Discoveries from Finland World Cinema

Set in the remote landscapes of Greenland, the film follows three individuals whose lives intersect through the profound isolation and quiet resilience of life at the edge of the world.

8000: An Art Odyssey (Anssi Kasitonnin maailma) is a documentary about the Finnish Ars Fennica awarded artist Anssi 8000. Anssi does everything his own way, and preferably with his own hands. The films follows Anssi as he prepares for the biggest exhibition of his life at Kunsthalle Helsinki, films a French short film with dreams of an Oscar award and develops a skate toy with a company based in Hong Kong. It is a warm and humorous story about passion, creativity – and how sometimes, doing things the wrong way is the right way.

A American Beauty Spoof made in Kino Euphoria International Kino Kabaret 2021.

Geri, 18, is a Bulgarian girl living in an orphanage in the city of Vratza. She's a senior at local high school. She's dreaming of entering university. The final exams are approaching, and this has even bigger meaning for her than to many others, because after the graduation she is obliged to move out from the orphanage. Geri starts to go through her past with her stepbrother; the domestic violence behind the breakup of the family. She would love to know why her mother abandoned her and why she was not given to a foster family but had to grow up at the orphanage. She hesitates should she invite the mother to her prom. Geri also had a boyfriend who wanted her to quit the school and emigrate to Germany. He returns for the prom. The prom night is wonderful, full of hope and joy, but there are new twists of fate looming around the corner. Can Geri overcome her past or repeat the family's old mistakes in different form?

9-year-old Iida's parents fought so much, she should have called the police. Now they've finally divorced and she is helping Mummy find a new man on Tinder.

This 'reductionist' video and sound piece is an experiment into what happens when you take out the most important element from a specific canonized feature film classic.

The Finnish state had to cut down Talaskangas forest. Instead, it became a nature reserve. What happened?

An educational piece produced for the Forest Industry Employers’ Union shows the working conditions and future prospects of the foresters and machine drivers.

A sequel to the film “Yksinteoin“.

A Carousel in the Rain is a short film about finding happiness in being by yourself through difficult times and looking for a glimmer of hope in finding your love and sharing true happiness.

Somewhere up north at the age of peak modern there is a man longing for connection but unable to break loose, and a woman feeling alien to the world which has everything figured out for her, without her. They make their best to fit in and fulfill their roles but struggle to connect with the world, themselves and others. Something important is missing. As if the whole world was drained of love, chugging along on mere duties and bureaucratic inertia, passing over the baggage of the generations. Giant’s Kettle is a journey into the unconscious, a love story without love, an epic tragicomedy of the mundane, and a mystery in a world emptied of mystery.

A woman’s body must be of certain kind and constantly changeable to fit existing beauty standards. Everyone has a body, and every body is different. The documentary shows what the media hides.All About my Body Hair is a short experimental documentary film which covers the topic about society’s attitude and perception of female body hair. The film shows ten women of different ages and appearances, as well as gives them a voice to share their stories and experiences about their body hair.

A short documentary about the Finnish fisherman, ornithologist, philosopher and deep ecologist Pentti Linkola (1932–2020).

Nissim wants to mend his relationship with his son and won't let small obstacles like his own death stand in his way.

Golden Headacher is an experimental animated documentary about women's anger and aggression and cultural ways of expressing and suppressing these difficult emotions. The soundtrack of the film is composed of descriptions of women's emotional experiences in situations of aggression in relation to their own children, spouse or other women.

Jake finds himself in a medieval village, which is possessed by the most iconic cavalcade of movie monsters: Count Dracula, Frankenstein’s Monster and The Mummy! To make things even worse, Jake is hunted down by an angry mob when the light of the full moon transforms him into a bloodthirsty Werewolf! With the help of lovely lady Claudia, Jakewolf plunges into an orgy of terror to battle the Prince of darkness and his evil minions.

A hypocritical emigrant is collecting dust his chamber with having only the amusements of chess and nightmares. Prickly cheater messes up the game.

The daily life of an ill man is constantly interrupted by television advertisements. They promise some change to his life. He finds himself as a part of the adverts, but soon the empty promises become demonically possessive. The truth sets in.

The film follows three different forensic psychiatric evaluations that take place in the Old Vaasa state's mental hospital in Finland.

Sacre 2: HEX is the second part of The Sacre Trilogy by Anni Puolakka and Jaakko Pallasvuo. The solemn cybergoth dance enthusiast introduced in the first part of the trilogy (Sacre, 2015) has graduated into a smug Wiccan vlogger. Her formerly know-it-all brother has fallen on hard times and now needs her help. Family relations entangle with work anxiety. Virtual and material survival tactics get tested. Spiritual, financial and social layers mesh in money-burning rituals. A damaged sibling dynamic is further destabilized by a seductive alien.

The story of the friendship, shared games and conversations between Finnish and Somali children in a suburb of Vantaa in 2004.

A Milla Nybondas Film.

The Kippari Quartet sings, with the text at the end: Knights' Costumes, Tampereen pukutehdas Oy. The Kippari Quartet advertises Knights' Costumes, singing about a tailor's family.

