Shahed / The Witness

 

Nader Saeivar: // شاهد //Shahed / The Witness (DE/AT 2024) starring Maryan Boubani as Boubani.

Sodankylän Elokuvajuhlat / Midnight Sun Film Festival (MSFF) 2025.

Viewed at the Red Tent, 15 June 2025.

IMDb capsule: "After seeing a government official commit murder in Iran, retired dance instructor Tarlan faces a choice: stay quiet under political pressure or risk everything to expose the truth."

SHAHED / THE WITNESS

Tuomo Marttila (MSFF 2025): "Scriptwriter-director Nader Saeivar is known for his collaboration with Iranian film luminary Jafar Panah, who has also visited Sodankylä. Panah was also involved in writing the script for Saeivar’s latest film, The Witness, which won an award in Venice and was inspired by the fight for women’s freedom in Iran. Retired dance teacher Tarlan (Maryam Boubani) witnesses the ongoing abuse and eventual possible murder of her close friend (Hana Kamkar). Behind the violence is her friend’s husband (Nader Naderpour), who works for the government. To get justice Tarlan does everything she can, despite opposition from social forces."

"Like Panah, Saeivar uses a documentary approach in his film, drawing parallels between the struggle for freedom and the expressive power of dance as a means of resisting oppressive legislation. The film depicts intergenerational relationships in a changing culture where various interdependencies drive individuals’ actions. However, its cinematography emphasises Tarlan’s loneliness."

"The Witness shifts into a universal social crime drama comparable to the award-winning works of Mohammad Rasoulof and Asghar Farhadi. The Witness inspires faith in the resistance against an oppressive system through individual perseverance, organisation, and Gandhian non-violent resistance." Tuomo Marttila

NADER SAEIVAR

Tuomo Marttila (MSFF 2025): "Nader Saeivar (born in Tabriz in 1974) is a filmmaker who collaborates with Jafar Panahi and teaches cinema. Saeivar began his career in 1992 with short films and has grown up with the narrative traditions of Russian and Eastern European cinema. Dedicated to filmmaking and keeping it secret with Panah’s support, Saeivar has had his Cannes-winning screenplay 3 Faces (Se rokh, 2018) and his two previous directorial efforts, The Alien (Namo, 2020) and No End (No End, No endeu, 2022), screened at international film festivals. Saeivar’s defence of human rights and artistic freedom places him in the continuum of stand-taking Iranian cinema. We can expect a lot from him in the future, perhaps even a visit to the land of the midnight sun, as his mentor did." (TMa)

SHAHED CREDITS

// شاهد //

Germany/Austria 2024. DIRECTOR: Nader Saeivar. SCREENPLAY: Nader Saeivar, Jafar Panahi • CINEMATOGRAPHY: Rouzbeh Raiga • EDITING: Jafar Panahi • PRODUCTION DESIGN: Leila Naghdi • COSTUMES: Leila Naghdi • SOUND: Behniya Yousefi • MUSIC: Karwan Marouf • CAST: Maryam Boubani, Hana Kamkar, Nadr Naderpour, Abbas Imani, Ghazal Shojaei • PRODUCTION: ArtHood Films, Golden Girls Filmproduktion, Sky Films I • PRODUCERS: Said Nur Akkus, Sabine Gruber, Arash T. Riani, Silvana Santamaria • PRINT SOURCE: Arthood • FORMAT: DCP • LANGUAGE: persia/Persian • SUBTITLES: englanti/English • 100 min

AA: Nader Saeivar's Shahed is another masterpiece of the Iranian cultural diaspora, a brilliant pair to Mohammad Rasolof's The Seed of the Sacred Fig with which it shares the historical moment (the 2022 protest movement in reaction to the death of Mahsa Amini) and the emphasis on female revolutionary power. This is a film wave in which we can feel that the world is about to move on, a topic of relevance for Iran and the whole world.

The movie is a great drama and a powerful thriller of the classic school. It is story-driven, character-driven and theme-driven. The cast is perfect, and the film proceeds with a calm, determined drive. 

The story of the murder of Zara (Hana Kamkar) by her husband Solat (Nader Naderpour), a sinister Mr. Big of the Iranian security forces, leaves her daughter Ghazal (Ghazal Shojaei) motherless. Zara herself was an orphan who was raised by the dance teacher Tarlan (Maryam Bobani) as her own daughter. They are all devastated, but Tarlan, an union activist and a social activist, does not give up despite intimidation and betrayal on every step of the way. 

The counterforce is the female solidarity at the dance school, a source of joy and beauty. Tarlan responds to the intimidation in the spirit of Mandela. Surrounded by four menacing security agents, she engages in friendly small talk with one of them, a former student of hers. When they patrol 24/7 by her home, she treats them to tea. But in the finale she is about to commit a fatal retribution, only stopped by Ghazal.

The film ends in a magnificent poetic finale, transcending the circumstances of the authoritarian rule, in a note of invincible hope and spirit.

