Discoveries from Finland World Cinema

Photos of the destruction and reconstruction in Lapland, as well as the return of evacuees to their homes.

The summery battle for a place in the sun between sea gulls and humans. A hilarious short film about the life of a popular beach during one day from the perspective of a sea gull.

Documentary about Finnish zoo.

Experimental film, shot entirely using a pinhole lens. This is actually a piece of conceptual art, where the movie itself plays small role, but the main emphasis is on the Poster. The film was submitted to numerous film festivals (both virtual and with physical screenings) and the idea was to fill the film poster with laurels from official selections and awards.

The Swirl is starkly beautiful images in soft pastel pink and twitchily advancing stop-motion. It begins when a primary school teacher invites a student on holiday. “In sixth grade, some say that the teacher isn’t so nice.”

After having relived the memories of evacuated children in the film War Children, Erja Dammert approaches the world of present-day children and finds an even further reaching mystery.

Sinikka has by chance made acquaintance with her downstairs neighbour Vilja and asked her for help. Clutter has taken over Sinikka’s home and there is only a small human-sized pathway left in the apartment. As a window renovation is approaching, Sinikka needs to clear 1,5 meters empty space. A short documentary of friendship and its meaning in giving and receiving help.

After two cops make a shocking discovery, a young woman’s night turns into a mix of grief, guilt, and confusion. But what really happened might not be what it seems?

Kerttu Mäkinen, a country girl, leaves for the city to find work and attend evening school. She meets Martti Alamaa, a student who is also looking for work and a place to live. Kerttu and Martti end up working as kitchen helpers for the Kolkkula family. Soon, Kerttu finds herself being courted not only by Martti, but also by Arvi, the family's eldest son. The situation is further complicated by an inheritance Kerttu receives from her aunt in America.

A film about Princesse, a 9-year-old Cameroonian, and her father, who leaves Africa to make their dreams come true. The two keep in touch through numerous phone calls. Princesse goes to school while her father is trying to make it in Paris cleaning streets and selling souvenirs that enable him to send nice clothes to his daughter – and a smartphone that she’s been begging for.

The enigmatic Amos Andersson (1878–1961) is an undisputed dignitary of 20th-century Finnish society. His life can be viewed from the perspectives of many historical developments: support for the arts, queer life, theater, the business world, the press, Finnish-Swedish urban culture, politics.

Death of a Boy follows Albert, who is very shy and insecure. With the aim of bringing Albert out of his shell, his older brother Jon decides to bring him along to a boxing gym, where aggression is respected and the violence is controlled through disciplined practice.

Running in three parallel images in black & white and colour, and complemented with an evocative soundtrack, Biblion opens the dense and layered heart of the book. Fluid shapes of marbled covers, varied fibres of paper, dissolving appearances in printing ink are only some of the elements in a surreal world of enchanting visual narrative.

Polyteekkarifilmi (Polytekarfilmen) is a Finnish silent documentary film dating from 1924. The subtitle of the documentary is "The story of sport, polytheists and the gods of Olympia". The film aimed to raise travel funds for Finnish athletes traveling to the Paris Olympics.

This film was inspired by a discarded film fragment I found in a dustbin, a relic from a time before the advent of computer-programmed TV. In 1978, Nobel Science Prize winners Pjotr Kapitsa, Arno Penzias, Hamilton O. Smith, Peter D. Mitchell and Werner Arber were filmed in a Stockholm TV studio talking with Bengt Feldreich about fossil fuels, nuclear reactors, genetics, the nature of time and symmetry. My version is a flicker film comprised solely of the Finnish subtitles that were played during the original broadcast. The film runs in a rapid loop, emulating the effect of a Tibetan prayer wheel.

A handsome young womanizer deceive tender women by first charming them and then taking their money.

Two idiot ex-policemen turns out to be private detectives. Comedy follows their mistakes.

An optimistic scout from a dystopian future, Ken Benden, is sent to the year 2025 to save humanity.

A young woman recovering from a suicide attempt arrives in a war-torn city and gets a job as a waitress at a local bar. Jeanne befriends the author of an unpopular drunkard, but fate has other plans for their relationship .

There's a worldwide pollinator decline going on, that is crucial for the environment and in the end for the people too. Young scientist Lotta Kaila starts a research on pesticides' effect on most important pollinators, bees and bumblebees.

The journey is leisurely by train and railcar.

The first steps of a newborn foal.

A young woman is confined inside her apartment due to exterior renovations, forcing her space to close in and abruptly disrupting her daily rhythm. As her home is rebuilt, she reexamines herself and her emotions, and writes a letter to her beloved. This is an exceptionally restrained, delicate, and poetic work.

Visit of Russian Emperor Nicholas II to Helsinki on March 10, 1915: including arrival and reception at Helsinki railway station, visit to Uspenski and Nikolai churches, drive to the castle, visit to Suomenlinna.

Underdog begins as a dog-filled travelogue but eventually forms into a cinematic essay that effortlessly moves from one time and place to the next. The film criticises selective breeding and explores the history of oppression based on racial categorisation in both the human and dog world. The film’s audiovisual argumentation is constructed effectively through split-screen cinematography and voiceover narration.

