Scandinavian Sins

The "Scandinavian Sin" programme will be expanded and contextualised by three lectures, introduced and moderated by Prof. Russ Hunter (Northumbria University, UK) and followed by a panel discussion.

In "Pushing the Boundaries: How “Swedish Sin” became legal", Prof. Tommy Gustafsson (Linnaeus University, Sweden) offers an entertaining and thought-provoking historical overview of how porn/sex films became legal in Sweden and how unscrupulous producers of erotic films pushed the limits even further until everything became legal in 1971.

Prof. Pietari Kaapa’s (Warwick University, UK) "Sex sells: transgressiveness" as a commercial strategy will cover early examples of Nordsploitation from Mattson/Bergman to "Rymdinvasion I Lappland" and to "Thriller- En grym" film, reflecting on changing approaches to exploitation and transgression from the 1970s onwards.

After the decriminalization of audio-visual porn in Denmark (1969) and Sweden (1971) they became key hubs of porn production. Prof. Susanna Paasonen’s (University of Turku, Finland) "Wannabe sinners?" argues that things were different in Norway and Finland, where films aiming to cash in on nudity failed to gain much international visibility, and where production of pornographic films was illegal well into the late 1990s.

The conference will be followed a panel discussion with actress Christina Lindberg, Rickard Gramfors (Klubb Super 8, Cultpix), Prof. Tommy Gustafsson and Prof. Susanna Paasonen, chaired by Prof. Pietari Kaapa, exploring issues of censorship, gender, changing morals, transgression and cancel culture, as well as looking at how things stand today in comparison with the so-called years of liberation and emancipation in which this Nordic (s)expoitation boom took place.

A night of Nordic naughtiness from the heyday of Scandinavian smut, in two parts. Including peep show loops in the bar and onscreen acrobatics in the Nova theatre, we recreate the atmosphere of a 1970s night out in the red light streets of Stockholm and Copenhagen.