In the final credits we can also read memorial plaques of the heroines of the 2022 revolt.

Shahed is my favourite of the films seen in Sodankylä in 2025.

D Is for Distance (Finnish premiere) (in the presence of Chris Petit, Mika Taanila and Olaf Möller)

 

Chris Petit & Emma Matthews: D Is for Distance (FI 2025). Louis Petit on a fell in Lapland. Foto Jussi Eerola.

Sodankylän Elokuvajuhlat / Midnight Sun Film Festival (MSFF) 2025.

In the presence of Chris Petit, Mika Taanila and Olaf Möller.

Viewed at the Big Top, 14 June 2025.

IMDb: "A film essay montage of contemporary footage, archive and cinema history, about the age of post-truth and how one young man's childhood epilepsy became representative of the woes of the world and how he triumphed against adversity."

Olaf Möller (MSFF 2025): "Fifteen filmless years have passed since Content (if we ignore Petit’s minute contribution to the omnibus The Film That Buys the Cinema, 2014). But in a certain way, Petit was always busy with it, as Emma Matthews and he were raising their son, Louis, who suffers from a gruesomely debilitating form of epilepsy that wiped out his whole memory of childhood."

"Obviously, they weren’t thinking about cinema while doing their best as parents, and they surely didn’t see Louis as the future protagonist of a film; and Discontent, as D Is for Distance was originally to be called, was anyway supposed to be something quite different: a paranoid politics speculation not unlike the performance project Museum of Loneliness presents Lee Harvey Oswald’s Last Dream (2014). But then it became another road movie, this time Finland-bound, during which the parents remember the tribulations of their son’s younger years through video they taped while creating together new memories in reality as well as on data cards for a future unknown."

"Many other subjects get mentioned, but what one remembers most in the end is that small family trying so hard to live decently in a world that has turned pernicious." Olaf Möller

FINLAND, 2025. DIRECTOR: CHRIS PETIT, EMMA MATTHEWS. SCREENPLAY: Chris Petit, Emma Matthews • CINEMATOGRAPHY: Jussi Eerola, Emma Matthews, Chris Petit • EDITING: 

Emma Matthews • SOUND: Olli Huhtanen • MUSIC: Rio Harada-Parr • CAST: Jodhi May, Chris Petit, Louis Petit • PRODUCTION: Testifilmi • PRODUCERS: Mika Taanila, Jussi Eerola, Ida Karakoski • PRINT SOURCE: Testifilmi • FORMAT: DCP • LANGUAGE: englanti/English • SUBTITLES: no subtitles • 85 min

    International festival premiere: 1 Feb 2025 Rotterdam.

    A marvellous oldies soundtrack:

- Johannes Brahms: "Wiegenlied" (1868)

- Florida Normal and Industrial Institute Quartette: "Dis Train" (Is Bound for Glory) 1922

- Ernest V. Stoneman: "The Titanic" (1924)

- Harry McClintock: "Red River Valley" (1928)

- Cab Calloway: "St. James Infirmary Blues" (1933) in: Dave Fleischer: Betty Boop in Snow White

- Dimitri Tiomkin (comp.) & Paul Francis Webster (lyr.): "My Rifle, My Pony and Me" (tune from Red River, lyrics from Rio Bravo)

AA: Chris Petit's D Is for Distance is a shatteringly personal road movie. No longer a saga about the alienation of the protagonist, this time the journey is about the parents' quest to help their son Louis Petit who is coming to terms with a unique and vicious case of epilepsy and malpractice after a dangerous drug destroyed the his memory and identity.

 

It is an associative montage film that combines home movies, a road movie structure and a run of early cinema samples (Edwin S. Porter, Georges Méliès).

All comes together in a dream flow. We move in a zone between the conscious and the unconscious. We hear the majestic surge of the sea. We fly as pioneers in a deep inner space. 

We learn about drugs. Clobotsan. Bedrolit. Cannbiszon. We learn about paranoia: William S. Burroughs vs. George Orwell. We learn about the CIA spymaster James Jesus Angleton, chief of the counterintelligence department of the Central Intelligence Agency, himself suffering from paranoia. CIA's experimental methods and illegal tests with mind-altering drugs are discussed.

Analogue boredom and digital boredom are among the topics. The image bank has exploded. AI has no goosebumps, no fear, no excitement. In the grand post-digital mess, Burroughs is preferable to Orwell who has no sense of the pleasure principle.

Art, such as the paintings of the German Renaissance master Matthias Grünewald, help make sense of the hallucinations from bad medicine.

The road movie takes us way up North, passing through Sodankylä, to the top of a high fell. This road movie is not about the destination. The journey is the destination.

The paintings and drawings of Louis Petit are fabulous. I look forward to a monograph exhibition.

Les Sièges de l'Alcazar (Olaf Möller masterclass, Sodankylä 2025)

 

Luc Moullet: Les Sièges de l'Alcazar (FR 1989). Taking notes in the first row, usually reserved for children.

