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Luebeck
Opening film: "Ulya"
On 4 November, the Nordic Film Festival opened with the film “Ulya” (original title: Uļa, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Poland 2026) by the Latvian director Viesturs Kairišs, which tells the story of the life of basketball legend Uljana Semjonowa. At the opening ceremony, the director of the International Sámi Film Institute, Anna Lajla Utsi, was honoured for her services to Sámi cinema and for raising the profile of indigenous perspectives in film. The retrospective, entitled “Buddenbrooks pre:loaded”, is dedicated to Thomas Mann’s Scandinavian literary influences and their adaptation for the screen.
The INTERFILM jury awards the INTERFILM Church Film Prize, worth €5,000, to an entry in the feature film competition.