Finnish shipbuilding at the Valko shipyard to pay war reparations to the Soviet Union

A hedgehog is on a stroll in the woods on the outskirts of the city of Mariehamn on Åland Islands in Finland, while unknowingly being pursued by an unseen predator. Eventually the hedgehog catches wind of the predator and managed to outsmart it by going into hiding. The predator loses track of the hedgehog and continues on in a different direction.

Tensions between a couple surface during a dinner party.

Who does the city belong to?

A dreamlike exploration of motherhood, sexuality and reconciliation.

A work of speculative cinematic writing, the film is about war and displacement, architecture and place-making. It tells the fragmented biography of the so-called Rock Church, an iconic building in Helsinki and its architects who were excluded from the canon of Finnish modernism. The architects' personal history of displacement due to the Finnish Winter War of 1939 and Soviet occupation is braided with the war on present-day Gaza. Past and present histories, temporalities and geographies fold into, and over one another collapsing time, place and identities narratively to consider, in the gentlest of tones, the impact of atrocities on contemporary lifeworlds.

Nastja Säde Rönkkö recites one poem with three narrators: a teardrop, a droplet of blood and a bead of sweat. Each tells love stories through biochemistry – about love, belonging and loss, and about crises lived and impending. The words are vivid but not enough, supercharged here by hyperreal images of landscapes both physical and emotional, and the fluids expressing and crystallising them.

Armed with her book "The ABC of Seduction", a bored and romantic teenage girl disrupts her lazy summer by befriending a mysterious new boy who moves next door - leading to romance and potential damnation.

A documentary about the Helsinki district Pasila in the early 1970's

Master composer Jean Sibelius turned 80 on December 8, 1945. He was not an easy case for filmmakers, as his world had long been closed to outsiders. He was associated with prestige, age and respect. However, Sibelius agreed to make a film in the autumn of 1945. Jean and Aino Sibelius are only seen briefly in the film.

A Silver Bear winning documentary following the daily bustle of working class merchants in Finland of the early 1960s.

This documentary reflects people's desire to be happy in a rapidly changing world, even if that world is as delicate as spring ice. The film looks at the life of the Estonian coastal people on the ice road through the eyes of the Greek traveller Pytheas, 23 centuries after his visit to Estonia.

Kissa is a former thief and Varjo is a police officer. One morning, a woman walks into the men's private detective agency, and they both fall in love with her. To avoid a fight, Varjo takes his boat and leaves. When the sunburnt man returns years later, the woman has been murdered and Kissa has disappeared.

The film is a personal documentary and a growth story about ten-year-old Farah who moved to Finland from Palestine.

The Paper flies away from artist Marja. She tries to tame the Paper by any means necessary, but only understanding the Paper can reveal its true nature.

Two colleagues face a difficult problem when one of them acquires a tail overnight. An animalistic solution is soon found, satisfying everyone involved.

A young woman, Melia, wakes up to find her boyfriend missing. Setting out to look for him, she discovers their friends aren't what they seem.

Suddenly there is an enormous amount of time. At first everything is possible. Anything might happen. Gradually the possible becomes impossible.

Video by the skateboard brand Itä from Finland.

Documentary about young Finish gamers who experience addiction problems with online gaming and how it affects their life.

The final film in The Trilogy of the Sacred and the Satanic, Atman is a spectacular epic across India, all documented on stunning 35mm. When his mother dies, a devout Hindu man named Jamana Lal begins a 3,000-mile journey in her honor. The destination is the holy city of Haridwar, but to get there, Lal, a 35-year-old whose legs have been paralyzed since childhood, must travel up the Ganges River. He is joined by his brother and his wife as well as by director Pirjo Honkasalo and her small, intrepid crew. Midway through, a miracle occurs, as Lal crosses paths with a kindhearted woman named Shanta. Atman blossoms into a love story for the ages.

Documentary on the punk scene in the city of Jyväskylä, Finland.

Three Finnish documentary filmmakers decide to make some easy money by creating a hit mobile game, but are hindered by skeptical investors, tough competition, a constantly changing marketplace and their own inexperience in the field.

"If I quit drinking, I might as well go and hang myself." Tales from the land of a thousand drinks.

At the beginning of the 20th century, Finnish engineer Eric Tigerstedt was one of the most significant innovators in radio technology, although the importance of his work has since been largely forgotten. However, by the 1950s, Finnish radio technology was in its golden age. The film showcases Helkama-Radio Oy's product development along with the manufacture of radio receivers.

Ivan, 58, is a seagull, a Bulgarian ladies’ man hooking up with female tourists at a Sunny Beach resort. He has done this for forty years, ever since the Communist times. Ivan wants to settle down, but that’s not so easy for an old Seagull. He’s got no savings and the pandemic makes things even more difficult: there are no tourists. Ivan supports himself by washing cars and windows. He tries to connect to Russian ladies to help them get visas to the EU and buy property in Bulgaria. He soon understands that he’s not really credible as a serious male companion. Ivan’s real wound is an adult son in Ukraine who refuses to talk to him. Maybe now, in spring 2022, would be the right time to reconnect.