Discoveries from Finland World Cinema

A documentary film about three Russian prisoners for life.

Eeva Isokari flees her home from the jealousy of her husband, judge Lauri. The next day, a body is found on the railway tracks. Lauri thinks his wife is dead. The woman, who has lost her memory, has ended up in a prison run by her husband. Known in english as A Woman of Crime.

Second Lieutenant Romppainen and Sergeant Ryhmä are tasked with blowing up the enemy's ammunition depot. They surrender themselves as prisoners in order to easily reach the Russian side. The resourceful friends and their cat Mörökölli cause all sorts of trouble, especially for the tough female commissar Vengrovska, who is more of a pretty opponent than a scary one.

Liisa Harju, a lively and quick-witted teacher from Savo, gets her first job in Latomeri, Ostrobothnia. She falls out of favor with the local women when the eligible bachelor, doctor Eino Korpinen, takes a liking to her.

That Kiljunen familys sets out find their two missing family members, who have been sent to Tampere by the Matalamäki boarding school for retraining due to poor school performance.

This documentary about fanatical Eurovision Song Contest fans was shot by the fans themselves. For the common people it's just a song contest, but the fans live ESC all year round, all around the world.

A modern fairy tale unfolds in the enchanting embrace of the Finnish forest, as young people seamlessly weave into the fabric of nature, swimming in crystalline lakes and revel in the calm presence of the ancient trees. This idyllic harmony is imperiled as the forest faces man-made extinction. Driven by her love for the forest, 22-year-old Ida becomes the leader of the new Forest Movement, coming face to face with Finnish forest industry giants and confronting generational bias.

Young heiress' spendthrift nephew turns her manor into a boarding house for the summer. Suddenly the heiress returns...

Faro is about a man who flees into the forest with his daughter to escape a prison sentence.

A story about an upper-class student and a poor servant girl who fall in love despite everyone being against it.

A hauntingly beautiful and unusual coming-of-age tale. Set in 1890, Iris's artist mother leaves Stockholm for the summer and sends her 9-year old daughter to stay with an uncle in the Finnish archipelago. The girl learns to play with other children and discovers the joys of friendship in the remote Åland Islands.

Olli Suominen has been appointed acting sheriff in the countryside, and the whole family has left for Kesäranta to spend the summer. The peaceful rural life is interrupted when small farmer Pullin's hay barn is destroyed in a fire and Anita and Aarne, the Lokka family who have moved in next door, get to know the Suominen family.

The film examines the painful relationship between fathers and sons through the eyes of one family. Four generations of men are featured in the film. Father to Son deals with the conflict between generations and their subjective memories, and the way different methods of raising children pass from one generation to the next. How often and to what extent do we repeat the behavioural patterns of our fathers; can we change or break these patterns or is repeating them inescapable, and how many generations are needed for change to occur? Are the values we have inherited from our fathers still valid in the modern world? One of the leading themes of this film is the sensitivity of a man and a boy, and its preservation and suppression.

The rambunctious Priscilla Paukkaja breaks into the home of Foreign Ministry official Raimo Vehar and his girlfriend Marja and appoints herself the couple's new housekeeper. Tomera Priscilla controls both the finances of the Veharites and the foreign minister Hirvimaan himself.

Tove Jansson became world-famous for her Moomin characters, but over time she began to dislike the commercialization of Moomin and lost the desire to write about him. Here she talks about how fame affected her and how the book Moominland Midwinter (1957) became a turning point, thanks in large part to the support of her life partner Tuulikki Pietilä, who suggested that Moomin be set in a new world – something that helped Jansson find the joy of writing again.

Anna sees Jasmine, her former school bully, after years when Jasmine brings her daughter to Anna’s dance class. Anna and Jasmine try to behave in a civilized manner, but there’s something bubbling beneath the surface. Spiral is about a ballet class that gets out of hand.

Woman unexpectedly meets Satan in her attic.

About the love of Lenin and the Finnish girl Mariot, from whom he had a child, who subsequently disappeared without a trace.

Bartender's quiet night turns entirely when a mysterious customer introduces a new game.

