Opening Ceremony

Program for Monday the 16th of January:

This year the opening ceremony will take place at Stortorget in Tromsø. The opening ceremony is free and open for everyone. Festival director Lisa Hoen will welcome everyone to the festival, followed by speakers: The president of the Sámi parliament Silje Karine Muotka, the Norwegian cultural minister Anette Trettebergstuen, the county council leader of Troms and Finnmark county municipality Kristina Torbergsen and the mayor of Tromsø Gunnar Wilhelmsen. We are proud to announce a special guest performance during the opening ceremony of TIFF 2023: Mari Boine. Director of the opening film, Ole Giæver, and actress Ella Marie Hætta Isaksen from Let the River Flow will have a short conversation with festival director Lisa Hoen on stage.


OPENING FILM
This year's opening film is Let the River Flow by Ole Giæver, starring Ella Marie Hætta Isaksen. The film is a fictional story based on the real events surrounding the case of the Alta river in the late 70s. With this film, director Ole Giæver gets to the heart of what was at stake during the Alta conflict. Through the perspective of a young woman discovering her Sámi identity, the film is portraying the unrighteous treatment of the Sámi people in Norway that was fighting for their rights and trying to protect their land. Ole Giæver is a Tromsø born director and actor. He has made a number of short films before moving on to full-length films and documentaries that have won great acclaim.

The opening film will be screened at Kulturhuset and Aurora Kino Fokus after the ceremony.