Finnish Documentary Films 2011
Finnish Documentary Films 2011
Contents
Finns rush to watch documentary films at movie theatres 3
The land between the living and the dead 4
Mika Kaurismäki spends half of his time on documentaries 6
Moments in life when you realise something essential 7
Comedy documentaries about conquering women 8
Feature-length documentary films:
Arctic Desert 11
Canned Dreams 12
Sodankylä Forever/The Century of the Cinema 13
Forever Yours 15
Helsinki Twilight 16
Mama Africa 19
Paavo, a Life in Five Courses 19
Reindeerspotting – Escape from Santaland 20
Rules of Single Life 21
Salla – Selling the Silence 21
Steam of Life 22
The Unknown Woman 23
Vesku from Finland 23
Wireless World 24
Mid-length documentary films:
Albino United 10
Aranda 10
Battle for the City 11
Barzakh 12
Christmas Men 13
A City in Two Parts 14
A Director’s Journey to Humanness – The Story of Mikko Niskanen 14
The Good Survivor 15
The Finnish Legion of Murmansk 16
The Hunt 17
Kaskinen 17
Lemmi’s Love 18
Look At Me 18
Play God 20
Silence and Severity 22
Virtual War 24
Contact information 25
Finnish Film Festivals 2011 25
This magazine is in two parts. This part is devoted to new Finnish
documentaries. When you turn the magazine upside down, you will find
the part devoted to new short films. There you will also find information
on documentary films that are shorter than 30 minutes.
More facts and figures about Finnish documentary films are available at
our website: www.ses.fi – Statistics
Contacts:
Marja Pallassalo
Head of Promotion, Short and Documentary Films
Tel. +358 9 6220 3021
marja.pallassalo@ses.fi
Otto Suuronen
Assistant, Short and Documentary Film Promotion
Tel. +358 9 6220 3019
otto.suuronen@ses.fi
The Finnish Film Foundation
Kanavakatu 12, FI-00160 Helsinki
www.ses.fi
V
From Murmansk to New York,
from Spitzbergen to South Africa
The many worlds of Finnish documentary films
Finnish films are doing better
than ever in Finland. In 2010,
domestic films had a theatre
audience of over two million. That
means almost 30 percent of all moviegoers
went to see a Finnish film. The
population of Finland is 5.4 million.
Another reason for delight is that,
relatively speaking, Finnish documentary
films have done even better in
domestic theatres. Joonas Neuvonen’s
Reindeerspotting, Joonas Berghäll
and Mika Hotakainen’s Steam of Life
(Miesten vuoro), and Mika Kaurismäki’s
Vesku from Finland (Vesku) were
the biggest box office successes. The
biggest thanks should, of course, be
given to the film makers, but the financial
support given to documentary
films seems to be also bearing fruit. In
three years, the Finnish Film Foundation
has been able to almost double its
support for documentary films. In this
magazine, Liisa Lehmusto will take
a closer look at the reasons behind the
documentaries’ success.
The magazine you are holding introduces
Finnish documentary films
that had their premiere in the autumn
of 2010 or that will be finished in the
spring of 2011. The films deal with
the recent history of Finland and Estonia,
cities in the turmoil of change,
oceanography, Spitsbergen, football in
Africa, city rabbits in the streets and
alleys of Helsinki, children in schools
and foster homes, women in World
War II, and Bulgarian men looking for
Finnish women. If you want to know
where the roots of the Finnish band
HIM are, watch Petri Hakkarainen’s
Helsinki Twilight 1984. According
to the director, it wasn’t until the postpunk
era that Finns and the Finnish
art scene was able to become properly
European and international. If you
want to hear Isabella Rossellini’s
funny stories and bubbling laughter,
make a beeline for Hanna Hemilä’s
Paavo – A Life in Five Courses. It is the
story of Paavo Turtiainen, a Finnish
country boy, to whom Ingrid Bergman
and Lars Schmidt said at Helsinki
airport in 1970, “Come to Paris.”
You will also learn about Miriam
Makeba’s artistry and political activism
in Mama Africa, directed by Mika
Kaurismäki. In this magazine, Jussi
Karjalainen talks with Mika Kaurismäki
about the way he makes films
– both documentaries and fiction.
The film historian and director
Peter von Bagh has assembled footage
of unforgettable meetings with
unforgettable directors that have
taken place during the 25 years of the
Midnight Sun Festival in Sodankylä.
The Century of the Cinema is a 90
minute long compilation of these conversations.
An even more thorough
look at the memories and thoughts
of the festival’s guests is given in the
three hour long Sodankylä Forever.
Peter von Bagh has also recently finished
his three-part profile of Mikko
Niskanen. Niskanen, who died in
1990, was an outstanding Finnish
film director, although his works are
not well known beyond Finnish borders.
That is a pity, at least when it
comes to his Eight Deadly Shots from
1972. It is unquestionably one of the
most significant films ever made in
Finland. The film’s premise, the way
it was made, and the way it turned
out are interesting also from the point
of view of documentary film expression.
Even if one knows nothing about
Mikko Niskanen’s films, Peter von
Bagh’s series provides an extensive
look at Finland’s recent history from
the 1930s onwards. Von Bagh’s ability
to comprehend and bridge things is
remarkable, as is known by everyone
who has seen his highly regarded 2008
film, Helsinki, Forever.
Mia Halme, the director of Forever
Yours, says in our interview that
she is most interested in the moments
when one realises something essential,
and in finding a way to depict those
moments on film. Anu Kuivalainen’s
Aranda and Mantas Kvedaravicius’
Barzakh seem to be realisations
of Mia Halme’s thought. Aranda
tells about an oceanographic research
vessel, and Barzakh about Chechnian
families who are waiting for
their missing loved ones – and about
so much more. The moments in both
films are quiet, and yet overwhelmingly
full of meaning.
I hope that Finnish documentary
films bring joy and new ideas into
your lives.
Marja Pallassalo
The Finnish Film Foundation
www.ses.fi
2 Finnish Documentary Films 2011
Finns rush to watch documentaries at movie theatres
Finnish documentaries have been the surprise hit of Finnish movie theatres. But what is this boom all about?
The year 2010 has seen a real
boom for documentary films
at Finnish movie theatres.
Last year, a record number of Finnish
documentaries have been screened
in cinemas in Finland and attendance
figures have surprised professionals
throughout the film industry.
The year 2010 has been an exciting
time for Finnish documentary enthusiasts
and professionals, with up to nine
Finnish documentary films premiering
at cinemas this year. The number of
new titles has grown considerably compared
to earlier years; between 2005
and 2009, cinemas screened from two
to five new Finnish documentaries annually.
The selection this year is a stunning
array of the best new Finnish
documentary production has to offer.
The documentaries that have had their
premiere this year are Auf Wiedersehen
Finnland (distributed in Finland by
Elokuvakontakti ry), a new historical
documentary about German brides by
Virpi Suutari, Freetime Machos (Pirkanmaan
elokuvakeskus ry), which
was shown at IDFA in 2009 and is the
latest work by Mika Ronkainen, the
first Finnish director to have a film
screened at Sundance, Looking for the
Lost Tango (FS-Film), a portrait of
Finnish cult musician Tuomari Nurmio,
Steam of Life (Nordisk Film), a
touching film about sauna, Reindeerspotting
(Nordisk Film), a documentary
depicting the harsh reality of drug addicts
in northern Finland; Rautaa rajan
taa (Finnkino), a music documentary
dealing with the export of Finnish
heavy metal; and Vesku from Finland
(FS-Film), a biopic of Finland’s beloved
actor and musician Vesa-Matti
Loiri directed by Mika Kaurismäki.
Pirjo Honkasalo’s new film ITO
– A Diary of an Urban Priest (Cinema
Mondo) also premiered in November.
In 2010, the total number of viewers
for the documentaries exceeded the
whopping figure of 160,000. Reindeerspotting
alone has attracted 65,000
moviegoers, a figure that guaranteed
a spot among the ten most-watched
Finnish films last year. This kind of
ranking is unheard-of in Finland for a
documentary film.
These figures, many times higher
than previous records set in the last few
years, are a fantastic achievement for
documentary films in Finland. During
the last six years, few of the documentaries
that reached the box office
drew more than 4,000 viewers. The
rare exceptions were John Webster’s
climate-change themed Recipes of Disaster
(2008, Finnkino), with 14,000
viewers, and Jouko Aaltonen’s musical
documentary Revolution (2006,
Sandrew Metronome), with 13,000
viewers.
The phenomenon extends beyond
high attendance figures, as documentaries,
buoyed by their success, have
become a more talked-about topic than
ever before in Finland. To top off increased
public interest, two significant
international nominations went to a
documentary film this year: Steam of
Life battled as Finland’s candidate for
both the Nordic Council Film Prize
and the Best Foreign Language Film
Oscar.
Trend or statistical spike?
Having exceeded the high threshold
of theatre distribution, each film must
prove its viability at the box office on
its own. When you look at attendance
figures more closely, you will notice
that success has been distributed unevenly
during this year’s documentary
boom. Of the nine documentaries, only
three have attendance-wise reached the
same category as Finnish fiction films,
namely Vesku from Finland (currently
37,000 viewers), Steam of Life (49,000)
and Reindeerspotting (65,000).
Even though in view of these numbers
the documentary film boom seems
to shrink to just three hit films, Toni
Lähteinen, programming manager
with Finland’s largest cinema chain,
Finnkino, reminds us that the same
kind of situation has been experienced
before. “When Finnish films began
their ascent again in the late 1990s,
there were three movies that were
meeting with success at the box office
at the same time: the war film
Ambush(1999), the crime drama The
Tough Ones (1999) and the young people’s
film Tommy and The Wildcat (1998).
These
A good distribution
strategy does not
guarantee success
unless it is backed by
the most essential
thing – the film that
touches and interests
audiences right now.
three movies
were
enough
to create
a massive
boost that
made Finnish
films a
success at
movie theatres
once
again.” In a market area the size of
Finland, even a small number of successful
titles can change the situation.
At the turn of the millennium, after
two decades of dwindling audiences,
Finnish feature-length fiction films
unexpectedly bounced back to become
a box-office success story that continues
to this day.
In theatre distribution, success
breeds more success, and documentaries
are no exception to this rule. “A
good question to ask is, what if there
hadn’t been two big hit documentaries
in the spring and Vesku from Finland
would have been released at theatres
now? Would it have drawn as many
viewers as it has? What about next
year? Will Finnish documentaries have
an even better chance at success? Most
likely ‘yes’,” Lähteinen thinks.
National and
international trend
Despite the more moderate attendance
figures of past years, Lähteinen thinks
the roots of the current boom extend
far, as the number of documentaries
being screened at movie theatres has
been growing steadily for ten years.
People are more willing to go to the
movies to watch a documentary because
of a shift in the public’s attitude
towards the cinema. “Viewers have
slowly been taught to watch documentaries
at the cinema. The thought of
it is no longer strange and all the hard
work is now producing results.”
It is also no coincidence that success
in the distribution field is preceded by
the popularity of the film festival dedicated
to documentaries. For the last
decade or so, documentary films have
been promoted by DocPoint, a documentary
film festival held in Helsinki.
Established in 2002, DocPoint has
become one of Finland’s most important
festivals in a short period of time.
The festival has steadily increased its
attendance, attracting almost 30,000
visitors to its selection of documentary
films in January 2010.
The change in viewer climate may
have also slightly opened theatre doors
to international documentaries, which
are becoming more and more frequent
at Finnish cinemas. Among the international
documentaries that have had
a theatre premiere in Finland in 2010
are Wanted and Desired by Roman Polanski,
When You’re Strange, a music
documentary about the band The
Doors, and Armadillo, a documentary
about Danish soldiers in Afghanistan.
Even though their viewer figures did
not rise above the normal small-scale
art house releases, distributors have
Steam of Life
Freetime Machos
Finnish Documentary Films 2011 3
clearly become bolder at taking risks
across genre boundaries.
Reality is currently a global trend
in television as well, and Finland is no
exception. The localised versions and
Finnish productions of international
reality formats have established realitybased
entertainment as an undisputed
part of daily TV. Reality programmes
have introduced Finns to the allure of
reality-based entertainment and, as
viewer surveys on reality programmes
indicate, the hunt for real emotions.
Undoubtedly some of the viewers are
seeking the same experiences from
documentary films.
Documentaries are sold to
theatres with the same
strategy as fiction
This year’s attendance figures can be
explained by cultural reasons, but these
alone do not explain the success of
our three hit documentaries. Nor can
the explanation be found in the film
industry’s favourite child, digitalisation.
For years there has been talk of
the distribution of documentaries becoming
easier with the increase in the
number of digital theatres, but so far
there has been no room for marginal
films in digital theatres in Finland. In
small towns and theatre complexes, the
digital screen is usually the largest, and
therefore the films shown there must
offer the greatest audience potential.
And even though the documentary is
considered a megatrend by the media,
it is not necessarily a key factor in cinema
distribution.
According to Toni Lähteinen of
Finnkino, what this year’s successful
documentaries have in common is that
their distribution strategy has played
down their ‘documentary’ classification
and image. “In distribution and
marketing, they were not treated as
documentaries but rather as movies.
Instead of selling a documentary, the
distributors were selling a story or a
concept.” For example, in its marketing,
Vesku from Finland was clearly portrayed
as a biopic about a famous singer
and actor, and Reindeerspotting as
a shocking, youthfully exuberant and
topical story about exceptional human
circumstances. The word ‘documentary’
was not even mentioned in the
films’ posters or marketing materials.
The distribution strategies of documentaries
that premiered in the spring
were presented at a think tank organised
by the Finnish Film Foundation
this summer. According to distributors
and production companies, the
distribution and marketing of the
most successful documentaries followed
the normal launch strategy of
box-office movies. There was plenty of
investment in the production of posters,
advertisements and trailers, the
films’ target audiences were identified
and marketing was carefully planned.
Theatre premieres were preceded by
screenings at popular film festivals,
creating a good word-of-mouth base.
The timing of the premieres was also
key, as the premiere weekends took
place after a suitable period from the
hype created by the festival screenings.
But even a good distribution strategy
does not guarantee success unless
it is backed by the most essential thing
– the film that touches and interests
audiences right now. Both distributors
and theatres stress that the key to success
is always in the film itself. A good
film will sell itself first to the distributor,
then audiences – even if it carries
on its shoulders the challenges facing
the documentary film genre.
The most positive thing about the
documentary success stories is that
Finnish cinema audiences have shown
to be open to and thirsty for new experiences.
They still dare to go out and
search for something new and different
at the movie theatre. “People go to the
cinema to seek new ideas”, Toni Lähteinen
concludes. “You don’t always go
to just have a good time at the movies.