Architect Matti picks up Ritva and her young son while on a business trip. When the car runs out of gas, the travelers are forced to spend the night at a guesthouse, pretending to be a married couple. During the night, Ritva runs away, leaving the child in Matti's care. Matti tries to cope with looking after the child and keeps it a secret from his wife Maija.

Uuno's father-in-law is running for president and to avoid embarrassment pressures Uuno to finally get a job, which he does at a hardware store. Meanwhile, a political rival sends a bionic female agent to seduce Uuno in hopes of creating a scandal, and Uuno develops a ploy where he pretends to be his long-lost brother from America.

Based on a novel by Aleksis Kivi. Follows the story of seven brothers of Jukola in 19th century Finland.

Tornionjokilaakso at the end of the 19th century, Paloniemi's landlord Heikki tries to get out of his financial difficulties with the help of his son Juhan and Nuottaniemi's only daughter Hanna. The happiness of Hanna, who has fallen in love with Antti of Rehti Koskenalusta, is threatened by the evil and dangerous Korpikoski.

Uuno is working as campaign manager of a president candidate but accidentally Uuno himself becomes the president of Finland.

A child who is the subject of a custody dispute flees from the social welfare authority from Tyräaho to Helsinki with Pekko. In the capital, the friends are helped by Pipsa, Pekko's crush, who joins them on a runaway trip. The press and the people of Tyräaho follow the trio's antics unflinchingly.

This prequel to the other Uuno Turhapuro movies tells the story of Uuno's birth and childhood.

A documentary film about a tour of three Finnish rock bands around Saimaa lake system in a steam boat in 1981. The bands (Juice Leskinen Slam, Eppu Normaali and Hassisen Kone) are shown playing songs in their gigs and, in between, the members give intimate interviews or just act plain silly and have a good time.

A man dreaming of becoming a private detective gets suck into an investigation of a crime involving the theft of a secret chemical formula.

Hayflower starts her summer holiday on a badminton camp which is ruined by Cynthia, a runaway chicken. Quiltshoe makes a new friend, Anita, who, to everyone's surprise, turns out to be a chicken. Under the leadership of constables Bellybutton and Goggleclock, a big chicken hunt is launched.

What happens when you can no longer practice the profession that is part of your identity? You Can’t Stop the Music is a portrait from today’s Afghanistan, where life in the shadow of the Taliban can at times seem surreal. When the Taliban took over Afghanistan, Akbar Adeli was a music student at Kabul University. For conservative Afghans, music had been suspect even before the Taliban takeover, but it soon became a gamble with one’s life – especially since Akbar plays Western pop music.

Second Lane is a story about drug addiction, living with it and fighting it. It is a documentary about people who use intravenous drugs and the professionals and peers working with those people. What happens when ‘Vinkki’, a social and healthcare counselling centre in Helsinki, closes its doors due to a lost contract.

Amanda and her cousin Eliisa run a food stall for the loggers, despite the crooked landowner Remander. Verneri, a street vendor from Karelia, and Olavi, who pretends to be a vagrant, turn the women's heads. When university student Oswald arrives in town, long-buried secrets begin to surface.

After her aunts death, young Miriam gets a position with the Allnes family. They have a son, Hans. Miriam and Hans fall in love. But the Hans mother is jealous and disapprove.

Jukka, Jarno and Jarppi move to the Rauhala estate in Seinäjoki with their pet pig. Their crazy lifestyle accompanies a housefire at the estate, getting fired from their summer job, and the Death Jump!

Impressionistic short documentary of a Helsinki morning at the end of 1930s with a poetic narration.

A newly graduated nurse Tuulikki starts a job in a closed ward of a psychiatric hospital. Her innocence is being challenged by both her colleagues and patients. A new patient Katariina has a fire burning deep inside of her.

In Maija Blåfield’s documentary, eight former North Koreans talk about what it was like to watch illegal films in a closed society. In addition to the 'waste videos', South Korean films were also smuggled into the country via China.

History of the Russian Alaska.

