The fate of a culture lies on the shoulders of few determined individuals.
Social & External
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.
The film follows two years of the extremely endangered arctic fox's attempt to return to Finnish nature as a breeding species, as well as the people who try to save the species. Kimmo Ohtonen's tireless toil is finally rewarded, when he manages to capture for the first time in Finland the journey of an arctic fox family in almost 30 years, from the start of romance to raising pups. This is the first time that the reproduction of an arctic fox has been recorded on video. There is a unique journey in the foothills of the North, culminating in a historic event.
Documentary film about four families in Pori, Finland, all struggling with unemployment and poverty.
How to Fix the World? is a comprehensive and informative documentary about direct action in the 1990s and 2000s, directed by Jouko Aaltonen. In the documentary, anarchists, climate activists, and squatters openly describe their experiences and link them to mainstream phenomena in society. A wide range of archive material sheds a light on the history of direct action and activism in the Finnish society.
Finnish award-winning barista Kalle Freese travels to San Francisco with his girlfriend to start an instant coffee start-up with big goals. At stake are Kalle's health, relationship and the newly formed start-up.
Kelet is a twentysomething black trans woman, whose greatest dream is to be on the cover of Vogue magazine. For the Finnish-born and Manchester-raised Kelet, such models as Naomi Campbell and Iman served as role models giving her strength – and during the darkest times, kept her alive. After coming out, then 19-year-old Kelet was cut off from her family and she moved back to Finland on her own.
The documentary Rap and Reindeer follows the life of 18-year-old Sámi rapper Mihkku Laiti, who lives in the northernmost corner of Sámiland. The film is a coming-of-age story, following Mihku on his journey towards a career as a musician and rise to stardom in the midst of varying expectations. He’s charmed the crowd on Talent Suomi and proudly wears the Sámi clothing he has styled himself. He raps and yoiks in harmony, designs his own brand on his computer but also masters the skill of laborious reindeer herding. Above all, he sees his own unique roots and the Sámi language as his greatest strength. The future makes him wonder: to follow his father’s footsteps or to reach for his dreams.
A father of four children gets brutally stabbed several times, with the children present in the family home. During the brutal action, his wife – Anneli Auer – is on the phone to the emergency center. Emergency Call – A Murder Mystery is a documentary film tracking down the story that unfolds after the fatal night. We hear from all emerging sides as the prosecution builds its case against the mother of four. A behind the scenes look into one of the most bizarre unsolved court cases in recent Finnish history.
The documentary proposes a unique meeting with the speakers of several indigenous and inuit languages of Quebec – all threatened with extinction. The film starts with the discovery of these unsung tongues through listening to the daily life of those who still speak them today. Buttressed by an exploration and creation of archives, the film allows us to better understand the musicality of these languages and reveals the cultural and human importance of these venerable oral traditions by nourishing a collective reflection on the consequences of their disappearance.
Wildlife cameraman Gordon Buchanan travels to the frozen north, deep inside the Arctic Circle, to meet the ancient Sami people and the animals they hold so close - reindeer.
A newspaper clip of a 30-year-old movie makes our middle-aged protagonist in the middle of his peak years to look for his best childhood friend. The journey leads him back to his teenage years in the 1990s depression, over-generational substance abuse and past encounters. This partly essayistic, autobiographical documentary tells the story of friendship and generational experiences while also pondering on the causes and effects of destinies in the judgmental atmosphere of our society.
70-year-old Timo makes the most of his short ride to work. Speeding up on a bicycle ends up in a ditch, but the adrenaline rush leaves a feeling of pleasure.
When filmmaker Mari Soppela took her children and husband to live for a year on a sacred mountain in her native Finland, she was fulfilling a lifelong dream to share the arctic wilderness of her childhood with her family. But when years later her children turn the camera onto her, she is forced to confront her motivation for filming their lives in this searching and searingly honest cinematic exploration of identity, belonging and motherhood. Filmed over the course of 27 years, Mother Land challenges us all to examine the landscapes we carry within us and the narratives we create to make sense of our lives.
Known as one of Finland’s most prominent rock institutions, Tavastia club celebrated half a century of being in the business, whilst withstanding the challenges of a global pandemic. In this rockumentary, director Antti Kuivalainen takes us through the history of Tavastia, as the club which brought rock ‘n’ roll to Finland.
For a hundred years, the Association of Finnish Student Unions (SYL) has acted as the mouthpiece for Finnish university students. SYL opened its doors to the world and was a pioneer in both student health care and housing production. At the same time, there have been marches both for developing countries and against the Soviet Union.
Finnish men in sauna, speaking straight from the heart.
Entrepreneur is a universal nature documentary about Finnish entrepreneurs. This warm and carnevalistic film portrays humans in the middle of ordinary everyday survival. The main protagonists come from two totally different kinds of landscapes, from two diffent time zones. There is a scenery of contemporary modern society and just a few hundred kilometres away we find a rural and nostalgic universe with forgotten people and land.Our first protagonists are Fellini-like family, going from village to another, trying to sell meat from a small meat truck and also run a tiny funfair business. The father, the mother and their four children are working together and trusting only in themselves, not in the help of society. While countryside family is counting coins, the other pair of entrepreneurs, the two well-educated women from the capital area, have invented a vegetable protein product called Pulled Oat, and have become millionaires. But have they also made a world a little bit better?
Follows the (successful) presidential campaign of Sauli Niinistö from inside of the campaign office.
Silent Longing is a story about two childless couples who use endless infertility treatments to have a biological child of their own. It is an emotional journey where the idea of a child turns into a silent longing with no certainty of fulfillment.
A different history of the Cold War: how Estonians under Soviet tyranny began to feel the breeze of freedom when a group of anonymous dreamers successfully used improbable methods to capture the Finnish television signal, a window into Western popular culture, brave but harmless warriors who helped change the fate of an entire nation.