If people hear that a certain work is interesting,
they’ll go and watch it even
if it is heavy.”
Liisa Lehmusto
The writer has followed documentary films
in her work with the DocPoint festival
team between 2003 and 2010 and currently
works as the communications officer for
Sandrew Metronome Distribution Finland.
The land between the living and the dead
With academic writing you can only reach a limited number of people, but with a film you find a larger audience
How can you portray war, torture or death? What kind of film would be
the most effective at showing the scars of war and violence in Chechnya?
Lithuanian researcher Mantas Kvedaravicius has approached war and violence
by showing people’s daily life. His film Barzakh follows a few families
that have one of their relatives missing. The families do not know where
their missing relatives are, or whether they are even alive. Life is about
waiting. Barzakh is Mantas Kvedaravicius’s debut film. He had no previous
experience in making films but despite this, he managed to get Sputnik Oy
and Aki Kaurismäki to produce his work.
Mantas Kvedaravicius
With his film, the researcher
wants to reach
a wider audience than
the academic community. Mantas
Kvedaravicius is currently working
on his social anthropology thesis at the
University of Cambridge. He is pondering
on the question of what social
anthropology means to him. “To me,
it’s not a social science, but is rather
related to philosophy and critical study
of literature. All the big questions in
life can be studied through literature.
Everyday details are connected, and
they cannot be explained by rationalising
or observing, they must be lived.
A great deal of literature and poetry,
as well as cinema, deals with the big
questions that people face in their everyday
lives”, says Mantas.
What is it then that made an academic
researcher go into cinema? “We
understand what goes on around us but
when we try to explain what we have
experienced with words, we no longer
reach the essence of it. If we’re lucky,
we can use film to convey something
that speech and words cannot. Films
give more room for feelings in communication
or in any other life phenomenon.
The director says that film can be
used to describe longing or something
that is lost or disappearing.
When I ask whether the issues
concerning Chechnya have interested
him for a long time, Mantas turns my
question around and says that often it
is the subject that finds the filmmaker.
“It is a question of one’s own life history
and life experiences. A short while
ago, I had a good conversation with
Yael Navaro-Yashin, who is supervising
my work. She is conducting an
anthropological study in the northern
part of Cyprus. Even though, as
anthropologists, we do not share an
understanding of the importance of field
work, which may be very colonial, we
must have some kind of connection to
the place we are studying. I often speak
of electrified identities, in which certain
aspects connect you to a certain place”,
Mantas adds.
“For me, one of the connections is
growing up in a post-Soviet society. I
grew up in Lithuania, where the thought
of resisting the Soviet Union had slowly
gained strength since the 1940s. There
was always the idea of an empire that
had forced itself on our country. How
should we feel about such a power? An
even more personal question is, what
kind of subjectivity do people who have
gone through all of this develop? How
have they remained human after all these
experiences? I think that these experiences
connect me to Chechnya, where
people have gone through the same.”
“I haven’t read the writings of political
scientists on Chechnya because I
think they’re worse than shamanism. I
think Anna Politkovskaya is the only
person who has written anything worthwhile
on Chechnya. My research work
in the Caucasus was not a rational choice
for me.”
4 Finnish Documentary Films 2011
Mantas Kvedaravicius had spent
over a year in the Caucasus before beginning
his filming. He knew the people,
the place and the events. The film
meanders through the daily chores of
the people it follows – it shows them
cooking, harvesting, building, playing
and celebrating. People, of course,
talk about violence even if it does not
happen every day. Daily life goes on,
although people’s awareness of the violence
colours their perception of the
future. The documentary was filmed
in 2007–2009, when there was no
open warfare in Chechnya. “Despite
this, we would see bombings and battles
in one place, and there would be a
wedding taking place a few kilometres
away. Our Chechen friends said that it
was like that also during the war.”
Spectacular blindness
“Many people want to believe that
everything is well there now. I call it
spectacular blindness. The reconstruction
of residential areas and roads and
all the verbal assurances hide the fear,
the fragility of life, the uncertainty.
This spectacular blindness doesn’t only
affect international delegations visiting
the area, but also the area’s own
residents.”
The film’s name is Barzakh. It is a
theological concept which means the
land between the living and the dead.
The word comes from the Koran and
the concept has been developed by Sufi
philosophers. “Barzakh isn’t merely a
metaphor, but rather a paradigm on
which the film is built. The paradigm’s
purpose is to find peculiarities and
link them together, so that generally
applicable statements on the world can
be presented”, the film’s director clarifies.
“What our daily life consists of is
not defined by opposites, instead it is
existence on the edge of where two become
one but do not mix. In the film,
the mother of a missing man says ‘I
don’t have my son living or dead’. To
me this is barzakh: neither living, nor
dead. It is a vacuum, absence”, Mantas
says, explaining the basis for his film.
The film shows us how a man
named Alaudi Sadykov looks after
his garden. He also takes us through
the grim building in which he was
tortured for a long time. Alaudi has
lost one ear and suffered a permanent
injury to his arm. Mantas says that this
man has been between life and death.
Alaudi has been so close to death
that, in a way, he has already died,
but now he is among the living. The
director says that torture can be seen
in the look
“ We would see
bombings and battles
in one place, and there
would be a wedding
taking place a few
kilometers away.”.
in people’s
eyes. Living
among
these looks
and hearing
whispers
of missing
people
has a more
powerful effect on people than open
violence.
The film contains many breathtakingly
beautiful pictures of the underwater
world or snowfall that fills
the landscape. “We are water. It makes
us think what life is about. I am referring
to French philosopher Gaston
Bachelard, who wrote about the
meaning of sleep and water. Bachelard
spoke of man’s fate, which is to
Barzakh
disappear into water or become water.
Bachelard moves in the mythical
dimension, describing ships that are
full of dead people’s souls and are almost
sinking. I think this image gives
us consolation, that souls will finally
find their own place. It’s like a healing
process full of hope”, Mantas explains.
The film has been a rich experience
for the first-time director. “Since I had
no knowledge of how to make a movie,
it was great to have Aki Kaurismäki
as my producer. With academic writing
you can only reach a limited
number of people, but with a film you
find a larger audience. When the film
comes out, it will do justice to several
people. Barzakh is dedicated to Natalya
Estemirova, the Russian human
rights activist who was abducted
and killed in Grozny in July 2009.
Marja Pallassalo
Barzakh, page 12
Barzakh
Finnish Documentary Films 2011 5
Mika Kaurismäki spends half of his time
on documentaries
“
Kaurismäki has finished Mama Africa, a documentary about Miriam Makeba.
In it and many other music documentaries he has made, the director lets the
camera do the writing. Kaurismäki, however, has not given up on drama films,
which he carefully plans in advance.
In a way, it’s strange that a Finnish
director makes a film about
a South African icon. I believe
the producers were looking for a filmmaker
who can approach the subject
from a distance”, says Mika Kaurismäki.
“For me, this wasn’t a completely
new situation, since I’ve done films
about Brazilian music and artists in
the past.”
Mika Kaurismäki (born 1955) is the
older brother of the famous depicter
of archaic Finland, Aki Kaurismäki.
He has just finished his feature-length
documentary Mama Africa about the
deceased singer Miriam Makeba
(1932–2008), a famous icon of South
Africa and the entire black continent.
The documentaries about Brazil
that Kaurismäki mentions are Moro
no Brasil – Sound Of Brazil (2002) and
Brasileirinho (2005). Brazil was also
featured in Kaurismäki’s documentary
about drummer Billy Cobham, Sonic
Mirror (2007). Even the director’s
debut into international documentary
productions, Tigrero – A Film That Was
Never Made (1993), had a Brazilian
subject. It told the story of Samuel
Fuller, a cigar-biting film director
with an endless supply of stories, and
his adventure movie in the lands of the
Karajá Indians that was never made.
When he was making Tigrero, Mika
Kaurismäki already spent half the
year in Brazil. Currently he is living in
Salvador in Bahia.
Makeba’s portrait became
a memorial film after her death
The idea for the Miriam Makeba portrait
entitled Mama Africa came from
South African producer Don Edkins
and Robert Eisenhauer of Arte, the
French-German TV channel. Arte
has also been involved in Kaurismäki’s
documentaries about Brazilian samba
and choro.
“When we decided to make the
film, Miriam Makeba was still alive,
but just before we started filming, she
fell ill on stage in Italy and died”, says
Kaurismäki.
“For a moment we even considered
cancelling the project. But then we
decided to continue because Makeba
deserves a film. Of course, her passing
away affected things a lot because I
had to use much more archive material
than planned.”
“In addition to South Africa, we
filmed in Guinea and New York,
where she lived during her long exile.
We also filmed in Germany, where she
frequently performed.”
Kaurismäki had heard Makeba’s
unique voice in Finland through the
radio in the 1960s. He notes that, due
to apartheid, genuine South African
music was
not widely
heard across
the world.
“Miriam
Makeba was
its first and
foremost
ambassador
for decades.”
Makeba
was not only a musician but a worldwide
figurehead of the fight against
apartheid.
“Mandela was furthering the same
cause at the same time while he was
imprisoned in South Africa. Miriam
Makeba raised awareness of apartheid
across the world not only in her role as
a singer, but also when she spoke four
times at UN meetings.”
“She often said that her songs were
not political, that she only sings the
truth. Her songs became the global
voice of not only oppressed South Africans
but the entire African continent.
That’s why they started calling her
Mama Africa.”
“Miriam Makeba’s rise from the
slums of Johannesburg to becoming
Mika Kaurismäki
“ Documentary films
have definitely given
me the confidence to
create fiction without
accurate screenplays
and in the middle of
live situations.”
the figurehead of all of Africa was remarkable.
On the other hand, she had
to pay a heavy price for it – being separated
from her family and friends for
more than 30 years.”
Makeba’s most famous song, Pata
Pata, is one she wrote herself. “She
herself didn’t consider the song important
because she thought it was just a
light song without a deeper meaning.”
“She also sang Amampondo and
The Click Song along with Pata Pata
at almost every one of her concerts.
The wonderful Malaika has been
covered by younger artists, including
An gelique Kidjo and Thandiswa.
Makeba sang and recorded in several
languages. La Guinee Guine was born
in Guinea. The list of great and important
songs is long... Luta Contitua,
West Wind, Soweto Blues.”
“Documentaries have given me
extra energy for everything I do”
Mika Kaurismäki’s best-known drama
Mama Africa
films are The Worthless (1982), Rosso
(1985), Amazon (1990) and Zombie and
the Ghost Train (1991). In recent years,
after a long break, he has directed fiction
films in Finland and in Finnish
(Three Wise Men, 2008, The House of the
Branching Love, 2009).
What is surprising, however, is that
in the first decade of the millennium
Kaurismäki has directed as many documentaries
as fiction films.
At the time, Tigrero was “a special
case that had to be made”. Kaurismäki
did not ponder whether it was
fiction or a documentary. It was only
with Moro no Brasil that he began to
acknowledge that he is also making
documentary films.
“In the past, I never planned or even
imagined making a documentary, but
now I’m rather happy that I’ve made a
few”, he says.
“They’ve given me a lot, maybe even
more than fiction. They’ve also given
me extra energy for everything I do. I
6 Finnish Documentary Films 2011
still consider myself primarily a creator
of fiction and I currently have a few
fiction films in the pipeline.”
Mika Kaurismäki reminds us that
he had quite a documentary approach
in his fiction films Rosso and Zombie
and the Ghost Train, working “without
accurate screenplays and in the middle
of live situations.”
“To me, a documentary approach
is that I write with the camera while
filming. The shot material moves the
film forward and creates the story,
narrative and style. I’m sure this is
evident in the recent Three Wise Men,
which definitely didn’t have a screenplay,
only a structure or a vision of
what it could be.”
“The same applies to Brothers, a fiction
film I shot in summer 2010 that
continues in the wake of Three Wise
Men. Documentary films have definitely
given me the confidence to create
fiction with this kind of method. I
don’t think I would have otherwise had
the guts to get into stuff like that.”
“On the other hand, I’m currently
preparing two larger fiction films,
Malandro and Queen Kristina. They’re
international productions that will be
made in quite a traditional way, using
large camera crews and accurate
screenplays. And I’ve got several fiction
stories waiting or gathering dust
in my drawer.”
“Making a documentary, at least
for me, is about writing the film
while shooting it. On the other hand,
documentaries are quite rewarding
for a director. You have to study your
subject in depth during the process.
You learn real things about life. With
fiction, the opposite may happen if
you’re not careful, if you don’t live
your life outside the film.”
Kaurismäki, who is enjoying a very
productive period, also directed the
documentary film Vesku from Finland
alongside Mama Africa in 2010. Vesku
from Finland is about Finnish actor
and singer Vesa-Matti Loiri. The
multi-talented Loiri is locally a huge
figure who has successfully interpreted
both crazy rascal comedy and
dark drama, touching audiences in
both styles.
“I’m not preparing, or even planning,
any other music documentaries
at the moment. To be honest, I could
make a living just making music documentaries.
I get so many offers from
around the world.”
“But right now I’ve decided to take a
break from music documentaries. Like
I said, I intend to concentrate on fiction,
at least for the next few films.”
Despite his claims, Kaurismäki has,
as a producer, started work on a documentary
about Jari Litmanen, “Finland’s
living football legend”, which
will be directed by Arto Koskinen.
As a player, Litmanen is associated
with Ajax Amsterdam’s reign in international
tournaments during the 1990s.
Mika Kaurismäki entered the world
of cinema in the early 1980s in cooperation
with his brother. Mika directed
the road movie The Worthless based on
Aki’s screenplay. However, the first
feature-length theatre film by the two
brothers was a rock documentary! Mika
and Aki jointly directed The Saimaa Gesture
(1981), which recorded a wild tour
by Finnish musicians on a lake boat. It
Vesku from Finland
Mika Kaurismäki and Vesa-Matti Loiri
was also the first full-scale rock movie
made in Finland.
Will the Kaurismäki brothers ever
make a film together again?
“I don’t think so. We both make
our own things in our own way,” says
Mika Kaurismäki.
Jussi Karjalainen
Mama Africa, page 19
Vesku from Finland, page 23
Moments in life when you realise something essential
Mia Halme is endlessly interested in childhood
Forever Yours(Ikuisesti sinun)
is a film about children and
adults. The children live in
foster families or in a children’s home,
away from their biological parents.
The film’s adults are biological parents,
foster parents, and staff members
at a reception centre. We see affection,
separations, longing. Moves from foster
homes to parents’ homes and back.
The film poses the question, what
sort of an environment enables a per-
son to grow up into someone who has
the courage to trust others and to love
them? Where is that person at home?
