The Northern Character

The main idea of the festival was to show the way a man's charecter is exercised in the harsh conditions of the High North.

To serve this purpose, more than a hundred journalists as well as cameramen from Russia, Norway, Sweden and Finland presented their films, programmes and TV spots.    

During three days (17-19 November) Murmansk inhabitants had an opportunity to see more than 70 works made by famous and new authors.

All in all there were six nominations. The right to choose the winner in each nomination was given to a competent jury.Every country had its own representative in the jury.

The jury was headed by the famous Norwegian director Nils Gaup also well-known abroad. In 1988 his film “Pathfinder” (Ofelas) was nominated for an Oscar in Best Foreign Language Film category.

In the framework of the festival Nils Gaup gave a master-class “National cinema”, showing a practical exapmle by his own film – “The Kautokeino Rebellion”. The film is based on actual events of the winter of 1852 when the northern Norway sami rebellion turned out a tragedy.  

– Such festival plays an important role in Barents Region. Murmansk is quite big and serves a wonderful ground for nordic countries. Many things are happening these days in Norway, Russia, Sweden and Finland. It is important to be updated and have a constant exchange between our countries – stressed the film director.

  Photo by Aleksey Pleshkov

Apart from watching films, there was organized a media-forum titled “Limits of the permitted”.   

Journalism is a powerful weapon which can either help or harm a person. It is important to know the limits of the permitted. The media-forum participants discussed which topics are forbidden for journalists from any country, how to make spots on ticklish topics (drug addiction, alcohol abuse, abortions etc.)  

The journalism ethics was not chosen incidentally. 

- This topic has an important meaning both for Russian and Nordic journalists. Sometimes we have a different interpretation of the same thing. - comments Elena Larionova, the jury member and the chairperson of BarentsPress Association. In particular, many Russian journalists are somewhat dissapointed that their nordic counteparts often expose social problems of Russia openly and flatly, while ticklish issues in their own countries are rarely taken by them.  

The participation of norwegian side in the festival was funded by the Norwegian Barents secretariat.