Luc Moullet: Les Sièges de l'Alcazar (FR 1989). It is not a given to access a seat in the first row meant for children, since tickets are cheaper there. But at last, Guy acquires a green card and free access as a professional critic.

Sodankylän Elokuvajuhlat / Midnight Sun Film Festival (MSFF) 2025.

Olaf Möller masterclass "Green Flash a Decade Long"

At the School, 14 June 2025.

IMDb synopsis: "Paris, 1955. Guy, film critic of the Cahiers du Cinéma, often goes to see the films of Vittorio Cottafavi in a local cinema. One day he notices that Jeanne, film critic of "Positif ", the rival magazine, seems to be following him. He is intrigued."

Olaf Möller (MSFF 2025): "Guy Moscardo and Jeanne Cavalero fall in love. But what at other times and places would be a simple affair of the heart turns at a fleapit called Alcazar into a cruel confrontation between ideological blocks: Guy sits in the first row centre, writes for Cahiers du Cinéma, and has understood that film’s greatest genius is Vittorio Cottafavi – Jeanne sits in the back somewhat to the side, writes for Positif, and has understood that film’s greatest genius is Michelangelo Antonioni. How on earth is this supposed to end in happiness and bliss?"

"Luc Moullet started to write for Cahiers du Cinéma in 1956, and thus knows how many film historical liberties he took here – which are many! – to make his points about the madness of love and the idiocy of orthodoxy in a charmingly screwy and always ballsy fashion. When the film came out towards the end of the Cold War, it was easy to mistake it for a simple piece of nostalgic cinephile fun. The decades since have shown that Les Sièges de l’Alcazar is about much more sinister, and far more general things than mere passion for the movies – but maybe we should again learn to love the movies as if they actually meant something, as if Cottafavi vs. Antonioni was indeed a matter of life and death?" (OM)

FRANCE 1989. DIRECTOR: LUC MOULLET. SCREENPLAY: Luc Moullet • CINEMATOGRAPHY: Richard Copans • EDITING: Guy Lecorne • PRODUCTION DESIGN: Marie-Josèphe Médan • COSTUMES: Rose-Marie Melka • SOUND: Patrick Frédérich • CAST: Olivier Maltinti, Elizabeth Moreau, Sabine Haudepin, Dominique Zardi, Micha Bayard • PRODUCTION: Les Films d’Ici, La Sept Cinéma • PRODUCERS: Suzel Gaillard • PRINT SOURCE: Les Films d’Ici • FORMAT: DCP • LANGUAGE: French • SUBTITLES: English • 54 min

AA: A droll satire on cinephilia written and directed by Luc Moullet, a veteran of deepest cinephilia himself. 

The rivalry of the socially conscious Positif and the l'art pour l'art tribune Cahiers du Cinéma is complicated by a reluctant but growing attraction between a female Positif critic and a male Cahiers critic. It's hate at first sight.

Olaf Möller made the important remark that in reality, all French film critics at the time were male.

The film is a piece of humoristic fiction but also of an almost anthropological interest as an account of the lives of cinema owners and film buffs.

Vittorio Cottafavi was a cult director also in Finnish cinephilia at the time. 

Clips included: 

Traviata '53 / Fille d'amour / Rakkauden tytär (IT/FR 1953)

Nel gorgo del peccato / L'Affranchi / Der ewige Lied der Liebe / Eternal Song of Love (IT/DE 1954)

Una donna libera / Femmes libres / A Free Woman (IT/FR 1954)

Opening credit tune: "El degüello" the Mexican bugle call, used by the Mexican Army in 1838 during the Battle of the Alamo to signal that the defenders of the garrison would receive no quarter from General Santa Anna, arranged by Dimitri Tiomkin for Rio Bravo (US 1959). From "degollar", meaning throat-cutting. "No mercy".

The title of the film is a wordplay on Augusto Genina's L'assedio dell'Alcazar / Sin novedad en el Alcázar / The Siege of Alcazar (IT/ES 1940), released in France as Le Siège de l'Alcazar, a key Antikomintern movie a co-production of Fascist Italy and Falangist Spain, a key film in the cult of El Caudillo, the dictator Francisco Franco. 

In French, "siège" means both "siege" and "seat".

Sodankylä morning discussion 2025: Athina Rachel Tsangari

Athina Rachel Tsangari. Photo: Midnight Sun Film Festival.

Athina Rachel Tsangari presenting Harvest (2025). The Red Tent, Sodankylä, 12  June 2025.

Moderated by Otto Kylmälä. In English. 60 min

The School, Midnight Sun Film Festival (MSFF), Sodankylä, 14 June 2025

MSFF RESUME OF THE ATHINA RACHEL TSANGARI MORNING DISCUSSION: 1) ENGLISH

"The first film that director Athina Rachel Tsangari remembers watching was a nature documentary by Jean Jacques Cousteau. Tsangari believes the film made a lasting impression on her, as she still loves nature documentaries and their calming male narration voices."

