival on January 15-18, 2015, at SIFF Film Center located at Seattle Center.

“The Nordic Lights Film Festival is one of the Museum’s most compelling programs,” said Nordic Heritage Museum CEO Eric Nelson, “By screening films that are both critically-acclaimed and wildly popular in the Nordic countries, we are able to connect our community to this intriguing component of contemporary Nordic culture.” This is the sixth annual Nordic Lights Film Festival. Presenting feature- length films, documentaries, and shorts from Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden, this year's Festival begins Thursday, January 15 with a reception at SIFF beginning at 6:00 p.m., hosted by SWEA (Swedish Women’s Educational Association), followed at 7:00 p.m. by a screening of The Optimists/Optimistene, a Norwegian documentary that follows an extraordinary volleyball team in Hamar town, consisting of ladies between 66 and 98 years of age. Director Gunhild Westhagen Magnor and cast member Anne-Grethe Westhagen will be attending the screening and the opening reception.

Friday evening begins with the Danish thriller The Shooter/Skytten (dir. Annette K. Olesen), the story of a passionate geophysicist who takes the Danish government hostage when legislators break an election promise and authorize drilling for oil in the Arctic. Later on Friday, the Nordic Shorts series will present short films from each of the Nordic countries.

On Saturday morning there will be a second screening of The Optimists/Optimistene. Saturday also features Metalhead/Malmhau (dir. Ragnar Bragason), an Icelandic drama. Tough, clear-eyed and compassionate, Metalhead is about a tortured soul who may never be able to let herself off the hook for her role in her brother's demise. Metalhead was winner of eight awards at the 2014 Icelandic Film Awards, including Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor & Actress, and Original Score.

Saturday afternoon includes the family-film Ragnarok (dir. Mikkel Brænne Sandemose), a Norwegian Indiana-Jones-meets-Jurassic-Park adventure. Saturday concludes with Turist/Force Majeure (dir. Ruben Östlund). This film was a critical favorite at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival and took the Jury Prize in Un Certain Regard. Turist/Force is a wickedly funny and precisely observed psychodrama. When an avalanche suddenly hits a mountainside restaurant, Swedish father Tomas makes a decision that will shake his marriage to its core and leave him struggling to reclaim his role as family patriarch.

Turist/Force is the film that landed director Ruben Östlund on Variety's annual list “Ten Directors to Watch.”
The final day of the Festival begins with the Danish documentary Expedition to the End of the World/Ekspeditionen til verdens ende (dir. Daniel Dencik). Expedition to the End of the World follows a motley crew of explorers and artists as they venture into territory only recently accessible due to melting polar ice. A series of Sami short films will be presented at noon on Sunday. The Festival concludes with Waltz for Monica/Monica Z (dir. Per Fly), a Swedish drama that follows a 1960s jazz singer in Stockholm.
For a full-list of the Nordic Lights Film Festival films, visit the Nordic Lights Film Festival page at
nordicmuseum.org.

Festival passes are available for purchase. Prices are: $65 for the general public and $55 for Nordic Heritage Museum and SIFF Members. Single-ticket admission is $8 for Nordic Heritage Museum Members and SIFF Members; $12 for the general public. All ticketing will be through SIFF. Tickets can be purchased by phone or at http://www.siff.net/cinema.

SIFF Cinema Center is located in Seattle Center’s Northwest rooms (formerly the Alki Room), between Key Arena and the Seattle Repertory Theatre. For more information about the Nordic Lights Film Festival, visit ttp://nordicmuseum.org/nlff.aspx

The Nordic Lights Film Festival receives support from the Nordic Culture Fund, Scan Design Foundation by Inger & Jens Bruun, and Barbro Osher Pro Suecia Foundation, with additional support from SWEA, 4Culture, the Seattle Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs, and Artsfund.