Nordic Frames: Borderland - Lapinlahti Film Festival 2026

On the brink of something, looking back and forth, are we aware where we are? Films on this and the other side of borders, offering insights into different lives, hopes and fears. Dazzling takes on topical matters, dealing with fundamental questions of humanity.

Short films:

1. Ritardando, Denmark
2. 28 Days Left, Finland
3. Equal Dust, Finland
4. 175, Sweden
5. Fear Fokol, Sweden
6. Borderline, Finland, Norway

The short films are followed by a 30 minute Q&A session.

All short films have english subtitles.

Lapinlahti Film Festival's Nordic Frames program brings new short films from all over the Nordics to Helsinki.

Maximum of two tickets per booking. Do not make multiple bookings for the same show. If you book a ticket but later encounter an obstacle, cancel the ticket well in advance using the link included in the email.

Ritardando

Project title (Original Language): -
Country: Denmark
Year: 2025
Duration: 11 min
Director: Selma Sunniva
Age limit: 16 (anxiety)

Synopsis: While the bombs are falling in a war-torn Copenhagen, the harpist David is practicing scales in his barricaded apartment. He believes in art, not war.

28 Days Left

Project title (Original Language): Tj28
Country: Finland
Year: 2026
Duration: 23 min
Director: Yasmin Najjar
Age limit: 16 (anxiety, violence)

Synopsis: A Finnish-Palestinian woman, Amani Lillak, is completing her voluntary military service in the Finnish Army’s medical corps. During a final combat exercise, Lillak learns that the crisis in her father’s homeland has further escalated. At the same time, the intensity of the combat exercise pushes internal tensions within the medical corps to their breaking point. Lillak tries to turn her back on both conflicts and be free for just a moment.

Equal Dust

Project title (Original Language): Elämä ja yö
Country: Finland
Year: 2025
Duration: 14 min
Director: Jani Peltonen
Age limit: 12 (anxiety)

Synopsis: In November 1983, a camera test was filmed in Helsinki. A 12-minute uninterrupted tracking shot runs through a nocturnal cityscape. At the same time, NATO's Able Archer 83 military exercise is underway in Europe. It is a scenario of how a nuclear war is believed to begin.

A significant part of this scenario includes the aggression of the “Orange” forces against Finland. The bigger powers have always used smaller countries like Finland as pawns and battlefields, both in their real and imagined wars.

The film intervenes in NATO’s scenario and presents an alternative storyline that turns the camera test into a cinematic land survey that illustrates the extent of the imagined and possible destruction. Instead of the authors of the scenario, the perspective of its subject emerges. The Finnish Eurovision Song Contest entries from the 1980s also serve as a counter-archive. You can find fear and dystopia in the lyrics but also love and hope.

175

Project title (Original Language): -
Country: Sweden
Year: 2025
Duration: 11 min
Director: Sepehr Nosrati
Age limit: 16 (anxiety, violence)

Synopsis: Two revolutionaries kidnap the child of a Swedish politician to prevent a vote on a draconian law that would allow the state to strip people of their citizenship. When the police arrive at the Persian restaurant where the kid is being held, the situation begins to spiral out of control.

Fear Fokol

Project title (Original Language): -
Country: South Africa, Sweden
Year: 2025
Duration: 15 min
Director: Tuva Björk
Age limit: 12 (references to violence)

Synopsis: A light kept on to deter makes it hard to see past your reflection. In Fear Fokol, we take a nightly ride into the fears and anxieties of Johannesburg’s wealthy inhabitants by following the work of the private security guards hired to protect them. The illusion of security slowly dissolves as we dig into a fragile climate of inequality, paranoia and masculinity in crisis.

Borderline

Project title (Original Language): På Grensa
Country: Finland, Norway, Sweden
Year: 2025
Duration: 12 min
Director: Johannes Vang
Age limit: 7 (light references to violence)

Synopsis: A Norwegian customs officer, a Finnish poacher, and a mysterious Swedish woman meet at the border between their homelands, becoming entangled in a conflict over laws, language, and prejudice. Confronted with their own secrets, they must find an unconventional solution.

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Auditorium

The auditorium is dark and air-conditioned, so it can feel quite cool. Please bring warm clothing, hearing protection if needed, and stay hydrated – a reusable water bottle is an excellent companion.

Please note that the use of alcohol or other intoxicating substances is prohibited inside the auditorium and throughout the festival area.

Please be kind to yourself and to those around you. Thank you!