Page - 126 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Volume 02/02

126 | Sofia Sjö www.jrfm.eu 2016, 2/2, 123–140 the theory’s perspective.10 These studies have, among other things, highlighted the role of gender in mediatization of religion and the need to look at gender when exploring religion in media. This study, too, aims to bring new insight to mediatization theory by questioning a too simplistic understanding of media logics, particularly when one focuses on gender. Next I will analyze how religion and gender are “done” in two Scandinavian films that have both inspired a great deal of discussion in their local contexts: Så som i himmelen (As It Is in Heaven, Kay Pollak, SE/DK 2004) and Kautokeino- opprøret (The Kautokeino Rebellion, Nils Gaup, NO/DK/SE 2008). I conclude the article with a discussion of what the way in which religion and gender are done in the films suggests about social attitudes to and understandings of the relationship between gender and religion today, particularly in a Scandinavian context, the possible challenges to the theory of the mediatization of religion that the representations entail, and further questions worth exploring. As It Is in Heaven – A SAVIOR CHALLENGING THE GENDER MOLD? Kay Pollak’s As It Is in Heaven (2004) represents the director’s return to the di- rector’s chair after an absence of almost two decades. It has been discussed in a number of articles, many of them focusing on gender and/or religion.11 Discuss- ing the film in yet one more article can feel redundant. However, the enormous commercial success of this film even now, more than ten years after its making, makes it difficult to ignore, and a more thorough discussion of the different re- ligious themes in the film and their different gender structures is still needed. As It Is in Heaven (2004) tells the story of the famous conductor Daniel, who after a breakdown returns to his home village, becomes the cantor of the lo- cal church and inspires the transformation of many of the people in the village through his work with the church choir. A study of how viewers perceive religion in As It Is in Heaven (2004)12 has identified the following three main religious themes of the film: religious hypocrisy, spirituality and a Christ figure. Each of these themes can be related to gender and each is gendered very differently. Starting with religious hypocrisy, this theme is tied to one of the central char- acters in the film, the pastor Stig. As I have argued elsewhere,13 Stig is a good example of how religion in Scandinavian films is often constructed as a problem that is almost always tied to masculinity and masculine religiosity. Stig is the pastor in the village where most of the story takes place. He welcomes Dan- 10 Lövheim 2013; Sjö 2015a. 11 See Hammer 2006; Wallengren 2006; Sjö 2013b; Sjö 2015a. 12 Sjö 2013b. 13 Sjö 2015a.