A Finnish equivalent of Werner Herzog’s Grizzly Man, Hannu has a love and connection to nature that surpasses most. It is the rare lynx in particular that has bitten into Hannu’s heart – so much so that he actually claims to be able to speak its language. So when a dead lynx turns up in his forest, he dons an animal mask, crawls down on all fours and sniffs out the mystery through the mire and thicket. With hauntingly beautiful footage captured by hidden cameras throughout the forest, ‘Lynx Man’ paints a colourful and vivid twilight picture of the natural world around us – and of man’s impact on it. For no matter what Hannu does to live in harmony with the animals, he cannot hide from belonging himself to the species that is the lynx’s worst enemy. It makes sense that most of Juha Suonpää’s atmospheric film takes place in the twilight between dream and reality. Here, the vast forests come alive in Hannu’s hypnotic Night Vision footage of the nocturnal life of the lynx.

Experimental work.

Woman whom have kids with 4 different guys invites her ex-husbands and kids to Christmas party.

Divorced, middle-aged Matti picks up Maša near the Finnish-Russian border. Maša was waiting for a different man called Jukka, but agrees to go with Matti when he claims he is a friend of Jukka's.

A film about a night out dancing in 1961. About love that is crushed before it can flourish.

The adventure of former FBI agent Jerry Walker and a hacker who calls herself Ms. Universe on an endless UFO hunt that brings the duo face to face with a secret that threatens the fate of all mankind.

On furlough from his military service, Niko pays his estranged father a visit. Can old wounds heal?

The ups and downs of the popular music world are revealed to a singer.

A comedy about a poor artist who is accidentally accused of the murder of his fiancee.

Tero Sand was attached to a life-support machine for 28 years but managed to get recognition as an expert both in medicine and geology. In this documentary Sand's life is constructed using interviews and archival clips. The film is a sequel to the documentary Haluan vain elää.

Black drama-comedy about elementary school teacher Kaisa who has lost control of her life.

Year 1288. Nuutti, a girl who has been silent for years has her life changed completely, when the hunting campground gets attacked and she is left on her own, in the middle of ancient Finland’s unpredictable wilds. When the weather and nature test her, only a memory of the past gives her strength and it’s easy to seek shelter in it. The way home is long, and the heavy load of the past weighs on her shoulders more and more with each step. Will the silence break?

A thirtysomething actress is hired by a company called Memory Lane. But she has to keep things secret, even though business is booming. They are replacing bad memories with good ones.

The baron who owns the estate and factory does not approve of his daughters' honest but non-aristocratic and poor suitors. The older sister, Margareta, does not want to leave agronomist Mauno, and the younger sister, Helvi, does not want to leave paper master apprentice Toivo.

A People’s Radio – Ballads from a Wooded Country is a carnivalesque portrayal of the Finnish landscape of the soul and abode. The short film is based on the iconic YLE programme “People’s Radio”, and its visual material has been created by the road movie method of driving across summery Finland. The film paints a panorama of what Finland looks like today. Its narration progresses through humour into civic anarchy, ultimately also towards the longing for human connection.

When a new man appears in Tuula's life, Jorma does not tolerate the idea and begins to yearn back for his ex-wife. They drift into a situation where both face a big choice that has far-reaching implications for the rest of their lives.

Communists have secretly occupied Mars since the 1950s, building a utopian society hidden from Earth. An American astronaut crash-lands on the Red Planet, where he uncovers a thriving, hidden Soviet utopia. However, it's a cover for an oppressive society controlled by an artificial intelligence called 'Deep Red'. Part one of an intended trilogy.

Lonely Tuukka catches fish by the river and meets a mysterious old miller and former sailor, the Parrot Man, who teaches him the magic of the forest.

Drama set in Stockholm and Helsinki and a village whose existence is threatened by a power plant. A group of young people return to their roots and are disappointed by what they find.

Eerikki Lind, a young university student working as a sailor, falls in love with the beautiful Kirsti on the canal. The budding Midsummer romance between the young people is overshadowed by jealousy and the tragic love story of Kirsti's parents.

Communists have secretly occupied Mars since the 1950s, building a utopian society hidden from Earth. An American astronaut crash-lands on the Red Planet, where he uncovers a thriving, hidden Soviet utopia. However, it's a cover for an oppressive society controlled by an artificial intelligence called 'Deep Red'. Part three of an intended trilogy.