"She spent her childhood summers with friends at outdoor cinema screenings in her hometown, watching works including those by Pier Paolo Pasolini. Yet in her youth, she never dreamed of working in the film industry."

"“As a little girl and a young woman in Greece, it was  science fiction to think that you could ever become a filmmaker, it was never in the cards for me”, Tsangari says."

"Tsangari studied literature, theatre studies, and philosophy at a Greek university. She says she organized protests and was part of a Marxist left-wing movement from the age of 15."

"Finding the atmosphere in Greece and its arts scene too limiting, she applied to study in the United States. While studying in New York and Austin, Texas, she discovered a new passion for filmmaking."

"“My thesis was about nomadic people, urban nomadism in New York, in a big city. — I had the camera literally being part of my body, I would literally not separate from it, I just couldn’t live without it.”"

"Tsangari says she also learned a great deal about producing films in the U.S. With almost no public funding available, producing indie films and organizing film festivals required creativity and frugality."

"When she couldn’t extend her residency permit in the U.S., she returned to Greece. She found work on the opening ceremony of the Athens Olympics, where Giorgos Lanthimos had been hired as the visual director. The two connected well and bonded over their backgrounds in experimental theatre. Tsangari went on to produce Lanthimos’s films Kinetta (2005) and Dogtooth (2009)."

"According to film theorists, Tsangari became part of a new postmodern movement called the “Greek Weird Wave.”"

"“For critics and historians it’s just a way of doing taxonomy of cinema, but at the same time flattening it. We never saw ourselves as any wave, there’s always a zeitgeist and mutual influence. Yorgos and I both came from theatre and dance, this understanding on physicalizing actions, working through rehearsals. Weird… it’s quite unfortunate, I’m not happy with that.”"

"Tsangari says she’s happy about the changes she’s seen in the Greek film industry. She notes that more and more producers are women and feels that, through her own production company, she has helped cultivate a new generation of female filmmakers."

"Tsangari strives to avoid dogmatism in her directing. Her approach is theatrical, with film scenes developed and rehearsed extensively in a collaborative working group."

"“It’s not just collaboration, the cast and crew really become one organism. We become this animal, a new animal.”" MSFF RESUME

Which film would you take to the desert island? Andrei Rublev

2) FINNISH:

"Ensimmäinen elokuva, jonka ohjaaja Athina Rachel Tsangari muistaa katsoneensa, oli Jean Jacques Cousteaun luontodokumentti. Tsangari arvelee elokuvan tehneen häneen lähtemättömän vaikutuksen, sillä hän rakastaa yhä luontodokumentteja ja niiden rauhoittavia miesjuontajaääniä."

"Hän vietti lapsuuden kesiä ystäviensä kanssa kotikaupunkinsa ulkoilmaelokuvanäytöksissä katsoen muun muassa Pier Paolo Pasolinin teoksia. Vielä nuoruudessaan hän ei haaveillut elokuva-alalla työskentelemisestä."

"“Tyttönä tai nuorena naisena Kreikassa olisi ollut aivan tieteisfiktiota ajatella, että itsestä voisi tulla elokuvaohjaaja”, Tsangari sanoo."

"Tsangari opiskeli kreikkalaisessa yliopistossa kirjallisuutta, teatteritiedettä ja filosofiaa. Hän kertoo järjestäneensä protesteja ja olleensa mukana marxilaisessa vasemmistoliikkeessä 15-vuotiaasta saakka. Tsangari koki Kreikan ja sen taidealan ilmapiirin rajoittavaksi, ja haki opiskelemaan Yhdysvaltoihin. Hän löysi New Yorkissa ja Texasin Austinissa opiskellessaan uuden intohimon elokuvien tekemistä kohtaan."

"“Kun tein lopputyötäni New Yorkissa, kamera oli kuin osa kehoani, en voinut irrottautua siitä hetkeksikään, en voinut elää ilman sitä.”"

"Tsangari kertoo oppineensa myös paljon tuottamisesta Yhdysvalloissa. Julkisen rahoituksen puuttuessa lähes täysin, täytyi indie-elokuvia tuottaessa ja elokuvafestivaaleja järjestäessä olla kekseliäs ja säästeliäs."

"Kun Tsangari ei saanut pidennettyä oleskelulupaansa Yhdysvalloissa, hän palasi Kreikkaan. Tsangari sai töitä Ateenan olympialaisten avajaisseremoniassa, jonka visuaaliseksi johtajaksi oli palkattu Giórgos Lánthimos. Työpari löysi yhteisen sävelen, ja heitä yhdisti muun muassa tausta kokeellisessa teatterissa. Tsangari tuotti Lánthimosin ohjaamat elokuvat Kinetta (2005) ja Dogtooth (2009)."

"Tsangarista tuli elokuvateoreetikkojen mukaan osa uutta postmodernia suuntausta, joka nimettiin ‘Kreikkalaiseksi oudoksi aalloksi’."

