New York, NY—This fall, film programming returns to Scandinavia House with the series "Wayward Endeavors: Comedies From the North," featuring recent films that explore amusing endeavors in the Nordic quest for happiness, with themes ranging from overly ambitious schemes to romantic misadventures, to unexpected and haphazard quests for fame. Also coming up this fall are two special screenings, as well as the New York Baltic Film Festival, which this year encompasses the theme of togetherness in films from Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.

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On October 4, a new oddball-couple comedy from documentarian/provocateur Mads Brügger, The St. Bernard Syndicate, follows two mismatched Danes embarking on an ambitious scheme to breed and market St. Bernards as "The Pandas of the West" in China's lucrative pet industry (Denmark, 2018). On October 25, the recent hit film The Cake Generalfollows a similarly heartfelt attempt by an eccentric villager to bring his hometown fame by assembling the world's largest layer cake — based on a true story, and directed by popular comedy figures Filip Hammar and Fredrik Wikingsson (Sweden, 2018). 

On October 11, a recent "rock opera for the ages" from Finland, Heavy Trip, tells the story of an amateur metal band  who will stop at nothing for the opportunity to play in a Norwegian music festival, even if that means stealing a van, a corpse, and a mental-patient bandmate along the way (directed by Jukko Vidgren and Juuso Laatio, Finland, 2018). In Pity the Lovers on October 18, a pair of Icelandic brothers who are unlucky in love for very different reasons learn some valuable lessons when they unexpectedly move in back to their childhood home (directed by Maximilian Hult, Sweden/Iceland, 2018). And on November 1, a remake of the 1972 Norwegian comedy classic Opportunity Knocksfollows a couple who get much more than they bargained for when they attempt to remodel a recently inherited home (directed by Arild Frohlich, Norway, 2018).

Programming also includes two special screenings. On September 28, director Izer Aliu joins us for a screening and discussion of his 2016 film Hunting Flies. In this political metaphor about the rise and fall of dictatorship, set in a classroom in Macedonia over a single day, an idealistic teacher stages a last-ditch experiment to save his job (Norway, 2016). And on October 29, director Anders T. Andersen's new film The Birds makes its U.S. premiere at Scandinavia House, based on an award-winning novel by Tarjei Vesaas about a mentally disabled man whose life is turned upside down when a lumberjack becomes romantically involved with his caretaker sister (Norway, 2019).

And on November 7 through 10, the Second Annual New York Baltic Film Festival returns to Scandinavia House, with films from Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. Coinciding with the 30th anniversary of the Baltic Way, films will explore togetherness on a personal level as well as in relationships and family history, and through the cooperation of various Baltic co-productions. Films will be announced closer to the date. 

For further information, including hi-res images, interview requests, and press passes, please contact lori@amscan.org or 212-847-9727.

—Images (Left to Right): Heavy Trip; Pity the Lovers; The St. Bernard Syndicate