The journey and the many meanings of the word as the theme of this year’s Nordic Days.
The annual festival of Scandinavian culture will be commenced with a debate: the Tracks of Scandinavian and Czech diplomacy with the current ambassador of Norway in the Czech Republic, Robert Kvile, and former Czech ambassador in Denmark and former director of the Czech Centre in Stockholm, Zdeněk Lyčka. The two experts will share with us the adventures of Scandinavian/Czech cultural diplomacy, the Czech “tracks” in the Scandinavia, or the yet unexplored paths in Greenland.
The highlight of the festival will be a debate with the Icelandic author Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir (awarded Nordic Council Literature Price in 2018), who has had three of her books also translated to Czech: Butterflies in November, Hotel Silence and The Greenhouse. She will be joined by Danish blogger and author Andrea Hejlskov, who writes about her life outside civilisation both in her blog and in her book Escape to the Wild.
The road with its meanings will also be depicted on the movie screen – as with Mika Kaurismäki’s Road North, a comedy road movie about a return of a long-lost father. Other films to be screened are Illusive Tracks, an atmospheric Swedish movie, and a Norwegian-Sami adventure movie Pathfinder, inspired by Sami mythology, and also the first movie ever to be recorded in Northern Sami.
The theme of the festival has also given us a very special idea: together with the Czech translators (Lenka Fárová and Michal Švec) of a Finnish bohemian author Pentti Saarikoski, we invite to a guided tour inspired by his book Aika Prahassa (Time in Prague).
The festival will, besides Prague, also take place in Brno.
THE PROGRAMME OF THE FESTIVAL IN PRAGUE:
29. 10. 19:00 Debate: The tracks of Scandinavian and Czech diplomacy (Czech Centres in Prague)
In Czech; admission free
30. 10. 19:00 Screening: Road North (Evald Cinema)
In Finnish; admission: 120 CZK, tickets available at www.evald.cz
31. 10. 19:00 Fleeing from the world: Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir and Andrea Hejlskov (DOX)
In Icelandic and Danish, interpreted into Czech; admission: 60/40 CZK, tickets available at goout.cz
1. 11. 18:00 Guided tour: Pentti Saarikoski’s Prague (meeting at Kinských square)
In Czech; admission free, reservation at info@skandinavskydum.cz
5. 11. 19:00 Screening: Illusive Tracks (Evald Cinema)
In Swedish; admission: 120 CZK, tickets available at www.evald.cz
6. 11. 19:00 Screening: Pathfinder (Evald Cinema)
In Sámi language; admission: 120 CZK, tickets available at www.evald.cz
The festival is organised by the Scandinavian House in Prague in cooperation with Evald Cinema, Czech Centre in Prague, DOX Centre for Contemporary Art, Norwegian Film Institute, the embassies of Nordic countries in Prague, Publishing Houses Portál, Kniha Zlín and dybbuk and with the financial support of Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic, Prague Municipality, Danish Arts Foundation, Icelandic Literature Center and the Scandinavian Language School.
