THE EU FILM FESTIVAL

The 13th Annual European Union Film Festival will open on Friday, March 5, and run through Thursday, April 1, 2010!

The Gene Siskel Film Center welcomes you to the 13th Annual European Union Film Festival, the largest showcase in North America for the cinema of the European Union nations. All 27 EU nations are represented in this year's festival which includes 59 feature films all Chicago premiers.

The 2 films from Finland are:

FORBIDDEN FRUIT (KIELLETTY HEDELMÄ) 2009,

Dome Karukoski, Finland, 104 min.

with Marjut Maristo, Amanda Pilke

March 6th—3:15pm
March 9th—8:00pm

"A surprisingly restrained and superlatively well-acted film that strikes an impressive negotiation in its portrait of liberation vs. repression."--Michael Koresky, IndieWIRE
The Laestadian community, a fundamentalist Lutheran sect that is a major force in Finnish society, provides a fascinating backdrop for this coming-of-age story. Experience-hungry teenager Maria (Pilke) runs off to the big city to taste all the forbidden fruits (sex, alcohol, movies). Her devout friend Raakel (Maristo) is dispatched to bring her back to the fold, but, as she discovers, purity isn't necessarily the strongest armor against temptation. Director Karukoski maintains a remarkably nonjudgmental tone, laced with dry humor and bittersweet irony. In Finnish with English subtitles. 35mm print courtesy of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland. (MR)

HELSINKI, FOREVER(HELSINKI, IKUISESTI)2008,

Peter von Bagh, Finland, 75 min.

March 24th—8:00pm
March 28th—5:00pm

"The first eye-popping masterpiece that I saw in 2009 in some ways remains the best."--Jonathan Rosenbaum, Moving Image Source
Critic/historian/archivist von Bagh evokes a hundred years of Helsinki history through a dazzling montage of clips culled from stunning though little-known treasures of Finnish cinema. Compared by critics to Terence Davies's OF TIME AND THE CITY and the cine-essays of Chris Marker, von Bagh's film takes its own distinctively impressionistic approach to intertwining the personal and the historical. Chicago-based critical eminence Jonathan Rosenbaum recently named HELSINKI, FOREVER as one of the ten best films of the decade. In Finnish with English subtitles. Beta SP video courtesy of Illume Ltd. (MR) Critic Jonathan Rosenbaum will introduce and discuss the film at the Wednesday screening.


In all, the festival includes nine films that were selected to represent their nations in this year's best foreign-language film.



Other notable films include from Sweden "The Girl with The Dragon Tattoo"/ "Men som hatar kvinnor" - based on the international bestseller by Stieg Larsson.

For more information, please visit
http://www.siskelfilmcenter.org/euff2010

The European Union Film Festival, founded by the Gene Siskel Film Center in 1998, in cooperation with the consulates and cultural institutes representing European Union nations in Chicago, has grown to become the largest showcase in North America specifically dedicated to the cinema of the EU. The annual festival program of 60+ feature films, all Chicago premieres, ranges from work by established directors, including some of the most renowned names in world cinema, to the work of first-time and emerging directors and films from nations with developing film industries. The festival annually includes sneak previews of new acquisitions by U.S. distributors prior to theatrical release, current contenders for the Best Foreign-language Film Academy Award, and a great range of new dramas, comedies, and documentaries that will not otherwise be seen in the U.S.

More info from Gene Siskel Film Center of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago http://www.siskelfilmcenter.org/