"“Elokuvakriitikoilla ja -historioitsijoilla on tapana tehdä taksonomiaa, mutta samalla latistaa elokuvia. Emme nähneet itseämme minkään aallon edustajana, vaikka läsnä oli tietynlainen zeitgeist ja otimme toisiltamme vaikutteita. Nimitys on valitettava, en pidä siitä.”"

"Tsangari kertoo olevansa iloinen muutoksesta, jonka hän on nähnyt Kreikan elokuva-alalla. Hän kertoo yhä useamman tuottajan olevan nainen, ja kokee osaltaan olleensa tuotantoyhtiönsä kautta kasvattamassa uutta naiselokuvatekijöiden sukupolvea."

"Tsangari haluaa välttää dogmaattisuutta ohjaustyössään. Hän kertoo metodinsa olevan teatterinomainen, ja elokuvan kohtauksia työstetään ja harjoitellaan pitkään kollektiivisena työryhmänä."

"“Kyse ei ole ainoastaan siitä että tekisimme yhteistyötä, vaan työryhmästä tulee todella yksi organismi, kuin kokonaan uusi eläin”, hän sanoo." MSFF

Minkä elokuvan ottaisit autiolle saarelle? Andrei Rublev.

TIMO MALMI: ATHINA RACHEL TSANGARI INTRODUCTION IN THE FESTIVAL CATALOGUE 1) FINNISH:

"Kun Athina Rachel Tsangari vieraili Sodankylässä 2011, kreikkalainen elokuva teki kansainvälistä läpimurtoaan. Alettiin puhua ”kreikkalaisesta uudesta aallosta”, ja Athina Rachel Tsangari oli yksi tämän vapautumisen puhurin airueista – vanhoja kaavoja kaatavien Attenbergin (2010) ohjaaja ja Yorgos Lanthimosin Dogtoothin (2009) apulaistuottaja."

"Tsangarilla on kreikkalaiseen elokuvaan ulkopuolista näkökulmaa: hän lähti kotimaastaan 19-vuotiaana Yhdysvaltoihin palatakseen takaisin vasta 12 vuotta myöhemmin. Hän opiskeli New Yorkin yliopistossa performanssitaidetta, mistä sanoo oppineensa paljon ihmisen käyttäytymisen, liikkumisen ja puhumisen tarkkailemisesta ja esittämisestä. Tsangari asui kahdeksan vuotta myös Texasin Austinissa, missä hän näytteli ”kreikkalaista serkkua” Richard Linklaterin opiskelija- ja sukupolvikuvauksessa Slacker (Sodankylässä 1995). Tsangarin esikoisohjaus, scifi-road-movie The Slow Business of Going (2000) sai pientä huomiota festivaaleilla, mutta hän sai odottaa kymmenen vuotta seuraavan pitkän elokuvan tekemistä ja kansainvälistä läpimurtoaan. Kreikan talouskriisin ensiaalloissa valmistuneessa Attenbergissa voidaan nähdä selvästi kansallisia ominaispiirteitä. Hilpeästi tanssahtelevat välinumerot viittaavat perinteisen kreikkalaisen kuoron käyttöön teatterissa. Tyttären ja isän suhteessa voidaan ohjaajan mukaan nähdä ”perhefasismin”, Kreikassa vielä vahvan suvun, vaikutuksesta vapautumista."

"Tsangarin sittemmin tekemät pitkät elokuvat kuvaavat toisenlaisia mutta ei yhtään vähemmän kieroja yhteisöjä. Chevalier (2015) on komedia kalastusmatkasta luksusjahdilla, jossa miehet alkavat pisteyttää toisiaan pimeässä alfauroskisassa. Harvest (2024) on Jim Cracen läpikehutun romaanin filmatisointi ja Tsangarin ensimmäinen englanninkielinen elokuva." Timo Malmi

2) ENGLISH:

"The last time Athina Rachel Tsangari visited the Midnight Sun Film Festival, in 2011, Greek cinema was making its international breakthrough. Tsangari, the director of the iconoclastic Attenberg and the assistant producer of Dogtooth, was mentioned as one of the harbingers of this new liberation."

"Tsangari has an outsider’s perspective to Greek cinema: she left her native country for United States when 19, and did not return until 12 years later. She studied performance art at the University of New York, an experience she says taught her a great deal about observing and performing human behaviour, movement and speech. Tsangari also lived for eight years in Austin, Texas, and appeared as the “Greek cousin” in Richard Linklater’s student and generation film Slacker (Midnight Sun Film Festival 1995). Tsangari’s debut feature film as a director, the “sci-fi road movie” The Slow Business of Going (2000) did not go entirely unnoticed on the festival circuit, but she nevertheless had to wait ten years for the opportunity to make another film – which became her international breakthrough. Attenberg (2010), completed when the financial crisis hit Greece, features some elements that can clearly be considered national idiosyncrasies. The cheerful dance numbers between episodes appear as commentary on the use of the choir in classic Greek theatre, while the relationship between the daughter and the father shows emancipation from “family fascism”, noting the strong role that family still has in Greece."

