Discoveries from Finland World Cinema

A sponsored film promoting the Finnish wood processing and paper industries

An experimental short film by Risto Jarva.

The year is 1965. A list of British nuclear weapon installations slips out of the hands of the Defense Minister. George Whitebrooke is sent to stop a deal from taking place before it starts raining hell-fire.

Short about a coffee break.

Circus short film Inspired by the Pasila Street Art District in Helsinki exploring urban life from unexpected angles. Collaboration between contemporary circus group Race Horse Company, music producer RRKK and the Helsinki Urban Art.

Pitch-dark symphony of a pyromaniac at nocturnal streets of a city.

Veteran soldier-skiers of the Winter War, today take part in an annual skiing competition. The Skiers tells the story in a handful of words and a few telling pictures.

Documentary film about Africa.

Hunger and privation have made life a living hell for a fish in a goldfish bowl. Because his owner doesn’t feed him properly, the fish’s attention begins to wander more and more often to the house next door. Perhaps he will find help from the neighbours – in particular from the little girl who lives there. When there is no improvement in sight to his sad lot, he decides to break out of the tortuous confines of his bowl.

A short animated documentary exploring near-death experiences through five culturally diverse narratives, using real audio recordings. Through experimental visuals, it guides viewers on a transcendent voyage beyond mortality, unveiling how these experiences profoundly impact the essence of life, blurring the boundaries between existence and the mysteries of the afterlife.

Oksana, a Ukrainian doctor, is living in Finland when Russia attacks Ukraine. She hops on a bus with Finnish volunteers and heads to the border of Ukraine and Poland. The goal of these rescue operations is to bring as many Ukrainians fleeing the war to Finland as possible.

Lone Star Hotel is a touching journey into the mental landscape of a Finnish man who ponders on his future, his life and the realisation of his dreams.

Peik is a bird watcher who suffers from Parkinson's. He has one rare bird left on his checklist that lives on an island. While looking for this beautiful bird through his binoculars, he instead witnesses a murder.

What will the future look like in a world facing escalating climate change? Director and screenwriter Anu Pennanen asks random petrol station visitors to imagine what the future will look like. Will humans be able to solve the climate crisis and save our own lives? The petrol station serves as a starting point for future visions and dystopias. How is traffic in five years, and how do we move from one place to another? Can we avoid wars if we keep using fossil fuels?

No Life No Limits

Cinematic equivalent of a 7-inch vinyl record and a bow to the Finnish ufologist Juhan af Grann.

What if another world is already here: Materializing posthuman feminist thoughts on female/animal/technology, an AI recording body enters a parasitic conference and feeds off an academic institution and its resources. "We Bites Us" combines film, AI, and social interactions to suggest organizational scores for artistic production and collaborations.

Big events in our lives and on the planet often start with something small. The author therefore puts different species of mosquitoes and her own childhood under the microscope. Scientific facts about the tiny bloodsucking creatures are mixed with personal memories in a ghostly narrative. To understand the past and prepare for the future, both require equal attention.

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.

Documentary comedy about Soviet Union, and Finnish vodka tourists travelling to Leningdrad to drink and live like lords.

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.

Animated stories of Santa Clause and Christmas based on a book by Mauri Kunnas by the same name.

Reorganized fragments of television commercials create an illusion that is different from the original clips. The images are still enchanting and appealing, but lack a direct connection to the product. The context and interpretation become more vague and open.

A musical short film that showcases the best aspects of Kainuu, honestly depicts the challenges facing the region, and vows that cooperation will lead to a new era of prosperity for this beloved homeland by leveraging the region's own strengths. Saga Caiania is a tribute to Kainuu, and its fictional story is told through three musical parts.

A lovelorn traffic warden must make a choice when her principles get in the way of her being accepted by others.

A filmmaker tells about her vision of directing a neo-western about two newcomers in Finland. When violence on the imaginary frontier escalates in the form of a flying potato, the ‘fictitious’ figures begin to speak about their real experiences.

