The historical struggles of the Sámi people can be seen through the extraordinary life of Indigenous activist Niillas Somby.
Niillas Somby, Mihkkal Hætta, Stig Frode Henriksen
Norway
2025
In Northern Sámi with English subtitles
Indigenous & Community Access
Indigenous Access Tickets Community Access Tickets Ticket Donation Requests
Credits & Director
Producer
Linn Henriksen
Screenwriter
Liselotte Wajstedt
Cinematography
Mauri Lähdesmäki
Editor
Mauri Lähdesmäki
Original Music
Mathias Josefsson
Marja Helander
Marja Helander, born 1965, is an award-winning Sámi artist and filmmaker from Finland who graduated from the University of Art and Design in Helsinki. Her early work explored her identity between Finnish and Sámi cultures, while her recent photographic work has focused on the northern landscape and the effects of the mining industry. Helander’s films include Áfruvvá (2022) and Birds In The Earth (2018), which won several awards and was included in the 2019 Sundance Film Festival short film competition.
Photo by Riikka Vaahtera
Liselotte Wajstedt
Liselotte Wajstedt, born 1973, is a Sámi artist and filmmaker whose work spans film and video, collage, painting, photography, sculpture, textiles, and installation. She studied painting and arts at The Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm, as well as animation and experimental filmmaking at Gotland University, with a special emphasis on documentary storytelling and scriptwriting. Her experimental body of work comprises over two dozen shorts and feature-length films, including the recent short film Eadni (2023) and the feature documentary The Silence in Sápmi (2022).
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
It's a Wonderful Life
Every time a bell rings, an angel gets its wings. This Christmas classic is whimsical, sure, but it has the depth to stand up to multiple watches, and it really should be a communal experience, because that is what it's about.
The Nutcracker at Wethersfield
Back in the long, dark Covid winter of 2020, there was no way the New York City Ballet could mount their traditional Christmas production of Tchaikovsky's fairytale. But choreographer Troy Schumacher had a dream to save the show -- reimagining a classic.
North of Ourselves
In the depths of winter, two adventurers set out to cross Quebec from one end to the other on bike and skis, exploring its staggering geography and meeting its inhabitants (human and otherwise) along the way.
Hundreds of Beavers: A Northwoods Christmas
The funniest, and certainly the furriest movie you will see this year, Hundreds of Beavers channels the zany slapstick shtick of Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin and Bugs Bunny through a videogame quest narrative to retell the eternal saga of Man v Nature.
The Secret Agent
Having run afoul of an influential bureaucrat in Brazil’s military dictatorship circa 1977, Marcelo decamps to Recife to live under an assumed name — but he’ll soon come to understand precisely how rampant the country’s corruption has become.
