To celebrate the fact I’ve got my summer pretty much sorted, it’s a time for a throwback. So here are photos from last summer’s Midnight Sun Film Festival . It was my second year photographing the festival, and this year’s going to be the third. After that I’ll spend the rest of the summer photographing for Keskisuomalainen newspaper.
The Midnight Sun Film Festival is a fascinating event, it’s non-competitive and held in June in Sodankylä (population 8 500) in the heart of Finnish Lapland, some 120 kilometres above the Arctic Circle, where the sun doesn’t set at all in the summertime. Last summer’s guests included film directors Carlos Saura , Bertrand Bonello and Per Fly as well as actors Hanna Schygulla and Charlotte Fich .
Photos from 2016 are here .
A person taking a selfie in front of the Lapinsuu cinema during the Midnight Sun Film Festival in Sodankylä on 14 June 2017.
Midnight Sun Film Festival volunteers in Sodankylä on 13 June 2017.
Lapinsuu cinema in Sodankylä.
Midnight Sun Film Festival volunteers resting under a Pro Patria commemorative plaque and a row of Finnish presidents in Sodankylä on 13 June 2017.
Coffee being prepared for the volunteers at the school kitchen in Sodankylä on 13 June 2017.
Film director Per Fly at the Midnight Sun Film Festival in Sodankylä on 18 June 2017.
Finland’s national public-broadcasting company Yle reporting from Sodankylä on 14 June 2017.
Professor Pauli Rautiainen in the lobby of Lapinsuu cinema in Sodankylä on 14 June 2017 during the Midnight Sun Film Festival.
Midnight Sun Film Festival’s artistic director Timo Malmi leaving the Lapinsuu cinema in Sodankylä on 14 June 2017.
Festival visitors on an evening walk on Peter von Bagh’s street in Sodankylä on 14 June 2017.
Actor Eija Pokkinen at the Midnight Sun Film Festival in Sodankylä on 15 June 2017.
Finnish documentary film director Jouko Aaltonen and a mosquito at the Midnight Sun Film Festival in Sodankylä on 15 June 2017.
Actor Hanna Schygulla at the Midnight Sun Film Festival in Sodankylä on 15 June 2017.
Film director Bertrand Bonello at the Midnight Sun Film Festival in Sodankylä on 15 June 2017.
Actor Charlotte Fich and film director Bertrand Bonello at the Midnight Sun Film Festival in Sodankylä on 18 June 2017.
Actor Ville Virtanen at the Midnight Sun Film Festival in Sodankylä.
Actor Ville Virtanen at the Midnight Sun Film Festival in Sodankylä.
Festival guests taking a dip in Kitinen river at the Midnight Sun Film Festival in Sodankylä on 15 June 2017.
Film director Bertrand Bonello at the Midnight Sun Film Festival.
Priest Kai Sadinmaa at the Midnight Sun Film Festival in Sodankylä on 16 June 2017.
Priest Kai Sadinmaa passing the wine at the Midnight Sun Film Festival in Sodankylä on 16 June 2017.
Film director Anssi Mänttäri at the Midnight Sun Film Festival in Sodankylä.
Actor Tommi Korpela at the Midnight Sun Film Festival in Sodankylä.
Actor Simon Al-Bazoon at the Midnight Sun Film Festival in Sodankylä on 17 June 2017.
Film director Carlos Saura with his daughter at the Midnight Sun Film Festival in Sodankylä.
Hanna Schygulla and Ana Saura at the Midnight Sun Film Festival in Sodankylä.
Film director Carlos Saura at the Midnight Sun Film Festival in Sodankylä.
Actor Charlotte Fich at the Midnight Sun Film Festival in Sodankylä.
Actor Charlotte Fich at the Midnight Sun Film Festival in Sodankylä.
Actor Ville Virtanen taking a selfie with film director Mika Kaurismäki at the Midnight Sun Film Festival in Sodankylä.
Actor Hanna Schygulla at the Midnight Sun Film Festival in Sodankylä.
The last screening ends at the Midnight Sun Film Festival in Sodankylä on 18 June 2017.
Photos: Antti Yrjönen for Midnight Sun Film Festival