Forever Yours is clear and moving, and
avoids pathos and pity. How did the
director find this subject and where
did it take her?
”I became interested in the subject
because it can concern anyone of us,
but it is still treated mostly as a problem
of the socially excluded. Sometimes
the stories of foster children
have rather inconspicuous starts. For
example, they may have single mothers,
who end up as overachievers in
order to make ends meet. This may
result in depression, which in turn may
lead to losing their children. The subject
of foster children, their parents,
and foster families has been topical for
some time, but it was still difficult to
get a handle on it. There is a lot of talk
about the subject, but it is easy to give
in to hopelessness and then to indif-
ference. That sometimes happened to
me as I was planning the film. First I
felt compassion towards the people I
met, they made me cry. Then I became
numb, and perhaps a sense of self-preservation
also began to control the most
overwhelming emotions,” Mia Halme
reminisces. ”It was wonderful to get an
editor on board, and start to feel something
again.”
The film follows two foster families,
a mother that has lost her child,
Mia Halme
Forever Yours
and three foster children. The reception
centre is also featured in the film.
The director says that at some point
she wanted the biological parents to
have a bigger role in the film, but in
the end, the camera tended to focus on
the children. “Adults try to draw attention
to themselves, children just are.”
The film maker’s responsibility
doesn’t end when the film is finished.
Finnish Documentary Films 2011 7
”When you’ve been a part of the
children’s lives, it would be wrong to
just disappear. Children have such a
short sense of time that if we don’t see
each other for a couple of months, we
have to get used to each other all over
again,” Mia Halme explains.
Even though the film is based on
foster children, biological parents,
foster parents, and caregivers, these
are not the only roles the people in
the film have. They are children and
adults in Finland at the end of the first
decade of the third millennium.
How to convey essential
moments to audience?
”Before becoming a film maker, I had
made radio documentaries, and I had
been interested in photos and photography
for the longest time. I felt the
need to make small works – not so
much stories – but excerpts. While in
film school, I felt that making short
fiction was contrived. I’d love to do
things that combine documentary and
fiction, but when I start filming real
people everything about them provides
better narrative than whatever means
of expression I had been planning,” director
Halme says.
”I’m not interested in what is perceived
as the story, even pieces of news
are stories. I’m more interested in
the moments in life when you realise
something, or rather experience a feeling.
Often it is only a glimpse of a moment,
but one that nevertheless makes
a lasting impression,” she says. ”It is
interesting how a moment like that
can be conveyed to the audience. With
challenges like that, documentary
films are closer to literature than to reporting
information. A reporter has to
always know the latest developments”.
Mia Halme finds it difficult to put
herself or her works into any documentary
film categories. ”I’d like to make
more experimental films, whatever
that means. I am not a “direct cinema”
director. It would be boring to be a
director who always makes, for example,
essayistic films. The form should
be dictated by the subject of interest,”
the director feels. Recently, Halme
saw Into Eternity (2010) by the Danish
director Michael Madsen. The film
begins with the lighting of a match.
The theme of a tiny flash of light and
vast darkness continues throughout
the film. In Halme’s opinion, the film
is the perfect marriage of form and
subject. It depicts the several year long
construction project of a final disposal
site, where nuclear waste can be stored
for 100,000 years. The site is in Eurajoki
in Western Finland.
But how does the director create or
find the right form? According to Mia
Halme, the shooting must be planned
Forever Yours
carefully and the editing process
should be given plenty of time.
”The synopsis can be poured out
from your heart or soul. The subject
may lose some of its fluidity when you
write the script, but the editing process
is what counts when you’re looking for
the form. And if it’s possible to use the
same cinematographer all through the
shooting, it makes all the difference.
It would be great if we had more cinematographers
that are geared towards
documentary films.”
Let’s get back to Forever Yours. The
director is still interested in childhood.
”I guess I haven’t grown up,
even though I have three children of
my own. They provide a link to my
own childhood. I’ve become more like
the child I was. What fascinates me
in childhood is its dreamlike quality.
It is a time of wisdom, when you are
in touch with everything essential,”
Mia Halme encapsulates. Probably one
of the most significant moments in a
child’s life is when they become aware
of their detachment from everything
else and of death. This theme is depicted
wonderfully in Mia Halme’s Big
Boy (Iso poika) from 2007. It is a film
about a 7-year-old big brother, who
can already read but wants to know if a
school boy can still sit on his mother’s
lap. Mia Halme remembers herself as
a 9-year-old, sitting in her room on a
bright summer’s night, drawing the
landscape from her window. ”I felt
both detached from and togetherness
with the world. That was amazing.”
Marja Pallassalo
Forever Yours, page 15
Comedy documentaries about conquering women
Tonislav Hristov has made his first feature-length documentary film
Tonislav Hristov
Rules of Single Life was directed by
Tonislav Hristov. He has noticed that
people are much more comfortable
with being filmed when the director
is also in front of the camera.
Rules
R
of Single Life is Tonislav
Hristov’s (born 1978) first
feature-length documentary
film, which he characterises as a comedy
documentary.
8 Finnish Documentary Films 2011
Hristov and his three friends in the
film are suffering from a chronic lack
of female company. The men are in
their thirties, working in Finland in
fields such as information technology.
Three of them are Bulgarian and one
is Macedonian. Two of the men (Tonislav,
Zoran) go through a divorce in
the beginning, one (Kiril) has failed
to persuade his girlfriend to marry
him even after a ten-year relationship,
and one (Hari) is used to getting
dumped within two weeks.
Describing his ideals in documentary
film making, Hristov says:
“Comedy documentaries are really
hard to make. Scandinavians are good
at storytelling, but Eastern Europeans
are better at humour.”
The director strives to combine the
styles of his native country, Bulgaria,
with his current home country, Finland.
About his third country of residence,
Germany, he says: “It’s kind
of half-way, but over there they make
completely different documentaries.”
The guys in Rules of Single Life do
not completely fail in their search for
women, as Kiril ends up becoming a
father and Tonislav meets Andrea,
who lives in Germany. As a result,
the director has spent periods of time
in Germany, screenwriting his next,
similarly inspired documentary. However,
he intends to continue his career
in Finland, saying that “Helsinki is
my home where I’ve lived my entire
adult life.”
Not a story about foreigners,
but about men and women
In the film, we also meet Hristov’s
actress ex-wife Nelly, who asked him
to marry her back in the day – this
is how things are done sometimes
in Scandinavia. It was also through
Nelly that Tonislav Hristov got the
impulse to go into the movie business,
as during a night out one of Nelly’s
acquaintances, documentary director
Pirjo Honka salo, asked Hristov,
an engineer, to help her with some
problems she had with her cameras.
Hristov offered to become a technical
assistant for The 3 Rooms of Melancholia
(2004), if he could in return borrow a
camera for a few days.
This was followed by studies
in cinema and a large number of
small-scale TV documentaries for
the Basaari and Mundo programmes,
which dealt with the issues of immigrants.
These documentaries gave
Hristov a chance to develop his style.
“The TV clips where I was also in
front of the camera came out better. It
is important for me that I’m not just
behind the camera. People become
more open and are more willing to tell
their deepest secrets. It’s like sharing
with them.”
Rules of Single Life
His longest work before Rules of
Single Life was the almost hour-long
Family Fortune (2008), which Hristov
filmed in Bulgaria. He was a participant
in that film, too. After Bulgaria
joined the EU, several upheavals took
place in
the country’s
economy,
and
Hristov’s
father had
to start
looking for
“ Scandinavians are
good at storytelling,
but Eastern Europeans
are better at humour.”
a new job after 36 years of serving the
same employer.
Rules of Single Life contains many
pertinent observations about Finland
and various summer festivals. For example,
when the Bulgarian men participate
in a game of badminton for
singles, they come face to face with a
situation where the man on one side
of the net works for Nokia and the
woman on the other side works for
Ericsson. The Bulgarians are amused:
“It’s so Finland.”
Hristov, however, never saw his
cuttingly funny film as a story about
foreigners, but rather a story about
men and women. “I’ve never felt like a
refugee or an outsider in Finland.”
The romantic comedy documentarist
notes that some viewers will
most likely consider a comment
about heavily drinking, non-flirtatious
Finnish women to be sexist.
The comment is heard from Zoran’s
mouth during the episode where the
four men are on a beach vacation in
Bulgaria.
“It is only fair to a man who has
had his heart broken to give room for
this kind of talk, too. Men do rational
things to make themselves feel better.
This section was cut out, but I felt that
something was missing. The film was
too nice, there was no masculinity in
it. Now it’s more real. This is a guys’
film, after all.”
Hristov’s next work
makes fun of engineers’
love formulas
The unlucky protagonists of Rules of
Single Life make good-natured attempts
at picking up beautiful and energetic
Finnish women, but does the director
plan on portraying Finnish men, too,
in his films?
The answer is ‘yes’, as Tonislav
Hristov is currently preparing a documentary
called Love and Engineering. It
takes place in Finland’s second largest
city, Tampere, amongst a group of engineers.
Young engineers throughout
the world are notorious for their bad
luck with women.
“My engineer friend has a theory, a
Rules of Single Life
mathematical formula about falling in
love. It worked for him”, Hristov says
as a preview of the film.
“The theory is based on what you
should say and do. For example, before
you speak to a woman, you have to
spend ten evenings at the same bar. If
your favourite cake is chocolate cake,
talk about brown, and so on. To me,
my friend’s theory is more of a joke. I
always look at even the most serious
things through comedy. An engineer
may say that there is something wrong
with the formula. It’s never him that’s
the problem. Love and Engineering is a
film about miscommunication, loneliness
and crazy inventions.”
“Once again, I will be part of the
events, as well as my grandfather’s
story. He was also an engineer. His
first wife escaped out of the window
on their wedding night.”
Jussi Karjalainen
Rules of Single Life, page 21
Finnish Documentary Films 2011 9
Albino United
Aranda
Albino United
Aranda
Albino United follows a highly unusual
soccer team in Tanzania made up of a
group of albinos and black players in
their first ever season in the national
league.
Over the last few years, more
than 50 albinos, some as young as six
months old, have been murdered in that
part of the world, where witch doctors
peddle the myth that body parts
of albinos can bring people wealth and
good luck. With the price of a full albino
body fetching upwards of $70 000
many albinos have been attacked with
machetes and had their limbs cut off
while alive.
In the wake of these gruesome killings,
many albinos have fled to the capital
city, scared for their lives and seeking
protection. It was from within this
group of displaced and persecuted albinos,
that Albino United was formed: a
soccer team with the only objective of
challenging the beliefs that had led to
the horrific deaths of so many of their
kind.
The film follows the amazing story
of this team as they travel to different
epicentres of albino murders, playing in
front of crowds of stunned onlookers.
Despite all expectations, the team finish
in the top of the league and become
a national phenomenon, proving to the
masses that albinos are not only good
footballers but that they are humans in
their own right.
Juan Reina Marc Hoeferlin Barney
Broomfield
Juan Reina
Iseta – Behind the Roadblock,
Sculpting Life, Light in Shadow
Marc Hoeferlin
Night Commuters – Children of Northern
Uganda, Shooting Ghosts, Still Human, Still
Here, On That Day: Haditha
Barney Broomfield
Welcome to the Real World,
On That Day: Haditha
Directors Juan Reina, Marc Hoeferlin,
Barney Broomfield:
The most memorable moment that springs
to mind is the surreal experience of travelling
over 900 miles in a rented bus packed to the
brim with albinos and camera equipment...
The team was due to play a series of games
right smack in the heart of the most dangerous
areas for albinos (an incredibly brave act
to do), and the only option was to drive.
One of the albinos pointed out to us, almost
as a joke, that in light of the fact that
a whole albino body can fetch upwards of
70 000 USD, the human cargo alone in the
bus would be worth millions of dollars in
the black market. The heavily armed police
escort that had been following us since we
passed the equator made a great deal more
sense then.
Aranda is a film about the curious human
being’s thirst for knowledge.
The protagonist is a ship, the marine
research vessel Aranda, which
sails back and forth on a shoreless
ocean, never reaching port.
The three elements in the film are
the ship, the sea and man, the largest
of these being the sea. The sea follows
a different time frame than humans.
It takes about 1 200 years for a sea
current to travel from the North
Atlantic to Antarctica and back – a
human lifetime is not long enough to
register the direction taken by great
changes occurring in the sea.
2011 | HD, DigiBeta | 16:9 | Stereo | 58’
Director: Anu Kuivalainen Script: Anu
Kuivalainen Cinematography: Jarkko T.
Laine Editing: Lasse Summanen Sound
Aranda
design: Janne Laine Music: Sanna Salmenkallio
Producer: Markku Tuurna Production
company: Filmimaa Ltd. Co-production:
Silverosa Film (Sweden) Production support:
The Finnish Film Foundation, AVEK,
Nordisk Film & Tv Fond, SFI, MEDIA Financing
TV company: YLE, ARTE, SVT International
sales: Filmimaa Ltd.
Anu Kuivalainen
Anu Kuivalainen is known for films that
make their viewers think and feel. She
has directed films like Christmas in the
Distance (Orpojen joulu), Black Cat on
the Snow (Musta kissa lumihangella) and
Grandad’s Waking Dream (Taatan paha
uni). Her films have won several international
awards and they have been shown
at international festivals, including IDFA
Amsterdam, Nordisk Panorama, Mannheim-Heidelberg
and the Edinburg Filmfestival.
Anu Kuivalainen
England | 2010 | HDCAM, DigiBeta |
Around 12 hours into our journey the
1.78 (16x9 video) | Dolby SR | 65’
smooth Tarmac turned into a cratered
marshland of unnavigable potholes and
Directors: Juan Reina, Marc Hoeferlin, Bar-
nightmarish dust. Closing the windows,
ney Broomfield Script: Juan Reina, Marc
we trapped ourselves into the un-air con-
Hoeferlin, Barney Broomfield Cinemato-
ditioned bus with temperatures outside
graphy: Barney Broomfield, Juan Reina
exceeding 100 degrees Fahrenheit. The bus
Editing: Ash Jenkins Sound design: Scott
was not only filled with malarial ridden
Wilkinson, Fitzrovia Post Music: Salif Keita
mosquitos and the stench of 30 heavily
Producers: Nick Broomfield (Executive Pro-
sweaty men, but to top it all off, we all put
ducer), Marc Hoeferlin, Juan Reina Produc-
up with the nauseating smell of our dinner
tion company: Lafayette Films Production
for the day, dried fish. By that time however,
support: NFTF, SFI Financing TV compa-
we had all become one big family, so more
nies: National Geographic, Channel 4 Inter-
than anything else, we were laughing our
national sales: National Geographic
heads off at the situation.