"Since her last visit Tsangari has depicted equally twisted communities of different types in her feature films. Chevalier (2015) is a comedy set on a luxury yacht where six men start to measure their alpha maleness by giving each other points. Tsangari’s latest film Harvest (2024), an adaption of a Jim Crace novel, is set in a rural community some time before industrial revolution." Timo Malmi

ATHINA RACHEL TSANGARI FILMOGRAPHY:

AS DIRECTOR

Fit (lyhyt/short, 1994), The Slow Business of Going (2000), 2 (valkokangasta varten kuvattu tanssiteatteriesitys /dance-theater performance for the screen, 2007), Instant Instants (episodi/episode ”Marina No. 5”, 2009), Attenberg (2010), The Capsule (lyhyt/short, 2012), 24 Frames Per Century (lyhyt/short, 2013), Venice 70: Future Reloaded (elokuvan osa / segment, 2013), The Benaki Museum (lyhyt/short, 2013), Borgia (tv-sarja/TV series, 2014), Chevalier (2015), Seven Seas (lyhyt/short, 2016), After Before (lyhyt/ short, 2016), 30/30 Vision: 3 Decades of Strand Releasing (elokuvan osa / segment, 2019), Trigonometry (tv-sarja/TV series, 2020), Upload (tv-sarja/ TV-series, 2022), Harvest (2024)

 

AS PRODUCER

Fit (lyhyt/short, 1994), The Slow Business of Going (2000), Pleasureland (lyhyt/ short, 2001), Kinetta (2005), Palestine Blues (videodokumentti/video documentary, 2006), Kynodontas/Dogtooth (2009), Lovers of Hate (2010), Attenberg (2010), Alps (2011), The Capsule (lyhyt/short, 2012), Pearblossom Hwy (2012), Before Midnight (yhteistuottaja/co-producer 2013), 24 Frames Per Century (lyhyt/short, 2013), Lustlands (lyhyt/short, 2013), Lake Los Angeles (vastaava tuottaja / executive producer, 2014), Petting Zoo (yhteistuottaja/co-producer 2015), Chevalier (2015), Sandy Beach (lyhyt/short, 2016), After Before (lyhyt/short, 2016), The Invisible Hands (vastaava tuottaja / executive producer 2017), Preparation (lyhyt/short, 2017), End of Life (2018), Gomenaki (lyhyt/short, vastaava tuottaja / executive producer, 2018), Fireflies (yhteistuottaja/co-producer, 2018), Digger (2020), Trigonometry (tv-sarja/tv series, vastaava tuottaja / executive producer, 2020), Ladies in Waiting (2023), Harvest (2024), MACDO (2024)

 

AS SCREENWRITER

Fit (lyhyt/short, 1994), The Slow Business of Going (tarina/story, 2000),  Attenberg (2010), The Capsule (lyhyt/short, 2012), The Benaki Museum (lyhyt/short, 2013), Chevalier (2015), Harvest (2024)

AS EDITOR

Fit (lyhyt/short, 1994), The Slow Business of Going (2000), Palestine Blues (videodokumentti/ video documentary, 2006)

 

AS CINEMATOGRAPHER

Fit (lyhyt/short, 1994), Independent Lens (tv-sarja, dokumentti / TV series, documentary) (kameraoperaattori /camera operator, 1 jakso/ 1 episode: ”Los Trabajadores/The Workers”, 2003), Palestine Blues (videodokumentti/video documentary, 2006), A People in the Shadows (dokumentti /documentary, 2008), After Before (lyhyt/short, 2016)

 

AS SOUND RECORDIST

Clean, Shaven (1993), The Significant Other (lyhyt/short, 1994), Palestine Blues (videodokumentti /video documentary, 2006), After Before (short, 2016)

Sodankylä morning discussion 2025: Chris Petit

 

Chris Petit, Sodankylä, 13 June 2025. Foto Mpe.

Chris Petit. Photo: Midnight Sun Film Festival.

Moderated by Olaf Möller. 60 min

The School, Midnight Sun Film Festival (MSFF), Sodankylä, 14 June 2025.

CHRIS PETIT INTRODUCTION IN THE FESTIVAL CATALOGUE

Olaf Möller (MSFF 2025): "When Radio On hit the screens for real in 1980, English cinema could hail a new auteur to reckon with: Christopher Petit, as he got credited then. Chris, as he refers to himself these days, had already made a name for himself before embarking on his maiden journey as a director: For the better part of the 70s, he was the Film Editor of Time Out and a writer for the music weekly Melody Maker, which both back then meant something."

"Radio On is special in English cinema, because it fuses the local and the cosmopolitan in ways no other director had done since The Archers ie. Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger. It’s a film that documents the wasteland of industrial England during the long Winter of Discontent that led to the election of Margaret Thatcher – in a visual style commonly connected to the film’s co-producer, Wim Wenders, by way of the incomparable director of photography Martin Schäfer."

