✨ The official program for Nordic Star Festival 2026 is now released! ✨
This year’s festival unfolds across several cities in the Mälardalen region and Stockholm – with film screenings, conversations, and encounters with filmmakers in Arboga, Kungsör, Köping, Västerås, and Stockholm.
Each city offers its own unique atmosphere, from big-city pulse to small-town charm.
🎬 No matter where you join, you’ll experience new cinematic discoveries, international guests, and conversations about the future of film.
🍷 Along the way, there will also be smaller parties – and on October 24 at the beautiful Skandia Biografen in Stockholm, the festival culminates with a grand awards ceremony, where around 40 awards will be presented, followed by a celebration for 500-700 guests.
👉 Secure your tickets now – availability is limited!
16 okt
Arboga
10.00–11.15 · Short film slot 1 – Echoes of Survival and Truth
COOK, PRAY, LOVE
Once an assembly-line worker in a garment factory in Northeast China, Linlin is now an unseen mother at her
kitchen stove in Manchester. Trapped in the silence of migrant marriage, unpaid care, and the shadow of
domestic violence, she turns to cooking, prayer, and her dog’s unconditional love to reclaim dignity, faith,
and the will to live. The film asks how an unseen woman can still choose to love, believe, and survive far from home.
This film was produced as the director’s dissertation project for her MA at the Granada Centre for
Visual Anthropology, University of Manchester.
DOPPELGANGER
In Paris, during the Second World War, Ernest, a gifted forger, teams up with a brilliant copyist in a clandestine art-trafficking scheme.
While one recreates the canvases, the other falsifies bills of sale and official documents.
But a sinister portrait soon disrupts this well-oiled machine—and forces them to question the very nature of truth.
Unbowed
Omar Bah was a young journalist when he had to flee The Gambia under threat of death from the regime’s President, because of his reporting.
He is eventually resettled as a refugee in Rhode Island. When the same President is deposed years later, Omar is finally able to end his exile
and claim much longed-for closure to this traumatic part of his life. As he prepares for his first return journey to The Gambia since exiled over
a decade ago, the film reveals the remarkable person Omar has become in America.
11.45–13.00 · Short film Slot 2 – Secrets in the Silence
Bita
On her wedding night, a bride from a traditional Hamburg family is found dead. The only witness is her younger sister Bita,
who carries a heavy secret — her silence or testimony could change the fate of the family.
No Time
An elderly woman lives in deep loneliness in her apartment. When a new carer starts work, the two discover an unexpected connection.
But the old woman’s plan to end her life casts a shadow over their encounter and puts the young carer in trouble.
The script to ”No Time” has won the Schleswig-Holstein Screenplay Award. The film project was supported by the
MOIN Filmfund Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein and had its world premiere at the Nordic Filmdays, Germany. It has
since been screened at several festivals, receiving awards and nominations.
ASPHALT
Vincent is a truck driver and lives without any attachments. He started a support group for truckers in the back of
his trailer to cope with loneliness and shit. His daughter, who wants to see him again, has been leaving messages at rest stations for years.
One morning, during an odd conversation with Sabine, the waitress at the restoroute, Vincent faces his personal contradictions.
Brothers’ Song
Brothers’ Song is a haunting poetic underground saga that blends ancient poetic traditions with a gritty, raw soundscape.
Reflecting the brutality of a bygone era it invites the audience into a realm where the landscape is rich with ancient myths and tales.
The narrative follows a wounded father who guides his sons through the aftermath of a devastating defeat, loss of mother and destroyed homestead.
This tragedy sparks an almost spiritual journey through places that might not even be real anymore.
Both intimate and epic, the song’s emotional arc lends itself to visually rich historical imagery infused with mythic elements.
The mourning ends in a thunderous awakening of resistance as the saga reaches its peak in a spiritual and physical rebirth.
13.30–14.45 · Short Film Slot 3 – Fragments of Wonder and Reunion
Grown Up Day
Discovering that Santa Claus doesn’t exist. The biggest blow to our childhood dreams?
In a world where we haven’t lost our childlike sense of wonder,Stéphane, the owner of
an architectural firm, experiences a midlife crisis When he discovers the truth about
Santa Claus, he experiences a midlife crisis.
JANET’S ISLAND
During their holiday, two little girls help Janet, a heartbroken
English traveler—unaware that this encounter will jeopardize their own family
Love Lao Der
Love Lao Der is a deeply personal short documentary born from heartbreak, trauma, and suppressed pain.
