Filmform (est. 1950) is dedicated to preservation, promotion and worldwide distribution of experimental film and video art. Constantly expanding, the distribution catalogue spans from 1924 to the present, including works by Sweden’s most prominent artists and filmmakers, available to rent for public screenings and exhibitions as well as for educational purposes.
A film based on true events, narrated through the eyes of Niillas Somby. The story immerses the audience in the heart of the action, guided by Niilla’s voice. The film begins in darkness, with a foreboding ticking sound that gradually givesway to reveal a forest creature briefly glimpsing through the trees. The scene shifts to a prison cell, where Niillas Somby, a 30-year-old man, finds himself facing a potential 21-year prison sentence. As he reflects on his situation, the inhospitable surroundings of the cell emphasize his sense of confinement.
Niillas’s thoughts and memories take the audience on a journey through the struggles of the Sámi people, illustrated through a layered sequence of images, including protests, demonstrations, and the Alta conflict in 1979. These historical events provide context to Niillas’s actions.
The narrative weaves between past and present, as the film incorporates an interview from the 1980s when a younger Niillas recounts his life in Canada, the significance of the eagle, and his escape from the authorities. A pivotal moment occurs when the bomb Niillas is preparing explodes prematurely, leading to a dramatic shift in the narrative. The film ventures into a parallel dimension, where Niillas experiences a surreal encounter with a mysterious woman and the eagle. As Niillas’s story continues, we witness his release from prison and his escape to Canada, highlighting the sacrifices he made for his people and the ongoing fight for Sami nature.
The film explores Niillas’s complex relationship with his prosthetic arm and the symbolism it holds. Niillas’s journey of self-acceptance and the message of taking responsibility for the environment from the heart of the narrative. The film concludes with a powerful visual as Niillas holds his loose eye in protest, encouraging the audience to look beyond the present and take action to preservenature and the Sami way of life.
Liselotte Wajstedt, born in 1973 in Kiruna and currently based in Stockholm, works as a director and screenwriter, while also engaging in installation and visual art. Through her extensive body of experimental moving image work, she explores aesthetics and politics with recurring themes such as heritage, abuse, and identity.
Her experimental work includes more than two dozen short and feature-length films. Through hybrid documentary, experimental media, music video, dance, and fiction film, Wajstedt employs a wide range of styles and techniques in service of her political and artistic expressions, including animation, claymation, stop-motion, and superimposition. Many of Wajstedt’s films explicitly or implicitly engage with multiple and hybrid subject positions, as evident in EADNI (2023), Tystnaden i Sápmi (2022), Sire och den sista sommaren (2022), Kiruna–Rymdvägen (2013), Sami Daughter Joik (2008), and The Lost One (2014).
Marja Helander
Marja Helander (b. 1965) is an award-winning Sámi artist and filmmaker from Finland. She graduated from the University of Art and Design in Helsinki in 1999. Her earlier work explored her identity between the Finnish and Sámi cultures.
Her recent photographic work has focused on the northern landscape, exploring the link between the mining industry and today’s standard of living and culture of consumption, particularly the impact of mining on the sensitive Sami nature.
In addition to landscapes, the artist presents a human who takes the form of an animal, thus identifying with old Sami beliefs. “I want to highlight the corporeality of people and how humans are just one animal species among many, dependent on nature, ecosystems and land. We are part of the cyclicity of nature; a pile of particles and molecules.”
Her latest works include ÁFRUVVÁ (2022) and BIRDS IN THE EARTH (2018) that won several awards and was a part of Sundance Film Festival 2019 short film competition.