Aranda
10 Finnish Documentary Films 2011
Arctic Desert
Battle for the City
Arctic Desert
Autiomaa
In a place where the last ice age still prevails, a group of geologists is
going to spend a few weeks in the High Arctic of Spitzbergen. In the
sediment layers they are looking for new evidence on the mechanisms
of climate changes during the last 100 000 years, which include several
enormous ice ages on the European continent.
This expedition is their greatest dream. No one can predict what
will happen hundreds of miles away from the nearest habitation. Here
we can understand the basic theme of the film, the eternal passion of a
scientist to look for new pieces of knowledge even risking their health
and sometimes their life. They have to worry about the roaming polar
bears. That is why they have to carry rifles all the time and they have
to know how to shoot – to kill.
In these circumstances a cool scientist has to face his own concept
of life. In the High Arctic you can have a real look into the motifs that
have carried you this far. Are they really true descendants of the old
explorers, who once penetrated into this barren, arctic desert?
2010 | HDCAM, DigiBeta | 16:9 | Stereo | 80’
Director: Petteri Saario Script: Timo Humaloja, Petteri Saario Cinematography:
Petteri Saario, Anton Leppälä Editing: Petteri Saario Music: Stefan
Paavola, Antti Hytti Producer: Timo Humaloja Production company: Kinovid
Productions Production support: The Finnish Film Foundation, AVEK Financing
TV company: YLE TV2 Documentaries International sales: Kinovid Productions
Petteri Saario
Petteri Saario (born 1961) is a documentary filmmaker, who has specialized
in depicting the endangered relationship between man and nature. Besides
directing and producing he is also familiar with underwater and wildlife filming.
Many of his films have been awarded both in Finland and abroad. He
works as a manager and a producer in his own company DocArt.
Main films: The Border 2009, Lapland – The Land of Saami and Salmon
2009, Sergei the Healer 2008, The Finest Rivers of Finland 6 part series 2006,
Sven Quijote 2006, The Sisu Stone 2004, When the Cod Ran Out 2004, Pearls
of Baltic Sea 6 part series 2004, Village of Sleeping Beauty 2001, Wild, Wild
Canary 2000.
Petteri Saario
Battle for the City
Taistelu Turusta
Battle for the City discusses the changing Finnish urban environment, how the old milieu was
keenly destroyed to make way for modernism and modern construction. Another important
question is the environmental policy of today’s Finland. To whom does the constructed environment
around us belong, and who makes the decisions?
2011 | DigiBeta | 16:9 | Stereo | 58’
Director: Jouko Aaltonen Script: Jouko Aaltonen, Rauno Lahtinen, Olli Vesala Cinematography: Pekka
Aine Editing: Tuula Mehtonen Sound design: Martti Turunen Music: Markku Kopisto Producer: Jouko
Aaltonen Production company: Illume Oy Production support: The Finnish Film Foundation, AVEK,
Turku 2011 Fund Financing TV company: YLE TV2 Documentaries International sales: Illume Oy
Jouko Aaltonen
Jouko Aaltonen has directed numerous documentaries with subjects ranging from the Siberian Taiga
to the diplomatic circles of Delhi. His feature-length documentary musical Revolution (2006) attracted
record-breaking cinema audiences and won the Finnish Jussi award for the best documentary. Aaltonen
is also a popular lecturer and author of study books on cinema and in 2006 he gained a Doctor
of Arts degree. His latest films include: A Man from the Congo River (2010), Punksters & Youngsters
(2008), Life Saver (2005), Ambassadors (2004), Kusum (2000).
Director Jouko Aaltonen:
I have always been interested in old photographs and postcards that depict cities that I know well.
There is something familiar but also something weird and even ghostly. The captured moment – the
people walking on the street and the vehicles in the photograph have inevitably disappeared. Often
the buildings seen in the pictures seem such a natural part of the milieu that it is hard to imagine the
places without them. When comparing these pictures to the present, one notices how temporary even
the finest buildings may be.
Why has so much old and precious been demolished here in Finland? These questions spring to my
mind as I stand and look at the old photographs at the main market square in Turku, my childhood
hometown.
The oldest photograph of Finland was taken in Turku and it potrays the historically and architecturally
unique House of Nobel in Uudenmaankatu. It too was demolished in the heat of the sixties – the
building is gone, only the photograph remains. There are many stories related to the extinct buildings
in Turku, and I wish to tell these stories to the film’s viewer. I would also like to bring the old City of
Turku back to life through cinematic means.
The more I study these stories, the more I am bewildered by the dominating mindset of the time.
New buildings were constructed rapidly in post-War Finland, people craved for something new and
modern. It was a project of a whole generation – the businessmen, the decision-makers, the ordinary
citizens and the architects were all part of it. Apartments and jobs were needed, and people believed
in the continuous economy and growth of the city – everything old was to be disposed. The Turku
Cathedral, the Turku Castle and the Handicrafts Museum were sufficient enough representations of
the old city. It was thought that the city was a machine made for living, constantly in change.
The lifetime of a building would be a few decades – at most. The increasing
number of cars was a positive phenomenon and the ideas for city planning
were copied from Las Vegas and Salt Lake City. One of the goals of my
film is to reason and comprehend – but not to accept.
The film is a story of Turku, but just as well it could take place in any
other city in Finland; Helsinki, Tampere, Oulu or Hämeenlinna for example.
The sorry tale unfolds similarly in many other cities and therefore the theme
is common. This is not just a film for and about the citizens of Turku. Maybe
we can learn something through these stories.
Jouko Aaltonen
Finnish Documentary Films 2011 11
Barzakh
Canned Dreams
Canned Dreams is a film about workers and their dreams on the journey of a canned
food product.
In our film, we build a portrait of ordinary workers through their own, personal
stories from multiple cultures. We hear them telling about the most important
moments in their life, and the dreams that would make their own world a better
place. All this happens in a frame of following the route of a tin can which starts
it’s journey from the other side of the world and travels all across Europe. In this
film the beauty of humanity is seen through working hands.
2011 | 35mm, HDCAM, DigiBeta | 1:1,85 | Dolby 5.1 | 52’ and 80’
Barzakh
In a Chechen city recovering after the war, a man disappears. As daily life goes
on, those in search are drawn into a world where encounters with diviners and legal
advisors, with the torturers and the tortured, with secret prisons and mythical
lakes all become commonplace. When the disappeared do return in dreams, they
are said to come from Barzakh – a land between the living and the dead.
Finland/Lithuania | 2011 | DigiBeta, 35mm | 16:9 | Dolby | 59’
Director: Mantas Kvedaravicius Script: Mantas Kvedaravicius Cinematography: Mantas
Kvedaravicius Additional photography: Ahmed Gisaev, Zarema Mukusheva Editing:
Mantas Kvedaravicius Editing supervisor: Timo Linnasalo Editing assistant: Mindaugas
Galkus Editing consultant: Giedrius Zubavicius Sound design: Tero Malmberg Producer:
Aki Kaurismäki, Mantas Kvedaravicius Production company: Sputnik Oy Co-production:
Extimacy Films Production support: The Finnish Film Foundation Financing TV company:
YLE TV2 Documentaries International sales: The Match Factory GmbH
Mantas Kvedaravicius
Mantas Kvedaravicius was born in Birzai, Lithuania in 1976. He holds
a Master’s Degree in cultural anthropology from the University of
Oxford and is currently completing his PhD dissertation and a book
manuscript on the affects of pain at the University of Cambridge.
Kvedaravicius has taught university courses on religion, law, and
political theory in New York, and since 2006 he has been conducting
research on torture and disappearances in the North Caucasus.
Barzakh is his first film. Kvedaravicius is also an underwater
archaeologist. He lives in Lithuania raising his two children.
Mantas Kvedaravicius
Director: Katja Gauriloff Script: Katja Gauriloff, Joonas Berghäll and Jarkko T. Laine Cinematography:
Heikki Färm, Tuomo Hutri Editing: Jukka Nykänen Sound design: Peter Albrechtsen
Music: Karsten Fundal Producer: Joonas Berghäll Production company: Oktober Oy
Production support: The Finnish Film Foundation, AVEK, MEDIA programme, Nordisk Film
& TV Fund Financing TV company: YLE TV2 Documentaries, ARTE, RTP, NRK, TG4, Noga
Communications International sales: Deckert Distribution GmbH | Heino Deckert
Katja Gauriloff
Katja Gauriloff was born in 1972 in Inari. She has studied filmmaking at the Tampere University
of Applied Sciences, School of Art and Media (2000–2004). She has been involved
in filmmaking since 1998. Today she is a film director and part-owner of the Oktober Oy
production company.
Selected filmography:
A Shout into the Wind documentary, 2007
Director Katja Gauriloff:
It was the first time in my life that I worked at a factory. My job was to package sausages
on a conveyor belt. The work was physically demanding and monotonous. Once an hour
we had a seven-minute break. There was just enough time to run to the break room for a
cup of coffee. Those were the best moments at the job, sitting in the break room where
the factory ladies, some of whom had worked there at the same job for 30 years, were
having a quick coffee and a cigarette. I came from Lapland, so I didn’t always understand
what they were saying in their old Helsinki slang, but the stories were pretty racy. I kept
quiet, listened and soaked in their life experiences, dreams and wishes.
Now, almost 20 years later, I find myself in the Brazilian Amazonas at one of the largest
open mine areas in the world. I sit there on
the rocks and people around me work really
hard for their lives. I listen to the stories and
dreamsof a woman around my age, who has
worked all her life in the slavery system of
the mines. Even though our worlds are very
different, I am amazed how similar and
universal our dreams are all around the world.
Katja Gauriloff
Canned Dreams
12 Finnish Documentary Films 2011
Sodankylä Forever/The Century of the Cinema
Sodankylä Forever
Elokuvan vuosisata | Sodankylä ikuisesti
Christmas Men
The Midnight Sun Film Festival – a strange and celebrated film festival in an unlikely
place, far north in Lapland. The cinema dialogue of all time: the twentieth
century as told by great filmmakers. The birth stories of films reveal histories
lived, stories from childhood and the early years “before I became a filmmaker”.
The special strength of the film is the dialogue of the most notable persons of the
East and the West that grows out of the material, an encounter that conveys the
starkly different working conditions, and yet the determination over the necessity
of the shared human themes and challenges. Great movies are born out of innumerable
origins. The complete Sodankylä Forever series consists as well of three
one-hour features with themes of light, time, and the experience of the first films
of our lives.
Featuring, among others: Samuel Fuller, Michael Powell, Jacques Demy,
Claude Sautet, Robert Parrish, Milos Forman, Abbas Kiarostami, Joseph H.
Lewis, Jonathan Demme, Youssef Chahine, Francesco Rosi, Dino Risi, Jafar
Panahi, Francis Ford Coppola, Sergio Sollima, Ivan Passer, Miklós Jancsó, Amos
Gitai, Marlev Hutsiev, Jerzy Kawalerowicz, John Boorman, Ettore Scola, Vittorio
de Seta, Elia Suleiman.
2010 | Digibeta (pal) | DVD (pal) | 4:3 | Stereo | 90’
Director: Peter von Bagh Script: Peter von Bagh Cinematography: Arto Kaivanto Editing:
Petteri Evilampi Sound design: Martti Turunen Producer: Ilkka Mertsola & Mark Lwoff
Production company: Nosferatu Oy Production support: AVEK Financing TV company:
YLE TV1 International sales: Nosferatu Oy
Christmas Men
Joulumiehet
According to a Finnish saying, there are three phases in the life of a Finnish man:
He believes in Santa Claus. He doesn’t believe in Santa Claus. He is Santa Claus.
Christmas Men is a documentary film about four ordinary Finnish men who
work as Santas. Each has his reasons to become a Santa. In the film being Santa
is the one thing that ties these men’s life stories together. The film shows a cold,
dark country where moments of fragile happiness are scarce, and thus precious.
Absurd humour and melancholy are present. Gradually, the themes of the film are
revealed: remorse, atonement, love.
Peter von Bagh
The Count (feature film, 1973)
Year 1952 (feature length documentary, 1980)
The Last Summer 1944 (feature length documentary, 1992)
The Year 1939 (feature length documentary, 1993)
The Blue Song: The Cultural History of Finland since 1917
(12 parts, 2003–2004)
Helsinki Forever (feature length documentary, 2008)
A Director’s Journey to Humanness –
The Story of Mikko Niskanen (3 parts – three hours)
Sodankylä Forever / The Century of the Cinema
(feature length documentary, 2010)
Sodankylä Forever (3 parts – three hours 2010)
Peter von Bagh
2010 | DigiBeta, Blue-Ray | 16:9 | CH 1 & CH2 Stereo | 51’
Director: Miia Raivio Script: Miia Raivio Cinematography: Arttu Peltomaa (Jarkko
Virtanen, Timo ”Juice” Huhtala, Kimmo Jaatinen) Editing: Mikko Sippola Sound design:
Elina Hyvärinen Music: Antti Sipilä Producer: Markku Niska Production company: NBB
Navy Blue Bird Oy Production support: The Finnish Film Foundation Financing TV
company: YLE Co-productions, ARTE International sales: NBB Navy Blue Bird Oy
Miia Raivio
Miia Raivio is a Helsinki-based Finnish documentary film director, editor and writer.
Her previous works as a director include: Keijupuisto – Home of the Homeless (2006),
Making of Mental Finland (2009), Nameless | Finland Post Mortem (2009), History of
Afro- Finland (2010). Christmas Men (2010) is part of her MA thesis from Aalto University,
School of Art and Design.
Director Miia Raivio:
The most depressive thing to do, according to an English author, is to try tell a joke to a
Finn. Finnish people do tend to take things seriously, and nothing in Finland is taken more
seriously than Christmas. When I started to do research for the documentary film Christmas
Men I got no help from the official Christmas County of the country: Lapland.
An official told me, no-joke: ”What you are trying to tell in your film is that there exists
more than one Santa. We all of course know that there is only one real Santa Claus and he
lives in Rovaniemi.” In Finland, and especially in Lapland, Santa is the central figure of tourism
industry.
But he is more than that. In my film, I follow four ordinary Finnish men who work as
Santas during Christmas Eve. In our country Christmas is the most important festivity of
the year, and Santa Claus has a crucial role: he brings the presents to the children. Santa
is often the father (or brother or uncle) of the family, but there are many ordinary Finnish
men who work as Santas and can be booked to pay a visit at Christmas Eve. There’s something
in the whole Santa tradition that interests me: once a year grown up men dress up
as fairy tale figures in this cold, northern no-nonsense country. And the men in my film,
well, they don’t do it just for fun but for more,
shall we say serious reasons: for money,
for not to get drunk, for love, for forgiveness.