After divorce, the filmmaker reconnects with his father after twenty years of silence, before the passing of other loved ones.
That reunion becomes a turning point, inspiring a journey to Laos, the country his family fled during the war. In Laos, he
navigates culture, family traditions, and spiritual connections, seeking understanding and healing amid landscapes shaped
by history and conflict. Through intimate moments and reflection, the film traces the journey of reconciling the past, honoring
those who have passed, and embracing his heritage. Love Lao Der is both a tribute to loved ones and a heartfelt love letter
to Laos, a story of reconnection, remembrance, and the enduring power of love to guide one home.
Yoga Girl
A woman struggles to stay committed to her daily wellness rituals while on the brink of a mental breakdown.
Sunlight on leaves 1
This film is one of a collection of short silent time-lapse films of sunlight falling on an indoor plant as time passes.
As the sun moves, light increases over the surfaces of the leaves and shines through them, painting them bright red.
The shadows of window blinds can also be seen moving over the surfaces of the leaves.
Them
This little film asks the question: What would the World look like if we didn’t look at People as ’Them’
15.15–16.30 · Short Film Slot 4 – The Changing Stage
The last performance
At an ordinary girls’ school everything seems routine until the class is chosen to stage a play.
Gradually friendships erode and rivalry for the most prestigious roles drives the girls apart.
Everything else
Gnappo often becomes the target of ridicule by his group of arrogant friends. After a night of party, they convince him to lose his virginity to a well known local prostitute. Initially hesitant, Gnappo ultimately agrees to go through with this rite of passage to prove he’s worthy of being part of the group.
Grape Maestro
In the vineyards of Northern Italy, at harvest time, cultures clash, and a wine
commercial shoot goes astray, until dance, music, comedy — and the magic of a harlequin — intervene.
Her Turn
A mature woman’s coming-of-age story, HER TURN follows the day of a devoted but embattled wife/mother
as she packs up her family home of 25+ years for the inevitable downsize – she finds herself in a full-on face-off
with her past, abandoned dreams, and her bearing with her beloved family, and makes an unexpected turn.
Charged with humor, this poignant drama delves into themes of family, marriage, neurodiversity, LGBTQ+, and getting older.
#apparently
A satire inspired by the internet phenomenon Man vs Bear and a real discussion held on a podcast.
I Got U Bro
Two gym bros experience a moment of intimacy and shared strength.
18.00–19.14 ·Feature film slot 5 – Independent Indigenous
Independent Indigenous
Four different voices by elder women from two different minorities rooted in Northeast Panama and North of Sweden,
share their truth about freedom, cultural heritage and their personal lives. An indigenous woman from Guna Yala,
an indigenous province in Northeast Panama, being proud of their collective independence.
Three indigenous Sámi women from North of Sweden relate to their strong individual independence.
19.44–21.29 · Feature Film slot 6 – Daniel – From Death To Life
Daniel – From Death To Life
The most realistic, technically revolutionary and unique film documentary ever made and which also includes the actor of the main role for a multiple
Guldbagge-awarded feature film and is documented and filmed over a period of 30 years by Patrik and which takes the viewer straight back into the
90s in a mythical legendary suburb built on a Viking grave, which encompasses the life and death of Patrik’s three first and closest friends Daniel,
Mathias and Khabat, and follows Daniel’s journey from 20 years of addiction to a turn-around and the four friends’ everyday life during the 90s
characterized by a creative and loving brotherhood, partying, crime and a rebellious life lived as if every day were the last. These three first and
closest friends of Patrik all die suddenly in their 30s age, 1 year apart and in the exact reverse order in which Patrik came to know them. Khabat
dies first and a song and music video are made for his death, where Daniel, who is in a severe addiction, is included in the music video and
becomes central and the cover for it, and where a year later Mathias dies of an overdose where another song and music video is made again with
Daniel but now instead of Mathias death. After Mathias death, Daniel decides to end his addiction and write his own song and lyrics about it, which
conveys his conversion, where the song and lyrics are worked on for over 1 year, and which is finished exactly together with the music video one
week before Daniel himself dies on Christmas Eve, just 7 days after the end of the recording and where this never-before-seen music video is
released for the first time in this documentary 7 years after the recording of the unreleased music-video that this film documentary builds up to,
and which did not just become a simple music video but instead became Daniel’s larger personal testimony and testament spoken directly from
the ”grave” and where during the journey a larger mystery is also revealed in this film documentary with something so much bigger that over the
years has unfolded in the background where the invisible is now made visible for all to see.