Itä-Pasila, the rough-around-the-edges neighbourhood filled with concrete building blocks, office buildings and diverse inhabitants, is at the centre of Anu Pennanen’s experimental film that mixes documentary with fictional sequences. This mostly dialogue-free film, scored by Jean Sibelius’s Symphony No. 1, explores the eastern side of the Helsinki borough divided in two by train tracks. As inhabitants of Itä-Pasila reminisce about everyday life in their beloved part of town, their thoughts are conveyed to the viewer through text on the screen. To some, Itä-Pasila is reminiscent of grey and depressing barracks, but to others the area is a cherished home filled with good memories.

A commissioned film about wintertime seafaring in Finland

Documentary film about spring in Finland.

What kind of man was Gustaf Mannerheim, Marshal of Finland? Author Jörn Donner answers this question.

Livvi-Karelian-speaking oral poet and rock musician Santtu Karhu and his band Santtu Karhu ja Talvisovat on tour in Olonets Karelia. They travel from Petrozavodsk to small Karelian villages, where the Livvi-Karelian language is still alive.

Four Pieces on Being Seen is a community dance film where participants articulate their experiences on their queer identity and how they would like to be seen. It was developed with community participants found through an open call in the spring of 2022.

A documentary film about Finnish marshall Mannerheim and his visit to Germany during nazi period.

Granada, Terhi’s first car is broken. Money is tight and fixing the car is expensive. Terhi’s mother insists on getting rid of the useless vehicle that has become a money pit. Terhi is hoping to get the repairs done and drive the car to Germany, where it could be sold for a higher price. Letting go of an old, historic car proves to be harder than expected.

"Taiga" is an elegy to boreal forest. In south Finland taiga has already started to change to temperate forest. This tactile film is made on16mm film without camera. It combines hand scratched animation with real tiny plants and moss collected in subarctic region in Finland.

Marika has terminal cancer, with a stomach full of tumors. It’s been 10 months since she was told she has two months to live. Her first goal was to finish the season of Game of Thrones, then to make it to her next birthday. Now at her 50th birthday celebrations, easy discussion revolves around what her next goal might be, and whether or not she should have an open coffin at her funeral. The atmosphere is the opposite of morose, as everyone is laughing and at ease.

The accidental crossing of uncrossable borders.

Self-Accusation is partially based on Peter Handke's 1966 play of the same title. Handke's text is dramatized in a video within the video. In the frame narrative, the maker of the video receives a violent critique. The work deals with submission, living by the rules, and dreams of beauty and freedom.

The Kurppa family lives in a pastel-toned Finnish suburb. Kari dreams of striking it rich by selling soap and vitamins; his wife, Pirjo, pregnant with their fourth child, aspires to be a model. Their kids—Jani (6), Jonna (4), Sonja (3)—join them in their cluttered home. With limited work and lives spent mostly indoors, every day feels like an endless chaotic Sunday.

The life and work of Asko and Myrsky in a snowy forest. Asko is a man, Myrsky (Storm) is a horse. During wintertime they make their living working as loggers in the small suburbian forests of the metropolitan area. The work is hard and the days are long. "The man and his horse only have each other for company. Loggers is a film about collaboration between man and animal, and about nearly extinct traditional work set in the 21st century landscape. But above all it is the filmmaker's tribute to steaming testosterone in the freezing cold air.

Story of a single mother, released from prison.

Documentary about the battles in Tampere in the tumultuous spring of 1918.

Noise of Finland is a documentary about the Finnish noise and power electronics scene. Loud distorted noise made with scrap metal and effect pedals are combined with extreme views and shocking visuals. The barriers of human limits and impossibility of commercial success are surpassed with limitless self expression. Movie includes the artists of the genre like Grunt, Bizarre Uproar, Manic/Depression, Sick Seed and Strom.EC

"Himmlers Kantele Player" - about Finnish student, who decides to leave University of Sorbonne and walk from Paris to Helsinki in the spring of 1935. On his way, in Germany, he meets Heinrich Himmler, who is attracted by a traditional Finnish instrument, kantele. Himmler employs Yrjö as researcher to the Ahnenerbe institute to find the Aryan roots from the runic singing culture of Finnish Carelia.

In the film we see an oil tanker sailing across the Gulf of Finland. On her way she passes through one of the most beautiful and most valuable marine areas. At the same time, under the surface, the medusa - a species dating back 500 million years is undergoing a transformation that takes six months. In the film these very different creations traverse the Gulf of Finland and also meet each other and abundance of the ocean life.

Who judges and who is judged? Love has many layers.

Sara Hildén was maybe an artist, from Tampere, or maybe a patron? A business woman? Most of the Finnish people add her name into Sara Hildén art gallery, but her story included much more.

KastleVania 4 is a legend about how the youngest member of the Bellmount clan fights against the evil Lord Trakula.

We are invited to the waterworks at Brno, Czechoslovakia, where they have installed a "Finnish Sauna", similar to Turkish bath. Various nude visitors are observed.

"Pysyisitkö lähelläni?" is a postcard from the Finnish summer, whose flip side explores the differences between platonic and romantic love, and the importance of both.

When the adults of Sunny Moor Forest begin arguing, the magical star atop the Christmas tree flickers and dies, leading them to cancel Christmas. Young Pikkuli and his friends embark on a daring adventure to find the mythical Starlight Reindeer. Along their journey, they face challenges, meet magical creatures, and discover that the true magic of Christmas lies not in the star but in their love and unity.

1942. The Continuation War rages on, and intel acquired by Finnish intelligence suggests a major Soviet offensive supported by local partisans is imminent on the Eastern border. Lieutenant Jussi Nygård is sent to stop the attempt in its tracks.