Finland

  • Aleksi Salmenperä – Tyhjiö AKA Void (2018)

    Aleksi Salmenperä2011-2020ComedyDramaFinland

    The story of the tumultuous relationship between a successful actress and a struggling writer.Read More »

  • Klaus Härö – Postia pappi Jaakobille AKA Letters to Father Jacob (2009)

    Drama2001-2010FinlandKlaus Härö

    With few options, newly pardoned convict Leila agrees to work as an assistant to a blind pastor. Father Jacob spends his days answering the letters of the needy, which Leila finds pointless. But when the letters stop, the pastor is devastated and Leila finds herself cast in a new role.Read More »

  • Friðrik Þór Friðriksson – Englar Alheimsins AKA Angels of the Universe (2000)

    Friðrik Þór Friðriksson1991-2000DramaFinland

    Páll is an artistic and sensitive young man. Getting dumped by his girlfriend, Dagny, triggers his descent into madness. We follow him on his way to what seems like inevitable doom; at home with his parents who finally can’t cope, and in the mental institution, Kleppur.Read More »

  • Mika Kaurismäki – Arvottomat AKA The Worthless [+ Extra] (1982)

    Mika Kaurismäki1981-1990CrimeDramaFinland

    Arvottomat (1982)

    A criminal, his friend and his former girlfriend find their lives intertwining with each other.Read More »

  • Virpi Suutari – Aalto AKA Aalto: Architect of Emotions (2020)

    2011-2020ArchitectureDocumentaryFinlandVirpi Suutari

    This captivating exploration of Alver Aalto, the defining figure in Scandic design and one of Europe’s greatest modern architects, focuses on his remarkable and loving partnership with wife, Aino. Theirs was a profoundly humanist vision that put people at the centre of design, and ranged from work in furniture design through to huge architectural projects. They mixed with, and influenced, major figures of modernist art and design including Le Corbusier, Gropius, Moholy-Nagy, and Frank Lloyd Wright. Come on a cinematic tour of their iconic buildings all over the world, from a library in Russia, a student dormitory at MIT, an art collector’s private house near Paris, to a pavilion in Venice. Narrated by experts in the field and featuring never before seen archive footage, Aalto tells the love story of an extraordinary couple with a great passion for human scale architecture.Read More »

  • Thure Bahne – On lautalla pienoinen kahvila AKA Ferryboat Romance (1952)

    1951-1960ComedyFinlandMusicalThure Bahne

    Synopsis:
    Ferryboat Romance was the feature film directing debut of renowned Finnish actor Thure Bahne, who had been a mainstay in Finnish cinema since the 1930s. The film has the stunning journalist Sanni (Tuija Halonen) visiting the countryside to write about the timber industry. Looking for a room she is immediately thrust into the merry community of loggers, always up for a song, but one of them, Hurma-Jussi, is a little too persistent. Luckily, she is saved from Hurma-Jussi’s claws by the handsome lumberjack Eräs (William Markus). Sanni learns about the community by working as an assistant to cook Marleena (played by Finnish icon Siiri Angerkoski), who is pursued by the jolly oaf Metku (character actor Kalle Viherpuu). Persistently rejected by Sanni, Hurma-Jussi turns to drastic measures and kidnaps her, but he has underestimated her friends in the small logging community. The film is beautifully shot and not only wonderfully portrays the romance between a young couple, but even more so the love between the older Marleena and Metku.Read More »

  • Jaakko Pakkasvirta – Kesäkapina AKA Summer Rebellion (1970)

    1961-1970ArthouseFinlandJaakko PakkasvirtaPolitics

    Quote:
    Young photography model Susanna and her alienated teenage brother Veli spend the summer of 1969 travelling around Finland, mostly with another girl and her boyfriend. Sporting the latest fashions and trendy hairdos, they naïvely observe and criticise the modern consumer society, advertising, fancy boats and summer cottages, country dances, barbecues, and any other phenomena that were supposed to bother angry young intellectuals in those days. The plot and the political agenda are delivered with a cheerful, tongue-in-cheek mixture of documentary observations, fake TV commercials, fake interviews, philosophical voiceovers and titles, and a jazzy soundtrack by the progressive rock group Wigwam.Read More »

  • Yrjö Norta – SF-paraati AKA SF Parade (1940)

    1931-1940ComedyFinlandMusicalYrjö Norta

    The first true Finnish movie musical, released in 1940 by Suomen Filmiteollisuus (“SF” for short, hence the title), though some would grant this honor to Suomi-Filmi’s Meidän poikamme merellä (“Our Boys at Sea”, 1933), a film showcasing the Finnish navy as well as the singing talents of composer Georg Malmstén. The songs for SF Parade were also composed by Malmstén, who appears in a small role, but the true stars of the film are Tauno Palo and Ansa Ikonen, already well-known from romantic comedies of the ’30s such as Everybody’s Love and Substitute Wife. They would go on to star in the studio’s next musical and one of the most popular Finnish films of all time, The Vagabond’s Waltz of 1941.Read More »

  • Mikko Niskanen – Käpy selän alla AKA Under Your Skin (1966)

    1961-1970ArthouseDramaFinlandMikko Niskanen

    Synopsis:
    Mikko Niskanen’s famous new wave film about the ’60s urban intellectuals who get faced in the Finnish countryside with loads of beer.Read More »

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