"Destiny had a hand in this, as Petit grew partly up in Iserlohn where his father, a career soldier, was stationed for years. Petit said that for a long time, he found the culture he got to know there far more attractive than what he knew of England: Beaten Germany felt strangely arrested, strangely progressive (Mercedes, Telefunken), more technological and complicated, and interestingly scarred by its psychological burden. A few years on, Petit would actually shoot two fiction features in the FRG, Flight to Berlin (1983) and Chinese Boxes (1984), both, like Radio On, crime narratives that are interested in everything about their cases except who’s the culprit. In between these, we find the P. D. James-adaptation An Unsuitable Job for a Woman (1982) which does the traditional British country house murder mystery with a sense of dispassionate distance and irony that evokes Joseph Losey via Monte Hellman. Four movies in five years – not bad."

"Yet Petit would never make another fiction feature for cinema again – at least not in the traditional fashion that he so gracefully played with here as well as in his sole excursion into prime time prestige TV, Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple: A Caribbean Mystery (1989). You could say that Petit wasn’t made for a career-style approach to the art. People like him don’t have careers – they have fun; they enjoy themselves doing what interests them with the possibilities at hand. 90s British television still had budgets and slots available for less orthodox forms – let’s call them essays. His most celebrated of these, Without Walls: The Cardinal and the Corpse (1992), became Petit’s first collaboration with Iain Sinclair, the nec plus ultra London writer since the 80s, with whom he would then co-direct some of his most dazzling post-slot-TV works: The Falconer (1998), Asylum (2000) and London Orbital (2002)."

"Somehow, Petit always finds a way to make a film – even if that means writing a novel, cutting a record or doing a performance. And while busying himself with all that, he constantly reinvents the art(s). Thus, it was unavoidable that his films would become more and more personal – ruggedly anecdotal in gesture and melancholically epigrammatic in style. Both Content (2010) and D Is for Distance (2025) have their autobiographical dimensions – but then, as his umpteenth variations/revisitations of Radio On, they are also haunting studies in progressive alienness and time passing. If Thomas Wolfe describes the Modernist malaise with You Can’t Go Home Again (1940), then Petit’s cinema wonders what home is, and who’s you?"  OLAF MÖLLER

FESTIVAL RESUME OF THE CHRIS PETIT MORNING DISCUSSION: 1) FINNISH

"Ensimmäinen elokuva, jonka ohjaaja ja kirjailija Chris Petit muistaa nähneensä, oli musikaalielokuva Hans Christian Andersen (1952). Hän muistelee halunneensa poistua elokuvasta kesken kaiken, koska ei lapsena pitänyt pääosan esittäjä Danny Kayesta."

"Petit aloitti uransa lontoolaisen Time Out -kulttuurilehden mainosmyyjänä, josta hän eteni kirjoittamaan lehden elokuva-arvosteluja. Petit arvelee saaneensa mahdollisuuden elokuvakriitikkona, koska osasi konekirjoitusta. Tuolloin miehelle harvinaisen taidon hän oli oppinut äidiltään."

"Petit tutustui Lontooseen uudella tavalla kiertäessään lähiöalueiden pieniä elokuvateattereita."

"“Time Out oli tuohon aikaan kuin kulttuuriraamattu niille, jotka halusivat tuntea Lontoota. Se oli tyyliltään iskevä. Sen arvostelut olivat jyrkkiä, mikä suututti monia.”"

"Myöhemmin Petit sai rahoituksen käsikirjoitukseen, josta syntyi hänen esikoisohjauksensa Radio On (1979). Automatkaa Lontoosta Bristoliin seuraava elokuva on noussut kulttimaineeseen erityisesti onnistuneen kuvauksen ja soundtrackin vuoksi."

"“Elokuvassa oli vain vähän näyttelijäntyötä tai dialogia, joten elokuvan tyyli johti siihen että tein hyvin vähän sitä mitä yleisesti pidetään ohjaamisena.”"

"Kuvaaja Martin Schäferin kanssa näkemykset osuivat yksiin. Schäfer linjasi jo ennen kuvauksia: ei liikaa erilaisia linssejä, ja ehdottomasti ei zoom-linssejä."

"Petit ei kuvaile taiteilijauraansa menestystarina, vaan pikemminkin sarjana umpikujia."

"Lukuisia romaaneja julkaissut Petit sanoo kirjoittaneensa erityisesti niinä aikoina, kun elokuva-ala ei ole tarjonnut hänelle työmahdollisuuksia. Petit kertoo suhteensa työparinsa Ian Sinclairin kanssa alkaneen jaetusta rakkaudesta kirjoihin. Sinclair myi Lontoossa käytettyjä kirjoja, ja hän oli niiden ostaja."

"Petitin uusinta elokuvaa D is for Distance edelsi vuosien tauko ohjaustyössä."

