“Priest of Burden” winner at Northern Character in Murmansk

“Priest of Burden” is made Fridjof Kjæreng and tells the story about the priest Børre Knudsen, the most famous anti-abortion activist in Norway. Knutsen made demonstration around in Norway, including with baby dolls, actions that made him to one of the most hated men in the country.

Grand Prix is the highest award at Northern Character, the film festival that includes all four Barents region countries of Russia, Sweden, Finland and Norway. The annual festival was arranged for the ninth time this weekend.

Simen Braathen was awared best documentary debut with the film “Arctic Superstar” – telling the story about the Saami-Norwegian rapper SlinCraze alias Nils Rune Utsi from Máze in Finnmark.

Two awards to NRK Troms

Norwegian Public broadcaster NRK Troms won both the prize for best TV program with “An Adventure through the lens” by Helga Bones and Harald Albrigtsen for their portray of the world-famous nature photographer Audun Rikardsen.

Best youth programme was awared to “Mission Arctic” by Mattis Høyem and Per Einar Grønmo. The series feature four Norwegian kids that skied to the North Pole to eye-witness the dramatic effects of climate changes. Later, the kids went to the Paris Climate meeting and voiced the concern of the coming generation.

130 films submitted

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Best documentary was awared to Festagent in Moscow for their film “Weather Forecast.” 

In total 130 works were submitted to the festival from 40 Russian regions, Norway, Sweden, Finland. From outside the Barents countries, contributions were submitted from France, Latvia, Germany, Georgia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ukraine, Ghana and Egypt. But only 73 works made it to the competition programme at this year’s festival.

The jury this year was headed by the Finnish film director Youko Aaltonen. 

For the full list of awards and diplomas, se the Northern Characters’ portal.  

Journalism in trouble

Northern Charaters is in addition to screening films, also an important meeting arena for reporters discussing trends in journalism across the borders in northern Europe. This year, a debate entiteld “Is journalism in a state of emergency?” attracted attention at the festival’s Media Forum. 

The debate touched on a topic of current interest both in the East and in the West. While federal and political power structures control more and more of Russian media, economic cuts and mass layoffs are brutal realities for many of the most influential media in the whole of the western world. A large number of journalists are leaving their profession only to seek positions as media consultants for public and private institutions, where the policy is often not to uncover, but rather to conceal the truth.

In the discussion panel were representatives from Sweden, Russia, Norway and Finland.