Finnish Documentary Films 2011

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