Una pareja estadounidense que no está pasando por su mejor momento acude con unos amigos a un festival de verano que se celebra cada noventa años en una aldea remota de Suecia. Lo que comienza como unas vacaciones de ensueño en un lugar en el que el sol no se pone nunca, poco a poco se convierte en una oscura pesadilla cuando los misteriosos aldeanos les invitan a participar en sus perturbadoras actividades festivas.
Will Dormer, un veterano detective de Los Ángeles, viaja a un pequeño pueblo de Alaska con su compañero Hap para investigar el asesinato de una chica de 17 años. En Los Ángeles queda pendiente un oscuro asunto que les incumbe a los dos. Una vez en Alaska, entran en contacto con el principal sospechoso, Walter Finch, un novelista ermitaño.
Una joven aparece asesinada en un pueblo noruego, cerca del Círculo Polar Ártico. Un experimentado inspector sueco, Jonas Engström, se traslada a la zona para resolver el crimen, acompañado de su amable compañero Erik.
The Midnight Sun Film Festival is held every June in the Finnish village of Sodankylä beyond the arctic circle — where the sun never sets. Founded by Aki and Mika Kaurismäki along with Anssi Mänttäri and Peter von Bagh in 1985, the festival has played host to an international who’s who of directors and each day begins with a two-hour discussion. To mark the festival’s silver anniversary, festival director Peter von Bagh edited together highlights from these dialogues to create an epic four-part choral history of cinema drawn from the anecdotes, insights, and wisdom of his all-star cast: Coppola, Fuller, Forman, Chabrol, Corman, Demy, Kieslowski, Kiarostami, Varda, Oliveira, Erice, Rouch, Gilliam, Jancso — and 64 more. Ranging across innumerable topics (war, censorship, movie stars, formative influences, America, neorealism) these voices, many now passed away, engage in a personal dialogue across the years that’s by turns charming, profound, hilarious and moving.
The Midnight Sun blurs the line between night and day. For part of the year, living close to the Arctic Circle means having more hours of the day to spend bonding with others. Though this, in combination with a lack of things to do, breeds creativity in some folks, others might arguably have too much time on their hands. The concept of status quo, i.e. nothing has changed, has seldom been more suitable.
American tourists explore Sweden by train