Book/DVD Cultural Research for Baltic Cruise

[defaultet]

Hello,

 

Just had an idea I thought I'd share. The wife and I are on 12-day HAL Baltic cruise in September. I've been to many of the countries, my wife hasn't been to any. To help prepare us for the trip I've come up with a list of literature and films that will help us learn more about the countries we are visiting. Here's what I have so far. The goal wasn't to necessarily have either "classics" or modern books/dvds, but rather a mix of the two. All of these books and DVD's should be easily available from your local library or NetFlix. Even if you don't have NetFlix you could sign up for a month and watch all of the DVD's.

 

1). Denmark- At first I thought it'd be good to read Henrik Ibsen's 'A Doll's House'. But that doesn't really make much sense, as it's a play and should be seen. There's a couple film versions out there, not sure which one is supposed to be better. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0069987/

 

2). Norway- read Knut Hamsun's 'Hunger'. Tale of a a struggling writer in turn of the century Oslo (Christiana). Many consider this to be a huge influence on later writers like F. Scott Fitgerald and Hemingway.

 

3). Sweden- watch a famous Ingmar Bergman movie (not sure which one offhand). Another idea is to watch a film about immigrants in Sweden. There are many films like this, not sure of the names but I have seen several. One was about Iranian immigrants, was quite interesting. The Iranian family was very traditional and was having a hard time coming to grips that the daughter was in love with a native Swede and did not want an arranged marriage. I'll see if I can find the name.

 

4). Russia- Watch 'Brat'. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0069987/. Not sure exactly of the plot, it's kind of a gangster film in post-Soviet St. Petersburg. Another idea would be to read classics by Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Solzhenitsyn. But I'm not in the mood to read that much at the moment. There are many film versions of Dostoevsky's 'Crime and Punishment'.

 

5). Finland- No ideas offhand. I think we'll read from the Kalevala, the Finnish mythology. It's fascinating and completely different from the rest of the Nordic countries, nothing to do with all the Viking stuff. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalevala

 

6). Germany- Well, this could be anything really. Maybe 'The Lives of Others' since we're docking in East Germany. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lives_of_Others

 

7). Netherlands- Well, the obvious choice is to read Anne Frank's diary. I think most people have an interest in seeing the Anne Frank house. Won't really mean anything if you haven't read the book in 20-30 years. I'm sure there must be a film version of this as well. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Frank

 

8). Estonia- As suggested on a CC thread, watch 'The Singing Revolution'. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Singing_Revolution

 

To learn about all the ports in general I bought this dvd of the ports with the book, http://johnlawrencecd.com/sales.html. This was recommended here on CC, haven't received in mail yet.

 

Anyway, this is just a thought I had. I think we will get more out of the cruise if we learn as much as possible before arriving. Don't want to have to dependent on the little summaries that the cruise line gives you each day.

 

-Erik

[defaultet]

I found the movie about Iranian immigrants in Sweden. It's called 'Wings of Glass'. It's a love story/drama of sorts. The girl wants to be a Swede and isn't interested in preserving her Persian/Iranian heritage. The family wants her to have an arranged marriage and stay true to her heritage. The girl falls for a Swedish man, which causes a lot of conflict. It's a very good film, very interesting.

 

http://www.iofilm.co.uk/fm/w/wings_of_glass_2000.shtml

[treesah]

Erik,

 

It's so refreshing to find a post like yours. Thank you for your research.

[defaultet]

Hi treesah,

 

Hope you find some of the recommendations interesting. I majored in Norwegian language for my BA, so I am very familiar in particular with Scandinavian culture. I thought I'd just offer some suggestions for those who may not be as familiar.

 

Here's a couple more ideas:

 

Denmark- Hans Christian Andersen! Timeless fairy tales, great for all ages. Amazon has many affordable collections. If you're going to see 'The Little Mermaid' statue, why wouldn't you want to read the original story?

 

Sweden- Pippi Longstocking, either the original books or the movie. This is more just for fun, esp. if you have kids going on the trip. Regarding the 'Wings of Glass' mentioned earlier. The Swedish title is 'Vingar av Glas'. I think it's probably very difficult to find retail, maybe impossible. Best to try to download off the Internet. Another movie about immigrants in Sweden is called 'Elixir'.

 

Finland- Moomins. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moomin. This is a very special and unique cartoon. Don't know how easy it would be to find. If anyone wants to read the Kalevala, I would recommend this book, http://www.amazon.com/Kalevala-Poems-Kaleva-District/dp/0674500105/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1246167470&sr=1-3

 

Norway- If anyone is interested about the Norwegian resistance during WWII there are a number of books that are worth reading. One of the most famous ones is 'Report from No. 24' by Gunnar Sonsteby. The whole book is basically the author skiing hundreds of miles to try to sabotage the Germans, literally skiing all over Norway with secret messages and so forth. There are a lot of Norwegian films, but the ones more readily available are pretty quirky and not really that great. A couple are 'Junk Mail' and 'Elling'.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0368045/

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0368045/

If you have any teenagers I would recommend the book Sophie's World. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophie%27s_World

 

Okay, that's all I can think of for now. Hope some people may find this useful. Out of all these I cannot recommend more Knut Hamsun's 'Hunger'.

 

Oh yes, one more thing. If anyone is in Seattle Rick Steves has free travel classes in Edmonds. http://www.ricksteves.com/news/classes/class_menu.htm. We signed up for the talk about St. Petersburg, Talinn, and Moscow. His dvds are also great and are pretty cheap.

[defaultet]

Oops. Here's the correct link for 'Elling'. The one I posted earlier is some type of sequel. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0279064/

But anyway, after all the Norwegian films I've seen I can't say I really like any of them.

 

Well, that's not entirely true. This movie is great if you can find it. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0279064/

I just checked, it's available on NetFlix. You can even stream it if you want. But read the description before you get it, it's a pretty dark film

[defaultet]

Sorry, wrong link on the last post. My computer seems to have a problem copying and pasting. http://www.imdb.com/find?s=all&q=aberdeen&x=14&y=5

The film is called 'Aberdeen'. Available from NetFlix.