And that creates moments that are both
tragic and comic – the essence of Finnish
Christmas, if you ask me.
Century of the Cinema
Miia Raivio
Finnish Documentary Films 2011 13
A City in Two Parts
A City in Two Parts
A City in Two Parts
Jaettu kaupunki
Three years ago Sedu Koskinen, a succesful
nightclub owner from Helsinki
went back to his home town Valkeakoski
(20 000 inhabitants). His childhood
dream was to recreate the legendary
football club FC Haka again and
raise the team back into glory.
Valkeakoski is one of those cities in
which the Finnish welfare state was
born based on the forest industry and
the paper mills. Now the paper mills
have gone to South America and the
people are looking for new ways to earn
their living. Soccer could be one option,
but what are the other ones?
Pekka Lehto’s film A City in Two Parts
is crowded by people who have memories,
small businesses, dreams and plans
for the future in this interesting city.
2010 | DigiBeta | 1,66 | Stereo | 52’
Director: Pekka Lehto Script: Pekka Lehto,
Mika Purola Cinematography: Teppo Högman,
Mika Purola, HP Vitikainen Editing:
Jussi Rautaniemi Sound design: Janne
Jankkeri, Laura Kuivalainen Music: Lasse
Enersen Producer: Pauli Pentti Production
company: First Floor Productions Oy Production
support: The Finnish Film Foundation,
AVEK Financing TV company: YLE TV2
Documentaries International sales: First
Floor Productions Oy
Pekka Lehto
Pekka Lehto (born 1948) has directed for
example the documentary films Brothers of
the Forest, The Real McCoy, Boy Hero 001,
The Temple, Alone, Nine Ways to Approach
Helsinki, Swastika and Their Age. His films
have won many prizes, been broadcasted internationally
and some have been released
theatrically. He has also directed the feature
films Game Over,
Tango Cabaret and
The Well, and
together with Pirjo
Honkasalo the films
Da Capo, 250 Grams,
Flame Top and
The First
Co-operative ’39.
Pekka Lehto
A Director’s Journey to Humanness –
The Story of Mikko Niskanen
Ohjaaja matkalla ihmiseksi – Mikko Niskasen tarina
Peter von Bagh’s A Director’s Journey To Humanness is a unique, quintessentially
Finnish documentary triptych. With its three one-hour episodes, it paints a
detailed picture of Mikko Niskanen (1929–1990), the director of The Boys,
Eight Deadly Shots and Gotta Run!
Mikko Niskanen was the intuitive seer of Finnish cinema, one of the most subtle
portrayers of the Finnish countryside – perhaps even the last one with such a profound
understanding of this particular area. He was also a masterly portrayer of the
youth and a very colourful character in modern culture: a man who stirred up an
array of emotions – often the most extreme ones. He was a man of genius, one of a
kind: often uneven in his work, always unpredictable and even callous as a person.
The documentary reveals the hidden until now: Niskanen’s works, created over
a period of three decades, form a cinematographic autobiography rarely seen in the
Finnish film scene. Almost insidiously, the films cover all the focal points of the
director’s personal journey on earth.
There are two main themes in the works of Mikko Niskanen: the countryside
and the youth. The theme of countryside crept into his films quite surreptitiously,
painted with small strokes – and, at first, almost in an ironic light. Another theme,
youth, was a central one right from the beginning (in The Boys). Later on, the
themes of countryside and youth meshed seamlessly with each other.
Episode 1 of the documentary sheds light on Mikko Niskanen’s childhood and
adolescence, introducing his films of the 1960s, in which the director fixed his gaze
first on war, then on youth and the sentiments of his contemporaries. Episode 3
of the documentary deals with the works and life of the director in the 1970s and
1980s. In between those two, Episode 2 focuses entirely on Eight Deadly Shots, the
magnum opus of Mikko Niskanen, in which the boundaries between the director’s
life and his art faded away. This masterpiece undisputedly epitomises all the feelings
of grief and compassion that can only be reached by the most profound art.
A Director’s Journey to Humanness – The Story of Mikko Niskanen
A Director’s Journey to Humanness –
The Story of Mikko Niskanen
Peter von Bagh’s cinematographic
portrayal grows into an emotional voyage
through the crucial years of Finnish
modern history: a country in transition,
and the tragedy of the dignified
countryside in the process of disapparition.
The film contains unique
material from Mikko Nis kanen’s home
archives, deleted scenes from his films,
as well as interviews with his friends,
family and colleagues.
2010 | DigiBeta | 4:3 | Stereo |
Part 1: 59’07”, Part 2: 57’20”, Part 3: 56’24”
Director: Peter von Bagh Script: Peter von
Bagh Cinematography: Arto Kaivanto
Editing: Petteri Evilampi Sound design:
Martti Turunen Producers: Ilkka Mertsola
& Mark Lwoff Production company: Nosferatu
Oy Production support: The Finnish
Film Foundation Financing TV company:
YLE TV2 Documentaries International
sales: Nosferatu Oy
Peter von Bagh
Selected filmography
The Count (feature film, 1973)
Year 1952 (feature length
documentary, 1980)
The Last Summer 1944 (feature
length documentary, 1992)
The Year 1939 (feature length
documentary, 1993)
The Blue Song: The Cultural History of
Finland since 1917 (12 parts, 2003–2004)
Helsinki Forever (feature length
documentary, 2008)
Sidankylä Forever /The Century of the
Cinema (feature length documentary,
2010)
Sodankylä Forever (3 parts –
three hours, 2010)
Peter von Bagh
14 Finnish Documentary Films 2011
Forever Yours
Forever Yours
Ikuisesti sinun
Forever Yours is a documentary film
about love and loss. Children in foster
care yearn for their parents and the
children’s parents grieve for the loss of
their children. Foster parents, pressed
to the limits of their own capabilities,
attempt to make up for the lack
of intimacy and the effects caused by
social stress. Day-to-day life moves
the children and adults from one place
to another; they become attached to
each other and then have to part once
again. These children are, in truth, on
loan only. They adapt themselves and
grow up, but will they ever be able to
trust, let alone love, in the future?
Director Mia Halme:
How important is biology and shared history
when we love our children? After following
children who have been taken into
care, I assume that there is not anyone
who could repair the damaged biological
bond between the child and the parent.
Anyway, I have noticed with relief that, if
the child is allowed to show his hate towards
the dominant life conditions and at
the same time becomes accepted by an
adult, it can temper the grief.
This is a story that could have happened
to any of us, as a child or a parent,
if we had faced troubled enough circumstances.
The Good Survivor
(working title)
16 years after the most comprehensive
genocide since the Second World War,
Rwanda is still today is a country with
scars so deep that it’s hard to comprehend.
The memory of the massacre in
1994, where one sixth of the country’s
population was killed in three months,
still casts a long shadow.
The Good Survivor is a poetic documentary
film about the time after. The
film depicts the life of five characters
during the genocide memorial month
held every April. Burdened and grateful
by being the ones who survived,
everyone of them have their own ways
to get from one day to another. Praying,
grieving, remembering, escaping
into drugs.
The Good Survivor is a song for all
the victims of any kind of violence. It
shows what is left of a human being
after going through the worst imaginable
and asks if it is possible to ever be
whole again.
Finland/Rwanda 2011 | DigiBeta | 16:9 |
Dolby Stereo | 52’
Director: Iris Olsson & Yves Niyongabo
Script: Iris Olsson Cinematography: Iris
Olsson Editing: Oskari Korenius Sound
design: Toni Teivaala & Kimmo Vänttinen
Producer: Iris Olsson, Claes Olsson Production
company: Oy Nordic Film Pool
Ltd Production support: The Finnish Film
Foundation, AVEK Financing TV company:
Yle TV2 Documentaries International
Sales: Oy Nordic Film Pool Ltd
Filmography:
Iris Olsson: Between Dreams 2010,
Summerchild 2007
Yves Niyongabo: Maibobo 2010
2011 | HD master, DigiBeta | 1.85:1 |
Dolby Digital | 70’–80’
Yves Niyongabo and Iris Olsson
Director: Mia Halme Script: Mia Halme
Cinematography: Peter Flinckenberg, Anssi
Leino Editing: Samu Heikkilä Sound design:
Kirka Sainio Music: Timo Hietala Producer:
Sonja Lindén Production company:
Avanton Productions Oy Production support:
The Finnish Film Foundation, AVEK,
The Church Media Foundation KMS, ME-
DIA Programme of the European Union,
The Finnish Cultural Foundation Financing
TV company: YLE Co-productions International
sales: Avanton Productions Oy
Mia Halme
Mia Halme is a director of creative documentaries.
The need for love and finding
a family, either physical or psychological,
have been the themes of her films:
Big Boy (2007), Family of One (2005),
Mother Brave (2002), Carnival Spirit
(2002), Relatively Speaking (2001) and
Erotic Vivica (1999).
Mia Halme
The Good Survivor (working title)
Finnish Documentary Films 2011 15
The Finnish Legion of Murmansk Helsinki Twilight 1984
The Finnish Legion of
Murmansk
Muurmannin legioona
After the Finnish Civil War in the
spring 1918, almost 1 200 Finnish
communists, ’Reds’, fled hunger and
the fear of revenge from the Whites to
the Viena area in Soviet Union’s North
Karelia. The English Major General F.
C. Poole initiated a Red Finnish Legion,
which he placed under command
of the Canadian Officer R. B. Burton,
stationed at the town of Kandalaksha
in Karelia.
The Red Finns joined the Finnish
Legion of Murmansk, which was made
up of people from diverse backgrounds.
Some of them were Reds who had fled
together with their wives and children,
some were lumberjacks, while others
were plain adventurers.
Whatever the background, they all
wore the same uniform and obeyed
the strict command of His Majesty’s
discipline. The Red Finns didn’t need
to fight against Bolsheviks’ troops, but
they had to defend the Murman railway
line against the Finnish Whites
and the possible invasion of German
troops from Finland. Legionaries ended
up in a situation where their loyalty
and ideology was put to test.
2011 | DigiBeta | 16:9 | Stereo | 58’
Director: Seppo Rustanius Script: Seppo
Rustanius, Olli Soinio Cinematography:
Pekka Aine Editing: Timo Linnasalo
Sound design: Martti Turunen Music:
Perttu Kivilaakso Producer: Jouko Aaltonen
Production company: Illume Oy
Production support: The Finnish Film
Foundation, AVEK Financing TV company:
YLE TV2 Documentaries International
sales: Illume Oy
Seppo Rustanius
During the last 30 years Seppo Rustanius
has written and directed several documentary
films about the Finnish Civil War, the
history of Russian Karelia, singers, theatre
and history of Finnish civilization. Some
of his latest documentaries are Victims
1918 (2008), Over the Ice (2005), Karelian
Terror (2002), Accusations Against the
Utopian (2001) and Red Orphans in White
Finland (1999).
Helsinki Twilight 1984
Timanttikoirien vuosi 1984
Helsinki Twilight 1984 takes us back in
time into the fascinating period between
the years 1979–1985, when Helsinki
and the rest of Finland moved
towards an increasingly diverse and
free social climate, pioneering beautiful
boys in makeup and fancy girls.
During this time new street-level
phenomena such as small magazines,
pirate radio and independent fashion
began to blend into Finnish society
– new clubs were set up, new art forms
were born – and finally people felt they
were works of art themselves.
Helsinki was like Berlin between
the wars for a period that lasted for no
longer than a blink. It was full of ideas,
encounters between different groups
of people and 24h partying with the
Cold War and what George Orwell
had described in 1984 hovering on
the background. Dark, deep shades,
ominous music, ’pale boys’, vampires
and other creatures of the night represented
a world of a new human being;
new romantics, new gothic – new vision.
Representing the birth of the European,
international, and ultimately
universal citizen. This movement also
paved the way for the internationally
known Finnish goth bands, such as
HIM and The 69 Eyes.
duction support: The Finnish Film Foudation,
The Finnish Performing Music Promotion
Centre ESEK, The Foundation for the
Promotion of Finnish Music LUSES, Heltech
Audiovisual Media Financing TV company:
YLE Teema International sales: Illume Oy
Pete Europa (Petri Hakkarainen)
Pete Europa graduated from the Helsinki
University of Art and Design with a degree
in Film Directing. He works as a director
and scriptwriter. During the last years he
has been writing some major series for
TV. First Halosen harharetket (Yle Teema
2004–2005), a larger social series about
the deep structure of Finnish society, and
then a major TV1 series The New Song of
Väinämöinen (TV1 2010), which is a new
version of the Finnish National epic Kalevala.
Director Pete Europa:
It is very interesting to be able to see children
grow, and the documentary film Helsinki
Twilight 1984 is a sort of a child. It is a
love child, a wanted child, and increasingly
it seems it is also a needed child. Very often
we need a trigger; an event, a person,
an accident to see more or to change the
course of our lives. Somehow I have a feeling
that ‘Helsinki Twilight 1984’ has some
potential to be that trigger. Maybe it will
give people a feeling of self esteem. Or it
may inspire people to see how we form
a chain of events, a continuation of a European
art form, simply by existing – or
through more conventional art forms.
After finishing the film I started reading
Simon Reynolds’ excellent book Rip it Up
and Start Again – Post-punk 1978 – 1984,
and I was amazed of the fact how deeply
the Helsinki scene was rooted in the same,
international wave of the post-punk era.
There is also a quotation on the cover from
Simon Armitage “…reminds us of the reality
and relevance of the MOST EXHILARATING
moment in Britain’s pop/rock history”.
It is a meaningful sentence, and if it is even
partly true you can consider that the ideas,
It was a barren ground, grey, sad, desolate
territory for souls that were seeking
something more liberating and inspiring.
That is why our significant years from
around 1979–1985 were fully loaded, bursting
with energy, inspiration, in an energetic
and active “collective” from which sprouted
numerous new beginnings.
The value of photography as an art form
rose and it became an accepted art form.
Jorma Uotinen championed Finnish modern
dance that now reached international
standards for the first time in history. In
theatre there was a revolt: new forms of
rebellious and strong physical theatre were
born, and actors also appeared on the club
scene.
The very first independent radio station
was founded in Helsinki, and suddenly
female artists begun shooting to fame.
Men started wearing make up and stylish
costumes which was very radical in ’postsoviet’
Finland. The first video cameras
came to the shops and the first Finnish rock
videos were shot. This colourful whirlwind
of events and new ideas was very much
centred around the new clubs that were
started in Helsinki. Previously there were no
real clubs; indie, new wave, artsy and special
clubs were all born during ’79–’85.
It was in 1981 when the first “Futurist”
disco was arranged on an island near central
Helsinki, and soon after were launched
the Einstein A Go Go, a cabaret club, The
Batcave all-night parties and the Bela Lugosi
club, where you had to dress up all in black.
