Journal of Scandinavian Cinema - Volume 14, Issue 1, 2024

The editorial introduces this issue of Journal of Scandinavian Cinema (JSCA) that in particular explores the representation of children and films for young audiences in the Nordic countries. The issue includes an article on the child figure in Ingmar Bergman’s Autumn Sonata and an In Focus section with four short subjects about youth films in Nordic cinema, followed by an article on the representation of women in a Finnish silent film and a conference report from China. The editorial summarizes the main arguments and contributions of each article and highlights the relevance and importance of studying cinematic representation in the Nordic countries.

This article is an interdisciplinary study of the figure of the child in Ingmar Bergman’s Höstsonaten (Autumn Sonata) (1978), using theoretical perspectives from childhood studies within a cinema studies framing. By analysing the shifting roles of mother and daughter in this seldom-discussed film, the article demonstrates the on-screen child figure’s capacity to challenge society’s deep-rooted ideas of ‘child’ and ‘adult’, respectively, thereby exposing the inconstant nature of age categories. Drawing on contemporary childhood studies, I argue, using Autumn Sonata as an example, that the child figure in cinema bears a subversive potential for questioning power relations between generations as well as defying a chrononormative notion of time and age. This reading contributes to a deepened awareness of the function of the on-screen child figure, not least transferable to Bergman’s cinematic work. It also sheds light on the mutable connections between fictional children and central conceptions of childhood in contemporary society.

Youth cultures have had a ubiquitous presence on Nordic screens for more than seven decades and are currently experiencing a surge in visibility across streaming platforms. However, studies pertaining to the production, representation and reception of youth film in Nordic cinema have been scarce. This introduction to the In Focus section ‘Youth cultures in Nordic cinema’ provides background and context for the section and presents its four contributing articles.

This article discusses the film Sotapolulla (‘On the warpath’) (1922), a pioneering work in the early years of Finnish cinema. By highlighting the role that women played during the Finnish Civil War (1918), scriptwriter and director Teuvo Pakkala, a well-known conservative writer, created a model of femininity for the post-war period. The construction of the female characters accords with the standards of femininity in Hollywood silent film, which featured strong, assertive women committed to the social order. Thus Pakkala’s film in significant ways follows the classical model that Noël Burch identifies as an institutional mode of representation.

The Wandering in Scandinavia symposium, held at the UCCA Centre for Contemporary Art in Beijing in December 2023, invited international experts, scholars and young academics to present new research on Nordic/Scandinavian film and television in China. The symposium offered an unprecedented opportunity to discuss the relevance of Nordic cinema in mainland China. While Nordic films are often considered niche products in the Chinese market, in an era of rapid globalization, Chinese scholarship offers a distinctive perspective on how Nordic films connect with and influence audiences and creatives in this vital market. Papers focused on Nordic feature films, including animation, and documentaries, examining these films from diverse perspectives, including auteurist studies, ecological research and historical investigation. The Young Scholars Forum introduced fresh perspectives on topics ranging from queer cinema to war films and new technologies, providing innovative examples of how Nordic cinema travels transnationally.