The Danish film directed by Louise Detlefsen is among three films supported by Nordisk Film & TV Fond screening at this week’s hotDocs online Festival.

After her upbeat attitude to body fat in Fat Front, Detlefsen has turned to a controversial take on a possible ‘happy life’ without treatment for people suffering from dementia, in her latest film It’s Not Over yet which world premieres this week at HotDocs’s System Downs section.

The focus of the storyline is the small Danish retirement home Dagmarsminde founded by nurse May Bjerre Eiby, who took inspiration from Florence Nightingale and believes an alternative care treatment for her 11 patients based on hugs, touch, talking, humour, eye contact and the joy of community instead of medicated immobilisation. The goal is to inspire a complete change in the way people with dementia are treated in the healthcare system.

“It’s a very observing and touching documentary, about how these extraordinary nurses provide care to elderly women,” told the sales agent Esther van Messel to nordicfilmandtvnews.com, who admitted she cried when watching the film. “It’s very touching and well made,” said van Messel who plans to tie the film’s release with World Alzheimer Day September 21st.

The film is produced by Malene Flindt Pedersen of Hansen & Pedersen Production, with whom van Messel worked earlier on Humanity on Trial. It is co-produced by Germany’s Neue-Celluloid Fabrik, with co-financing from TV2 Denmark, Weltkino, Norway’s VGTV, Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung, RÚV among others.

Also screening at HotDocs’ Systems Down programme is the Norwegian film Generation Utøya by Aslaug Holm and Sigve Endresen, which is having its international premiere. The film produced by Fenris Film follows four female survivors of the 2011 terror attack in Utøya, Norway, who remain true to the strong political commitment for which they were targeted, transforming their trauma into empowerment.

Producer Tore Buvarp said Generation Utøya is “looking forward” through the four female protagonists’ positive viewpoints. “In a deeper context, the film debates both the mental and physical challenges most of them who were at Utøya, face today. It’s also a contribution to the debate about political extremism, which has risen significantly after July 22, 2011,” he said. The film was co-financed by NRK, SVT, RÚV, with support among others from the Norwegian Film Institute, Fritt Ord, The Norwegian Extra Fund for Mental Health, Norsk Kulturråd.

Meanwhile the Swedish film The Most Beautiful Boy in the World by Kristian Petri and Kristina Lindström is screening at the Canadian film festival’s Artscapes section. The film produced by Mantaray Film had its world premiere in competition at the last Sundance Film Festival. Juno Films handles North American distribution and TriArt the Swedish release.

Around 20 Nordic films are screening across HotDocs’s 12 programmes, including Iceland’s Raise the Bar by Gudjon Ragnarsson, Norway’s Seyran Ates: Sex, Revolution and Islam by Nefise Özkal Lorentzen and Finland’s Eatnameamet-Our Silent Struggle by Suvi West, selected for ‘The Changing Face of Europe’.