Then a line of new clubs followed: Club 77,
Cha Cha Club, Zebra Club, Club Berlin etc.
– but the most intensive period in Helsinki
was between those years 1979 – 1985.
Was there a call for the film Helsinki
Twilight 1984? Yes, I think that we needed
it very much. But it is still only scratching
the surface as there was more, much more.
However, I firmly believe that some of the
essential issues and the spirit of that time
has definitely been captured in this film.
2010 | DigiBeta, DVD | 16:9 | Stereo | 76’45’’
people and themes in the Helsinki Twilight
1984 documentary are equally meaningful
Director: Pete Europa (Petri Hakkarainen)
and true. Possibly even more so in Finland
Script: Pete Europa (Petri Hakkarainen)
than in the UK, because the British art and
Cinematography: Arttu Peltomaa Editing:
street culture has always been very strong,
Kari Elovuori Sound design: Erkka Vepsä
but in Finland it was almost a completely
Music: Pekka Hakala Producer: Jouko Aal-
new beginning to my generation, after the
Seppo Rustanius
tonen Production company: Illume Oy Pro-
explosion of punk.
Pete Europa
16 Finnish Documentary Films 2011
The Hunt
Kaskinen
Kaskö
Foundation, Swedish Cultural Foundation
in Finland, Association Konstsamfundet,
MediaCity Financing TV company: YLE
The Hunt
Jahti
The Hunt is instigated by the sudden
friction in the well preserved facade of
modern urban society, caused by – the
city rabbit. It brings out a new element
in the relationship of man and nature,
which has been in crisis for decades.
In the city of Helsinki many people
have taken on to this new phenomena
and become city hunters using bows,
laser weapons, traps, even brutal clubbing
is part of their repertoire. But
this hunt it is also organized by the
society which tries to deal with this
threat caused by sweet rabbits which
used to be pets, but were released outdoors
when their owners lost interest
in them.
The city of Helsinki, different
organizations, real estate companies
and many others suffer from the damages
caused by these rabbits. And the
society starts a counter attack, even
the parish of Helsinki decides to buy
a shotgun to defend the gravestones
from falling down. The city wants to
eliminate this unnatural animal in
the urban environment – and it wants
to make it as a final solution. But it
seems to be weaker than the rabbits.
City rabbits have added a new
chapter in the long story of naturealienated
man and his attempt to create
a lifestyle which is controlled only
by man himself.
Production support: The Finnish Film
Foundation, AVEK Financing TV company:
YLE TV2 International sales: Kinovid
Productions
Jukka Eggert
Jukka Eggert is a documentary filmmaker
who started working as an editor in 1996.
He has a Bachelor’s degree in culture and
art and during his studies he spent an
academic year as an exchange student in
Moscow, at the Gerasnimov Institute of
Cinematopography, VGIK. Today he works
as an editor in a production company in
Helsinki and as a documentary filmmaker.
Filmography:
Lauri 1998
Migration Flight 2005 20 min, YLE TV1
The Past Generation 2009 52 min YLE
TV2
After 30 years of faithful duty Lena
receives a gold pin, but by then she
has already been laid off. No one
could foresee that the successful cellulose
factory would be closed, but it
was. Lena and her coworkers, who
were employed straight out of school
when the factory was new, are all
freefalling.
What do you do when you lose
your job and there is no other employment
available? Do you sell your
house, move away, retrain yourself,
change trades, go into early retirement
or simply grab your severance
pay and build a bloody big garage?
Kaskinen is a documentary film
that tells the survival story of Lena,
Kari, Tom, Erkki and Ann-Charlotte
during the two years that follow the
closure of Metsä-Botnia’s cellulose
factory situated in Kaskinen, the
smallest city in Finland.
2011 | DigiBeta | 16:9 | Stereo | 58’
Director: Ulrika Bengts Script: Ulrika
Bengts Cinematography: Jan Nyman
Editing: Tuomo Leino Sound design:
Risto Iissalo Music: Peter Hägerstrand
Producer: Mats Långbacka Production
company: Långfilm Productions Finland
Oy Production support: The Finnish Film
FST5, SVT International sales: Ab Interprod
Oy
Ulrika Bengts
Ulrika Bengts (born 1962) has directed
approximately thirty documentaries, short
films, and TV series as well as theatre
productions and radio dramas. She is best
known for her works Riksväg Åtta (1992)
and Nu är du Hamlet!(2002), which won
many awards internationally, and the
dramatisations Fling (2004) and Avsked
(2010). Her first feature film Iris will have
its premiere in the autumn 2011.
Ulrika Bengts
2011 | DigiBeta | 16:9 | Stereo | 65’
Director: Jukka Eggert Script: Jukka
Eggert Cinematography: Jukka Eggert,
Daniel Lindholm Editing: Mikko
Savi nainen Sound design: Heikki Innanen
Producer: Timo Humaloja Production
company: Kinovid Productions
Jukka Eggert
Kaskinen
Finnish Documentary Films 2011 17
Lemmi’s Love
Look At Me
Omaa luokkaansa
“Look at me is a depiction of steadfast
caring and love that speaks through
actions. Everyday patience and a belief
in human change by the force of good
are given their due in the film.”
– Judge’s statement,
Church Media Foundation’s Award 2010
school shootings. Bullying as well
as extreme forms of violence such as
school shootings are subject matters of
this film.
2010 | HDCAM, Digibeta, Blu-ray | 16:9 |
Dolby Digital stereo & 5.1 |
67’ and 58’ version
Director: Iiris Härmä Script: Iiris Härmä
Cinematography: Hannu-Pekka Vitikainen
Editing: Tuula Mehtonen Sound design:
Janne Laine Music: Marko Nyberg
Producer: Visa Koiso-Kanttila Production
company: Guerilla Films Ltd Production
support: The Finnish Film Foundation,
AVEK, Church Media Foundation Financing
TV company: YLE TV1 International sales:
Guerilla Films Ltd
Lemmi’s Love
Lemmin rakkaus
A young Estonian girl called Lemmi
got married to a Defense League officer
in December 1939, when Soviet
Russia was already preparing to occupy
Estonia for the first time. After the
occupation in summer 1940 Lemmi’s
husband was criminalized because of
his former duty in the independent
Estonia.
When Germany attacked the Soviet
Union in summer 1941 the Soviet regime
tried to arrest Lemmi’s husband,
who was hiding in the forests with
other patriots. When they could not
find him, the Soviets arrested Lemmi
and sent her to Russian prison camps
in Siberia.
The German occupiers of Estonia
then nominated Lemmi’s husband
the chief of the Estonian organization
Omakaitse in the Läänemaa county
to work for “clearing Läänemaa of
communists”. When the Soviets came
back in 1944 he escaped by boat to
Sweden as well as thousands of other
Estonians.
In 1959 Lemmi finally got back
from Siberia to the Soviet Estonia. She
was a mother of five fatherless children,
and still regarded as an “enemy
of the people”. Lemmi was not permitted
to settle down in her home commune
and she was called “fascist” by
strange people. She died as a respected
mother, worker and enthusiast of culture
in 1990, when free winds were
blowing in Estonia again.
In the film Lemmi’s Love contemporary
people tell their memories about
Lemmi and the war, the deportations
and the Soviet era.
2010 | DigiBeta, DV CAM | 16:9 |
Analogical Dolby Stereo | 58’
Director: Ville Mäkelä Script: Ville Mäkelä
Cinematography: Ville Mäkelä Editing:
Elar Järvet, Ville Mäkelä Sound design:
Tuomas Sallinen Producer: Tuomas Sallinen
Production company: Frameworks
Production House Production support:
AVEK Financing TV company: YLE
TV1 International sales: Frameworks
Production House, Ville Mäkelä
Ville Mäkelä
Selected filmography
(fiction films):
Beyond the Law (1986)
Hights Worth Dreaming (1988)
Passions (1990)
Director Ville Mäkelä:
During World War II, Finland succeeded in
keeping the enemies more or less behind
the borders. That kept the war – complicated
in any circumstances – far more simple
for us than it turned out for the Estonians
– for generations. I did not deeply understand
this when I started to interview
people of Läänemaa in Estonia, who were
young when the war began.
I was surprised by how willingly they
were ready to speak to me. I felt like they
had waited all their life for me to come.
Maybe it was partly because of the familiarity
between our nations, which share the
same roots. But certainly it was because of
the big silence that took place in the Western
countries – including Finland – during
the second Soviet occupation of Estonia
since 1944. They were left alone for 50
years. And it is peculiar how little we still
know about their story, after 20 years of
Estonia’s new independence.
Starting in spring 2008, I filmed a lot
and slowly began to understand some
lines of the basic picture. Let Lemmi’s story
be a sketch for that.
Look At Me is a strong and touching depiction
of today’s youth who are at the
risk of becoming socially excluded due
to their different learning skills, and a
teacher who is trying to help a group
of young people to complete their compulsory
education and to support and
guide them so that they can have trust
in themselves and in their future.
The story’s main character is Ulla,
the teacher of a special needs class who
has made a career as a drama teacher
for children and young people. In her
final year before retirement Ulla has
taken up the challenge to lead this special
group of eleven pupils.
Look At Me uncovers the everyday
life in school and reveals its dark sides.
School-going is not pleasurable and
inspiring for everyone, but an arduous
journey with experiences of loneliness,
bullying, frustration, insecurity
and feelings of failure. This film challenges
the taken-for-granted practices
of compulsory schooling and shows
an unusual way of being a secondary
school teacher – a teacher who is truly
present and in interaction with her students.
Finnish schools are famous for outstanding
results at the PISA tests (The
Programme for International Student
Assessment), but also widely reported
Iiris Härmä
M.A. Iiris Härmä was born in 1970 in
Finland. Since 1996 she has worked as a
producer, assistant director and director
in several documentary films in her
own Guerilla Films production company
together with her husband and colleague
Visa Koiso-Kanttila. Her latest film was
You Live and Burn, 2007.
Iiris Härmä
Ville Mäkelä
Look at Me
18 Finnish Documentary Films 2011
Mama Africa
Mama Africa
Mama Africa
Mama Africa is a documentary about
the recently deceased South African
icon Miriam Makeba. Miriam travelled
with her powerful music around
the world to spread her political message
against racism and poverty and
for equality and peace. Mama Africa
is an homage to this extraordinary and
impressive artist, who incarnates the
voice and the hope of Africa.
Miriam Makeba was an incredible
person. She was the first African musician
to win international stardom,
and her music – that influenced artists
across the globe – was always anchored
in her traditional South African roots,
as was her ceaseless message against
racism and poverty.
Miriam was forced into a life in exile,
after exposing the harsh realities
of apartheid for the first time internationally
through her participation in
the 1959 documentary Come Back Africa.
Singing for John F. Kennedy and
Marlon Brando, performing with Harry
Belafonte, Nina Simone and Dizzie
Gillespie, being married to Hugh
Masekela and then to the ex-Black
Panther leader Stokely Carmichael, her
life was a tumultuous one. A life that
always stood for truth and justice on
behalf of oppressed people everywhere,
most importantly for Africans, as a
global campaigner against apartheid.
Germany/South-Africa/Finland | 2011 |
DCP, HDCAM, 35mm | 16:9 | 1:1.85 | Dolby
Digital, 5.1 | 88’ and 52’
Mika Kaurismäki
Paavo, a Life in Five Courses
Director: Mika Kaurismäki Script: Mika
Kaurismäki, Don Edkins Cinematography:
Jacques Cheuiche, Eran Tahor, Martina
Radwan, Frank Lehmann, Wolfgang Held
Editing: Karen Harley Sound design: Uwe
Dresch Music: Miriam Makeba etc. Producer:
Rainer Kölmel Production company:
Starhaus (Germany) Co-production: Marianna
Films (Finland), Millennium Films
(South-Africa) Production support: The
Finnish Film Foundation, NRW Financing
TV company: YLE TV2 Documentaries,
ZDF/ARTE, SWR, ORF, SVT, NPS International
sales: Fortissimo Films
Mika Kaurismäki
Selected filmography
2010 Vesku from Finland
2009 The House of Branching Love
2008 Three Wise Men
2006 Sonic Mirror
2005 Brasileirinho
2003 Honey Baby
2002 Moro no Brasil
1998 Los Angeles Without a Map
1994 Tigrero – A Film That Was
Never Made
1991 Zombie & The Ghost Train
1990 The Amazon
1987 Helsinki Napoli – All Night Long
1985 Rosso
1982 The Worthless
1980 The Liar
Paavo, a Life in Five
Courses
Paavo, fem rätter och ett liv
“I have four dogs, two donkeys and
a wife in Paris and I need help with
the household”, theater producer Lars
Schmidt said to young Paavo Turtiainen
at Helsinki airport in 1970. The
wife was the actress Ingrid Bergman.
Finnish farm boy Paavo Turtiainen
is hired into the Parisian household of
Swedish theatre producer Lars Schmidt
and his wife, Ingrid Bergman. The couple
“adopt” and train Paavo to navigate
the rich and famous. Encouraged by
Schmidt, Paavo moves to New York and
becomes an acclaimed chef and event
planner for high society. Along the way,
Paavo learns to stand on his own feet.
In the film Ingrid Bergman’s daughters,
Isabella Rossellini and Pia Lindström,
talk about their “brother” and
Lars Schmidt’s son Kristian describes
how it was growing up with the ever
present Paavo.
As a contrast to the hectic New
York pace, we spend time in the relaxing
Swedish archipelago, watch Paavo
pick mushrooms in the Finnish forests
and visit the railway station in the tiny
Finnish town of Karis, where Paavo
first encountered Ingrid Bergman – on
a magazine cover.
2010 | Blu-ray, HDCAM | 16:9 |
AB stereo | 71’
Director: Hanna Hemilä Script: Hanna
Hemilä Cinematography: Ilmo Lintonen
Editing: Pentti Kakkori Sound design: Tero
Malmberg Music: Dani Strömbäck Producers:
Hanna Hemilä, Vesa Harju Production
company: Handle Productions Oy Co-production:
Whooper LLC Production support:
AVEK, Swedish Cultural Foundation
in Finland, Föreningen Konstsamfundet,
The Swedish-Finnish Cultural Foundation
Financing TV company: YLE FST5, SVT International
sales: Handle Productions Oy
Hanna Hemilä
First time director Hanna Hemilä has produced
award winning films for nearly
two decades. She is currently working on
Le Havre, a feature film directed by Aki
Kaurismäki. Other films include Bad Family
(Berlinale 2010); Varg, a Swedish-Finnish-Norwegian
film (2008); Pelicanman
(Berlinale 2004); Guarded Secrets (2004);
Gold Fever in Lapland (1999); the animation
series Tootletubs & Jyro (2001) and Urpo &
Turpo (1996); the documentaries Tove and
Tooti in Europe (2004) and Haru, the Island
of the Solitary (1998). Hemilä received the
Finnish State’s Art Award in 2001.