Juha Taskinen is Finland's best-known photographer of the endangered Saimaa ringed seal and has done his life's work protecting this beautiful home species of Lake Saimaa.

A documentary film that interweaves the lives of two main characters: Sergey and Anna. Sergey is an entrepreneur who provides military tours to foreigners. His story is about the rise of his small empire, from a small company made with the help of friends to a huge money machine that becomes the most successful firm for extreme tourism in Ukraine. Anna is a volunteer who had to escape from Donetsk (her hometown) at the beginning of the conflict between Ukraine and Russia. She teaches art and games to children and often travels to Donbas to provide them dresses and toys. This life gives her meaning and fulfillment, but after meeting Alex on a night train, she falls in love with him and abandons her ideals. Unfortunately, Alex leaves her when she gets pregnant with his baby. She's alone in Kyiv with no money and no place to live, facing an uncertain fate. Will their paths cross? What do their stories tell us about modern Ukraine?

'Grey' is the second part of a series of experimental films dealing with emotional distress caused by the death of a close person. The film depicts a stand still and the pressure for building a new life: the encountering of the greyness of the everyday life and re-connecting with the outside world.

A documentary about the destruction of the childhood landscape.

Documentary about Finnish concentration camps build for Russians inhabiting the Karelia area during the Continuation War.

Gabriel found a very nice bike. Unfortunately, there is a little detail that bothers him: it's pink.

Some stuff I made one evening utilizing GTA V. Inspired by Phil Solomon's Rehearsals for Retirement.

Team Splattenstein's "signature film" – and, depending on how you count, the first part of a four-part trilogy.

Much to the sorrow of Kaj's mother, the engineer's son marries the beautiful but frivolous Doris instead of his serious foster sister Leonore.

The Big Crunch is a video installation that presents images to the viewer that communicate the presence of humans on earth, evolution and human intelligence. All images are carefully composited according to the divine proportions. We see images poetically and metaphorically representing the beginning of mathematical innovations to the projected end of the world, the big crunch. Our observations and our learning shape the universe into being, time is a creation of our minds, laws are generated by our thoughts and conclusions.

Where do nightmares come from? In sámi mythology it is believed that deattán causes them.

A man digs up another man's grave in order to claim something that belongs to him.

Part time Twitch streamer, part time drug courier; both low level. Slithering between life and death, online and offline. The carefree summer of global progress seems to be over - are these the final days of both, the illusion of overarching narrative, and of Jerome the Saint.

The latest outing from Mikko Löppönen (The Cold Dark, Witcher – Mines of Eeclor), a jack of all trades of Finland’s genre shorts landscape, features some stunningly choreographed and skillfully paced fight set pieces in a semi-fantastic setting echoing Game of Thrones.

The story of a Chilean refugee, marked by imprisonment and torture, illustrates the tragedy suffered by victims of violence in Latin America during the years of dictatorship.

The hypnotically pulsed bottom sediment of spring in the middle of wilderness enchants. It vibrates with seductive energy that invite to other realm under the earth. Who’s witnesses it hypnosis experiences a vision that curves the surface of soul.

In Heiskuja, the architect and director of the film Georg Grotenfelt follows Heiskanen’s life and work in the Lallukka Artists’ Home during 2012–15.

Päivi, being haunted by her past, has grown accustomed to a life in the solitude of rural Finland. When needing temporary residence during an asylum application process, Abdul, who has grown up in a densely populated city in Afghanistan, is confounded by the never-ending emptiness of his new temporary home at Päivi’s farm.

A portrait of the Finnish filmmaker Rauni Mollberg who made a notable splash on the international festival circuit in 1974 with his feature debut, “The Earth Is A Sinful Song”, based on a novel by Timo K. Mukka, one of Finland’s most controversial young writers.

The story of the life of Finnish Marshal Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim through documentary clips and photographs.