Director’s notes
I have been intrigued by the impact Bergman
and Schmidt had on the adolescent
Paavo – and vice versa. The time he worked
for the couple has clearly had a tremendous
impact on his personality as well as his career.
In fact, many call Bergman and Schmidt
Paavo’s “adoptive” parents.
Another aspect about Paavo’s controversial
life is the New York City lifestyle. The
everyday life of the average New Yorker is
far different from the media images. The
extreme competitiveness of the city makes
it a tough environment. My document
serves as a behind-the-scenes journey. In
contrast to the front-of-house glamour, we
see the servant’s quarters, the narrow corridors,
waste bags, buildings with impractical
elevators and cramped work spaces. Creating
and delivering seamless and fabulous
arrangements, such as Paavo’s, requires a
huge effort.
Although Paavo has access to all areas,
from the ‘stage’ door to the grand entrance,
he has spent most of his life serving others
and living by their rules. My intention
has been to unveil which personality traits
have led to Paavo’s success and what he has
given up to get to where he is. I wanted to
understand why so many powerful people,
even those considered difficult or distant,
continue to have confidence in Paavo.
Hanna Hemilä
Finnish Documentary Films 2011 19
Play God
Play God
When a talented group of dedicated filmmakers pour their hearts and souls into
an innovative project, what can possibly go wrong? Well… everything.
Play God is a humorous documentary that neither apologizes nor whines, but
simply recounts, with brutal honesty, the story of a failed splatter film project.
Through the director’s eyes we explore the dynamics of failure as he examines,
step by step and without self-pity, how a man’s hopes and dreams can crumble before
his very eyes.
2010 | DigiBeta | 16:9 | Stereo | 39’
Director: Teemu Nikki Script: Teemu Nikki Cinematography: Jyrki Arnikari, Teemu Nikki,
Mika Orasmaa Editing: Teemu Nikki Sound design: Sakari Salli Producer: Teemu Nikki
Production company: It’s Alive Productions Production support: AVEK
Financing TV company: YLE International sales: It’s Alive Productions
Teemu Nikki
2010 Play God, documentary
2009 Mother Doesn’t Bowl Anymore, short film
2008 Legacy, short film
2007 A Mate, short film
2006 The Opportunist, short film
Teemu Nikki
Reindeerspotting – Escape from Santaland
Reindeerspotting – Pako Joulumaasta
Jani, 19, has lived his entire life in the city of Rovaniemi in Northern Finland. For
the last five years he’s done nothing but drugs. If you can smoke, swallow or shoot
it up, he’s done it. His group of friends live within the society, yet isolated from it.
All they know and care about is crime, getting high and messing around.
Living in a small town is getting to Jani, but he hasn’t been able to leave, not
even for a holiday. He’s certain he can kick the habit as soon as he gets away from
Rovaniemi. If only he could make a break for it, get to Europe, someplace bigger.
And wouldn’t you know it – Jani manages to steal a wad of cash and the journey
begins. Stockholm makes his head spin around, as the railway station alone is bigger
than all of Rova niemi. It’s the farthest he’s ever been from home.
Jani finds a brand new lust for life and starts thinking about the past five years.
Reaching the Mediterranean Sea, he takes his needle and breaks it in half on the
coast of Sicily. But what happens then? Is it truly possible to change your way of
life just like that?
Reindeerspotting is a documentary feature from within the junkie community.
The director has been documenting the life of his friends, where crime and
intravenous drugs are an everyday occurrence.
2010 | 35mm, DigiBeta, DCP | 16:9 (4:3 pillarbox) | Dolby Digital 5.1. – Stereo | 83’
Director: Joonas Neuvonen Script: Joonas Neuvonen,
Sadri Cetinkaya, Venla Varha Cinematography: Joonas Neuvonen
Editing: Sadri Cetinkaya Sound design: Joonas Jyrälä,
Miia Nevalainen, Panu Riikonen Producer: Jesse Fryckman,
Oskari Huttu Production company: Bronson Club Oy
Production support: The Finnish Film Foundation, AVEK
Financing TV company: YLE TV2 Documentaries
International sales: Autlook Filmsales
Joonas Neuvonen
Joonas Neuvonen has no previous filmography.
Joonas Neuvonen
Play God
Reindeerspotting
Reindeerspotting
20 Finnish Documentary Films 2011
Rules of Single Life
Salla – Selling the Silence
Salla – Selling the Silence is a creative documentary film. It witnesses the rise and
fall of one family of entrepreneurs, the Kuukkanen family from Salla, Lap land,
side-by-side with the current changes in the values of our society. In combining
private and personal family memories with ongoing changes in the scenery, the
documentary asks: How to avoid irreversible changes in the nature when earning
your living?
Salla – Selling the Silence is a journey to the North, past and present. Sometimes
the journey can be surprising, sometimes sad, sometimes absurd in a black
Finnish way. When the film asks: ”What is the price of the wilderness?” it is also
a question of identity: Who you really are? What is your real nature?
2010 | HD, DigiBeta | 16:9 | Stereo | 70’
Rules of Single Life
Sinkkuelämän säännöt
Director: Markku Tuurna Script: Tarja Kylmä & Markku Tuurna Cinematography: Jarkko T.
Laine, Heikki Färm Editing: Kimmo Taavila Sound design: Kyösti Väntänen Music: Kimmo
Pohjonen Producer: Markku Tuurna Production company: Filmimaa Oy Production support:
The Finnish Film Foundation, AVEK, Nordisk Film & TV Fond Financing TV company:
YLE, ARTE, SVT International sales: Filmimaa Oy
A romantic documentary about love in a foreign city. Four Bulgarian emigrants
in Helsinki; disillusioned with love, they decide to give themselves a task. In 12
months, they need to find girlfriends in Helsinki. The men start a well-organized
self-development and women hunting process. Internet dates, sport dates, courses
in dancing etc.
Still, love is always full of surprises. The past – especially ex-wives and ex-girlfriends
– won’t leave the men in peace. And the present is also full of surprises especially
while you’re on your way to a friend’s wedding: Why don’t all women put
their photos on the dating sites of the Internet? Is sex a cure for solitude? And can
anyone anywhere really get to know another person in 12 months?
Markku Tuurna
Filmmaker Markku Tuurna is renowned for his documentaries with
a special social point of view (eg. a fox-farmer’s story in today’s
high-tech Finland: One Hundred Generations 1999). His personal
approach is evident in the feature films and TV series he has produced.
In Salla – Selling the Silence the director takes a leap into a new field:
He opens the family files, and wants to find out the truth about
current changes in Lapland.
Markku Tuurna
Finland/Bulgaria 2010 | DCP, DigiBeta | 16:9 | Stereo | 79’ | Bulgarian, English,
Finnish with English subtitles
Director: Tonislav Hristov Script: Tonislav Hristov, Kaarle Aho Cinematography: Peter
Flinckenberg Editing: Joona Louhivuori Sound design: Anne Tolkkinen Music: Petar
Dundakov Producers: Kaarle Aho, Kai Nordberg Production company: Making Movies Oy
Co-production: Agitprop (Bulgaria) Production support: The Finnish Film Foundation,
AVEK, NFTF, Bulgarian Film Centre Financing TV companies: YLE TV1, NRK, Bulgarian
National Television International sales: First Hand Films GmbH
Tonislav Hristov
Tonislav Hristov was born in Vratza, northern Bulgaria, in 1978.
In 1999 he moved to Finland. He has a MSC in computer engineering
(2002) and a MA in filmmaking (2007). He has worked for years as a
freelancer for YLE and has made several TV documentaries. His first
documentary film Family Fortune was released in 2007.
Tonislav Hristov
Salla – Selling the Silence
Salla – Selling the Silence
Finnish Documentary Films 2011 21
Silence and severity
Steam of Life
Miesten vuoro
ARTE, SVT, ERR International sales: Films
Transit International Inc.
• PRIX EUROPA, Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg,
October 2010, Category television
documentary
Silence and Severity
Hiljaisuus ja ankaruus
This documentary film is a journey into
the Finnish culture of the last decades
through the work and thoughts of
one of its most exact interpreters, the
artist Henry Wuorila-Stenberg.
The documentary film Silence and
Severity is a means to see the process of
creation of Henry Wuorila-Stenberg
and to understand his points of view
and positions in his universal life experience.
The credibility and universality
of the dramatic events of the film are
found in Henry’s artistic works.
This is a film for those who love art
in all its forms and also to those who
are curious in general.
Naked Finnish men in saunas speak
straight from the heart and in the
warmth of rusty stoves cleanse themselves
both physically and mentally towards
the film’s deeply emotional and
un forgettable finale.
The film travels through Finland
joining men of all walks of life in many
different saunas to let us hear their
touching stories about love, death,
birth and friendship; about life. In all
its simpli city the camera records the
raw and rare beauty of landscapes,
saunas and men in almost magical pictures.
The presence of the characters
and the depth of their emotion reaches
a limit where it is almost intolerable
for the viewer to watch. Steam of Life
reveals the men’s naked souls in an exceptionally
intimate and poetic way.
2010 | 35 mm, DigiBeta, HDCAM | 1:1,85
(35mm), 16:9 Anamorphic (DigiBeta) | Dolby
Digital 5.1, Dolby EX (HDCAM) | 84’
Directors: Joonas Berghäll, Mika Hotakainen
Script: Joonas Berghäll, Mika Hotakainen
Cinematography: Heikki Färm, Jani
Kumpulainen Editing: Timo Peltola Sound
design: Christian Christensen Music: Jonas
Bohlin Producer: Joonas Berghäll Production
company: Oktober Oy Co-production:
Röde Orm Film AB Production support:
Joonas Berghäll
Joonas Berghäll (born 1977) has studied
film producing (2000–2005) at the Tampere
University of Applied Sciences, School
of Art and Media. He has been involved in
filmmaking since 1998. Today he is a film
producer and owner of the Oktober production
company. The documentary films
The Smoking Room and A Shout into the
Wind, which were produced by him, were
awarded the State Quality Support for
cinema productions in Finland in 2007 and
2008. Besides of producing, Joonas also
directs films. His latest work as a director
is the documentary film Steam of Life directed
with Mika Hotakainen.
Mika Hotakainen
Mika Hotakainen (born 1977) graduated
as a fiction director in 2004 from Helsinki
University of Applied Sciences, Stadia. Mika
has been working in the television and
film industry since 1998. He has directed
the documentary films Freedom to Serve
and Steam of Life, and the short fiction
film Visitor. He is co-owner of the production
company Oktober.
Nominations:
• Finnish submissions for the Academy
Award for Best Foreign Language Film,
February 2011
• IDA Documentary Awards for Distin-
• Nordic Council Film Prize, October 2010
Awards:
• Tampere Film Festival, Finland, March
2010, National competition, Risto Jarva
Award and Audience Award
• Visions du Réel, Nyon/Switzerland,
April 2010, International competition,
Award of Interreligious Jury
• Doc Aviv Film Festival, Tel Aviv/Israel,
May 2010, Main prize, International
competition
• Planete Doc Review Film Festival,
Warsaw/Poland, May 2010, Millenium
Award
• Silverdocs, Silversprings/Maryland/
USA, June 2010, Special Jury Mention
• Pärnu Int. Documentary Film Festival,
Pärnu/Estonia, July 2010, International
competition Grand Prize
• Dok Leipzig, Leipzig/Germany, October
2010, Silver Dove
• Doclisboa, Lisbon/Portugal, October
2010, Universities Award
2010 | DVCAM | 16:9 | Mono | 52’
The Finnish Film Foundation, AVEK, MEDIA
Programme, NFTF, The Swedish Film In-
guished Feature, December 2010
• European Film Awards, PRIX ARTE,
Director: Ali Lacheb Script: Ali Lacheb
stitute Financing TV companies: YLE TV2,
December 2010
Mika Hotakainen and Joonas Berghäll
Cinematography: Ali Lacheb Editing: Topi
Heinonen Sound design: Ali Lacheb, Eraj
Nasimov ja Topi Heinonen Music: Eraj
Nasimov Producer: Ali Lacheb Production
company: Oran Productions Production
support: Central Art Archives, Church Media
Foundation, AVEK, Arts Council of Finland
International sales: Oran Productions
Ali Lacheb
selected filmography
The Photographer Caj Bremer, 2010 |
Jorma Puranen, 2010 | Kalevala elää, 2009
| Fact and Fiction, 2009 | The destiny of
Anna Ivanovna Pavlova, 2009 | Hommage
to Juhani Kirpilä, 2009 | Tin Hinan – Portrait
of an Artist in Sahara, 2007 |
Ten Thousand Kisses – Portrait of the Artist,
Painter and Writer Hannu Väisänen,
2006 | The Drawer of the Soul – Portrait
of the Artist and Painter Kuutti Lavonen,
2003 | The Painter of the Dreams – Portrait
of the Artist and Painter Risto Suomi,
2001 | The Photographer of the Memory
– Portrait of the
Photographer
Jorma Puranen, 2001 |
The Eye and the Plume
– Portrait of the artist
of Lithography
Erik Bruun, 2001
Ali Lacheb
Steam of Life
22 Finnish Documentary Films 2011
The Unknown Woman
Vesku from Finland
The Unknown Woman
Tuntematon emäntä
The Unknown Woman depicts the reality of Finnish agriculture and forestry during the
war years, when the home front relied entirely upon the work and endurance
of the women. All farm work, caring for the children, woodcutting and other
forestry operations were undertaken by the civilians, as the men in their prime
were on the front.
Until now the war effort of the rural women has not been portrayed in a
knowledgeable film with emotional impact. The subject touches all modern-day
Finns whether they live rurally or in towns. This is a matter of Finnish spiritual
and financial inheritance, and familiarity with it is of the greatest importance.
A nation that does not know its history cannot understand its present, let alone
look into the future. Although the war as a topic has been dealt with, the important
part the women played during the war in agriculture and forestry, and through that
as the backbone of Finnish society has not been explored before.
2011 | 35 mm, DCP | 1:75 | Dolby Digital | 78’
Director: Elina Kivihalme Script: Elina Kivihalme Cinematography: Jouko Seppälä Editing:
Tuuli Kuittinen Sound design: Anne Tolkkinen Music: Anne Seppänen, Miro Mantere
Producers: Taru Mäkelä and Jouko Seppälä Production company: Kinosto Oy Production
support: The Central Union of Agricultural Producers and Forest Owners, The Finnish Film
Foundation, AVEK, Swedish Cultural Foundation in Finland, The Foundation of Foresters,
The Church Media Foundation Financing TV company: YLE TV2 Documentaries International
sales: Pirkanmaa Film Centre
Elina Kivihalme
Elina Kivihalme graduated from the Department of Film and Television of the The University
of Industrial Design and Arts Helsinki UIAH in 1992. Since then she has worked as a director,
scriptwriter and editor in several fiction and documentary films as well as TV projects.
She has also worked in film education and as a film commissioner at at The Finnish Film
Foundation from 2007 to 2008.
Selected filmography
fiction films: Voi hyvin, toivoo Saara (40’ 1992), Kansainvälistä meininkiä (15’ 1992).
Director of the TV series Salatut elämät 1998–2001.
documentary films: Gösta ”Göde” Sundqvist (40’), Silkki (30’ 1992), Virus – vaarallinen
vieras sopuisa seuralainen (40’ 1989), the series Rakkauden tähden (10x30’ 2009).
Director / journalist of the YLE TV1 programme Mediakomppania.
Vesku from Finland
Vesku
Vesku from Finland is a film about Vesa-Matti Loiri alias Vesku, probably the most
popular film and TV comedian in Finland. He has created a significant career also
as a singer, performer and as a sportsman. He has recorded several albums from
folk songs and couplets to pop and jazz. Some of his recordings are based on the
lyrics of Eino Leino, the famous Finnish poet. During his unique career he has
played in more than 60 films and recorded 30 albums.
2010 | 35mm, DCP, HDCAM | 1:1.85, 16:9 | Dolby Digital 5.1 | 107’
Director: Mika Kaurismäki Script: Mika Kaurismäki Cinematography: Tahvo Hirvonen,
Jari Mutikainen Editing: Jukka Nykänen Sound design: Joonas Jyrälä Producer: Mika Kaurismäki
Production company: Marianna Films Oy Production support: The Finnish Film
Foundation, AVEK, The Finnish Performing Music Promotion Centre ESEK Financing TV
company: YLE TV2 Documentaries International sales: Marianna Films Oy
Mika Kaurismäki
Selected filmography
2009 The House of Branching Love
2008 Three Wise Men
2006 Sonic Mirror
2005 Brasileirinho
2003 Honey Baby
2002 Moro no Brasil
1998 Los Angeles Without a Map
1994 Tigrero – A Film that Was
Never Made
1991 Zombie & The Ghost Train
1990 The Amazon
1987 Helsinki Napoli – All Night Long
1985 Rosso
1982 The Worthless
1980 The Liar
Mika Kaurismäki
Director Elina Kivihalme:
My grandmother became a widow soon after the war had ended. She had nine children, a
little house and only one cow. I have often wondered how on earth my granny managed
it all? First, her husband was in the war for five years and he returned home as a very sick
man. Thinking about my grandmother’s life made me realize that at that time Finland was
full of women in similar situations as hers.
Because my granny and my mother are dead now, I started to look
for other women who could tell me more about that period and about
the underlying mental mechanisms these women had to have to make
it through.
In the film The Unknown Woman I try to discover the survival
mechanisms women had to master and which might be still be affecting
the Finnish society and passed on, at least to my own generation.
Elina Kivihalme
The Unknown Woman
Vesku from Finland
Finnish Documentary Films 2011 23
Wireless World (working title)
Virtual War
Sähköinen sota
Virtual War is a story about Zamira. She has escaped from Chechnya to Finland,
and tries to unite her diasporic family living across Europe. The film follows
Zamira in her different roles; as a mother who has lost her son and husband to
war, as a political activist and as an energetic figure in the Chechen community of
Finland.
Mikael Storsjö is a Finnish-Swedish businessman and a human rights activist,
who tries to help Zamira to reunite with her family, even though Storsjö himself
stands accused of organising illegal immigration. Storsjö also provides the equipment
and takes care of the technical planning of the construction of a Virtual
Chechnya in the Second Life service on the Internet.
The film follows Chechen refugees negotiating the construction of a Virtual
Chechnya, with visions and hopes that focus on real-life Chechnya. During the
process, the reality and the contradictory hopes of Chechens who are scattered
around the world, inevitably conflict with each other.
2011 | DigiBeta, HD | 16:9 | Stereo | approx. 60’
Wireless World (working title)
Wireless World (työnimi)
To understand the challenges of the new ways of relating and communicating,
director Sonja Lindén sets out on a subjective journey. She explores her society on
the verge of turning ubiquitous – a wireless society where the laws of time, space
and distance are revolutionizing the concept of liaison. She starts from today’s society
but also looks at what the future may have in store for us. During her quest,
Lindén observes people’s experiences of freedom and presence. How is our postinformation
society and the technological progress changing our way of life?
2011 | HD Master, DigiBeta | 16:9 | Dolby Digital | 70’–90’
Director: Pekka Niskanen Script: Pekka Niskanen Cinematography: Timo Peltonen, Antti
Seppänen, Heikki Färm Producer: Pertti Veijalainen Production company: Illume Oy Production
support: The Finnish Film Foundation, AVEK Financing TV company: YLE International
sales: Illume Oy
Pekka Niskanen
Pekka Niskanen is a media artist and filmmaker whose works have been exhibited worldwide.
His most important one man show was the film A Girl Bathing in a Kitchen Sink
(2000) at the White Box Gallery in New York in April 2004.
The installation work Stefan Lindfors (1993), the site specific work I Like Him and Her
(1995) and the video installation As a Matter of Fat (1998) are part of the collection of the
Contemporary Art Museum of Helsinki. In 2005 Niskanen realized the set design and costumes
for Verdi’s Rigoletto at the Gothenburg Opera in Sweden.
Director: Sonja Lindén Script: Sonja Lindén Cinematography: Peter Flinckenberg Editing:
Samu Heikkilä Sound design: Janne Laine Producer: Sonja Lindén Production company:
Avanton Productions Oy Co-production: Mantaray Film, Sweden Production support: The
Finnish Film Foundation, AVEK, MEDIA Programme of the European Union, Nordisk Film
& TV Fond Financing TV company: YLE Co-productions, SVT Kultur International sales:
Avanton Productions Oy
Sonja Lindén
Sonja Lindén is an independent filmmaker, producer and director, who established Avanton
Productions in 2006. Her own films focus on the experience of inner freedom and its
reflections on our external reality. The dimensions of love and loneliness are additional
important themes in her films: No Man is an Island (2006), Gacaca – Awaiting Justice
(2003), Breathing (2002), Steps on the Yoga Path (2000).
Director Sonja Lindén:
I think it is fantastic to live in these times! We can reach the whole world easily – it is literally
on our hand. I love being efficient and free to move while working or taking care of my
relationships. I, like many others, consider myself dependent on my mobile and laptop and
on the feeling of being ’connected’. The wireless revolution has made me feel powerful, in
control and effective. At the same time I have become deeply interested in the search and
understanding for the consequences of living in a world where technology and the human
being are getting more and more entwined. The effects there are on our consciousness
have awoken a particular interest in me.
I feel it very important to understand what we are doing and going through now. The
change is so fast and escalating exponentially that it is hard to keep up with it. We are
part of the nature; we cannot just conquer it and forget about it. We cannot forget something
where we come from. Is all this change for the better? And if so, what do I need to
understand to be able to be an active part of the future society and still be rooted in myself.
Does technology bring us more freedom or more dependency – or both?
I realize that my deepest interest as a filmmaker lies on the concept and experience of
freedom. Let it be physical or psychological or emotional freedom.
I have had this as an underlying theme also in my previous films –
about a physically ill woman, about yoga and about solitude,
a man living alone on an island. By the end of the day I’m searching
for the experience of freedom and also for my understanding of it.
What does it mean to be free? What kind of person really is free?
That is my principal interest – a need that comes from my soul.
Sonja Lindén
Director Pekka Niskanen:
Zamira and Mikael have made many trips to help the nephew and his family, who live as
refugees outside Finland. All the journeys have been in vain and Zamira finds it very difficult
to believe that there will eventually be a happy ending. However, Mikael tries to convince
her that this is still a possibility. The film follows Zamira and Mikael’s recurrent attempts
for her family’s reunion, and Mikael’s circle of friends as they actively help people
escape the war-torn Chechnya.
In August 2010 Zamira was able to visit Chechnya, where she went to see her mother
and other relatives. Even though the Chechen police confiscated her video recording
equipment, she was able to bring film material across the border. Zamira’s family is suffering
from ungrounded arrests and blackmail from the authorities in Chechnya. Their
homes have been destroyed and their last hope lies in fleeing Chechnya and becoming
refugees.
The Second Life project that was started by Zamira has strengthened Chechen refugees’
sense of freedom of speech, even though it has not unified the European Chechen
diaspora. In order to protect vulnerable people’s anonymity, the film will depict meetings
with Zamira and others who have escaped from Chechen wars through Second Life, that
can disguise their identities.
In the photo collage of the Russian Internet publication Nordlys
Mikael Storsjö, who has helped Chechenians to Finland, is groundlessly
linked with the terrorist attack to the Moscow underground in March
Pekka Niskanen
24 Finnish Documentary Films 2011
Contact information:
Producers and International Sales Companies
Autlook Filmsales GmbH
www.autlookfilms.com
Avanton Productions Oy
Harjuviita 16 A 21
FI-02110 Espoo
+358 50 567 1895
Bronson Club Oy
Hämeentie 11
FI-00530 Helsinki
Tel. +358 40 590 9999
jesse@bronson.fi
www.bronson.fi
Deckert Distribution GmbH
www.deckert-distribution.com
Filmimaa Ltd
Siamintie 14
FI-00560 Helsinki
Tel. +358 50 566 6596
markku.tuurna@sci.fi
www.filmimaa.fi
Films Transit International Inc.
www.filmtransit.com
First Floor Productions Oy
Hietalahdenkatu 8 A 13
FI-00180 Helsinki
Tel. +358 9 6124 9660
firstfloor@firstfloor.fi
First Hand Films GmbH
www.firsthandfilms.com
Fortissimo Films
www.fortissimofilms.com
Frameworks Production House
Lönnrotinkatu 38 B 30
FI-00180 Helsinki
Tel. +358 45 122 1964
tuomas.sallinen@yamifilms.com
www.yamifilms.com
Guerilla Films Oy
Kiuastie 7 B
FI-02770 Espoo
Tel. +358 40 506 2675
info@guerillafilms.fi
www.guerillafilms.fi
Handle Productions Oy
Pohjoisranta 20 b B 41
FI-00170 Helsinki
+358 400 512 205
Illume Oy
Palkkatilankatu 7
FI-00240 Helsinki
Tel./Fax +358 9 148 1489
illume@illume.fi
www.illume.fi
Interprod Ab
www.interprod.fi
It’s Alive Productions
Heinäsintie 79
FI-08700 Lohja
Tel. +358 50 526 4304
info@itsalive.fi
www.itsalive.fi
Kinosto Oy
Linnakoskenkatu 23 A 12
FI-00250 Helsinki
Tel. +358 50 3727 136
info@kinosto.fi
www.kinosto.fi
Kinovid Productions
Pursimiehenkatu 23 A 19
FI-00150 Helsinki
Tel. +358 40 580 6626
timo.humaloja@elisanet.fi
Lafayette Films
albinounitedfilm@gmail.com
Tel. +44 1444 484 510
Långfilm Productions Finland Oy
Vislauskuja 13
FI-00520 Helsinki
Tel. +358 10 440 4800
Fax +358 10 4404809
info@langfilm.fi
www.langfilm.fi
Marianna Films
Punavuorenkatu 5 A 2
FI-00120 Helsinki
Tel./Fax +358 9 622 1614
marianna.films@gmx.net
www.mikakaurismaki.com
The Match Factory
www.the-match-factory.com
Nordic Film Pool Oy
Pyhtääntie 10
FI-00600 Helsinki
Tel. +358 520 7600
nordicfilmpool@kolumbus.fi
Nosferatu Oy
Kalevankatu 44 A 2
FI-00180 Helsinki
+358 50 555 1819
Oktober Oy
Uutiskatu 3
FI-00240 Helsinki
Tel. +358 40 709 3331
joonas@oktober.fi
www.oktober.fi
Oran Productions / Ali Lacheb
Susitie 26 E 33
FI-00800 Helsinki
Tel. +358 40 7077 285
oran_productions@yahoo.fr
Pirkanmaa Film Centre
www.elokuvakeskus.com
Sputnik Oy
Museokatu 13 A
FI-00100 Helsinki
Tel. +358 9 6877 100
Fax +358 9 6877 1010
sputnik@sputnik.fi
www.orimattila.fi/kirjasto/
kaurismaki
Festival contacts
for all titles:
The Finnish Film Foundation
Kanavakatu 12
FI-00160 Helsinki
Tel. +358 9 6220 300
Fax +358 9 6220 3050
ses@ses.fi
www.ses.fi
Film festivals in Finland 2011
Published by the Finnish Film Foundation | Editors: Sonja Potenze and Marja Pallassalo |
Translations: Said Dakash, production companies | Layout: Praxis Oy | Printed by: PreMediaHelsinki, 2011
DocPoint –
Helsinki Documentary Film Festival
25.–30.1.2011
Fredrikinkatu 23
FI-00120 Helsinki
Tel. +358 9 672 472
Fax +358 9 673 998
info@docpoint.com
www.docpoint.info
Tampere International Short Film Festival
9.–13.3.2011
Tullikamarinaukio 2
FI-33101 Tampere
Tel. +358 3 223 5681
Fax +358 3 223 0121
office@tff.fi
www.tamperefilmfestival.fi
Sodankylän elokuvajuhlat –
Midnight Sun Film Festival
15–19.6.2011
Kansanopistontie 5
FI-99600 Sodankylä
Fax +358 16 614 522
office@msfilmfestival.fi
www.msfilmfestival.fi
Espoo Ciné International Film Festival
19.–28.8.2011
PO Box 95
FI-02101 Espoo
Tel. +358 9 466 599
Fax +358 9 466 458
office@espoocine.fi
www.espoocine.fi
Helsinki Film Festival – Love & Anarchy
15.–25.9.2011
Mannerheimintie 21–24
Box 889
FI-00101 Helsinki
Tel. +358 9 6843 5230
Fax +358 9 6843 5232
office@hiff.fi
www.hiff.fi
Oulu International Children’s Film Festival
21.–27.11.2011
Hallituskatu 7
FI-90100 Oulu
Tel. +358 8 881 1293
Fax +358 8 881 1290
info@oufilmcenter.inet.fi
www.ouka.fi/lef
Finnish Documentary Films 2011 25
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