"Elokuvan keskushenkilö on Louis, Petitin ja elokuvan toisen ohjaajan Emma Matthewsin yhteinen lapsi, joka sairastui 12-vuotiaana epilepsiaan. Kohtaukset olivat pitkittyneitä ja vakavia. Henkilökohtaisen aiheen parissa Petit oli myös uusien mietteiden äärellä siitä, mikä kaikki hänen perheensä elämästä voi olla julkista."

"“Emma kuvasi epilepsiakohtauksia, koska lääkärit olivat neuvoneet tekemään niin. Halusimme näyttää sen, mutta meidän oli kysyttävä, missä menee raja, jonka jälkeen alamme käyttää hyväksi kuvamme kohdetta.”"

"Petit ja Mathews kerryttivät rahaa Louisin tarvitsemiin lääkkeisiin joukkorahoituskampanjalla, jota varten he tekivät lyhyen videon Louisin tilanteesta. Lopulta aiheesta syntyi täyspitkä elokuva. Se käsittelee yhtäältä Louisin lapsuudenmuistoja, joista hän on menettänyt sairautensa takia suuren osan, sekä kulttuurista muistia, jota katsotaan elokuvantekijävanhempien silmin."

"Aamukeskustelun lopuksi Petit kertoo elokuvan, jonka hän ottaisi mukaan autiolle saarelle, olevan Gidget Goes Hawaiian (1961), joka on nähty myös Sodankylän elokuvajuhlien ohjelmistossa. Petit mainitsee, ettei ota liian vakavasti erilaisia listauksia kaikkien aikojen parhaimmista elokuvista."

2) IN ENGLISH:

"The first film that director and writer Chris Petit remembers seeing was the musical Hans Christian Andersen (1952). He recalls wanting to leave halfway through because, as a child, he didn’t like the lead actor, Danny Kaye."

"Petit began his career as an ad salesman for the London-based cultural magazine Time Out, eventually progressing to writing film reviews for the publication. He believes he got the chance to work as a film critic because he knew how to use a typewriter — a skill, rare for men at the time, that he had learned from his mother."

"He got to know London in a new way by visiting small cinemas in the suburbs."

"“Time Out in those days was a very good cultural bible in terms of getting to know London, it was punchy, gave you a kind of map of films to see in London, I went to suburbs to see films in obscure cinemas.”"

"“The one disclipine they had was that you had only 150 words per review, it was also quite opinionated which pissed off a lot of people.”"

"Later, Petit secured funding for a screenplay that became his directorial debut, Radio On (1979). The film, which follows a road trip from London to Bristol, has gained cult status, particularly due to its striking cinematography and soundtrack."

"“Wasn’t that much acting or dialogue going on, so the way the film looked meant that I had to do very little what is known as directing.”"

"His vision aligned with the vision of cinematographer Martin Schäfer. Schäfer laid down some ground rules before filming began: no excessive lens changes, and absolutely no zoom lenses."

"Petit doesn’t describe his artistic career as a success story, but rather as a series of dead ends."

"Having published numerous novels, Petit says he turned to writing especially during times when the film industry offered him no opportunities. He recounts that his collaboration with creative partner Iain Sinclair began with a shared love of books. Sinclair sold used books in London — and Petit was a regular customer."

"Petit’s latest film, D is for Distance, followed a years-long break from directing."

"The central figure of the film is Louis, the child of Petit and co-director Emma Matthews. At age 12, Louis developed epilepsy. His seizures were prolonged and severe. The deeply personal subject also forced Petit to reconsider what aspects of his family’s life could be made public."

"“Emma and I, she filmed the seizures because she was told to do this by doctors. We wanted to show that, but at what point do you start to exploit the subject?”"

"Petit and Matthews raised money for Louis’s much-needed medication through a crowdfunding campaign, for which they created a short video about his condition."

"Eventually, the topic became a full-length film. It explores both Louis’s childhood memories — many of which he lost due to his illness — and cultural memory as seen through the eyes of his filmmaker parents."

"At the end of the morning discussion, Petit shares that the film he would take with him to a desert island would be Gidget Goes Hawaiian (1961), which has also been featured in the Sodankylä Film Festival program. Petit adds that he doesn’t take “greatest films of all time” lists too seriously."

CHRIS PETIT FILMOGRAPHY

AS DIRECTOR

Radio On (1979), The Telephone (lyhyt/short, 1981), Sopimaton tehtävä naiselle/An Unsuitable Job for a Woman (1982), Lento Berliiniin/Flight to Berlin (1984), Paluuta ei ole olemassa/Chinese Boxes (1984), Neiti Marple ja lomahotellien murhat/Miss Marple: A Caribbean Mystery (tv-elokuva/TV movie, 1989), Moving Pictures: J G Ballard (tv lyhyt/TV short, 1990), Forty Minutes (tv-sarja/TV series, 2 jaksoa/episodes, 1991-1992), Without Walls (tv-sarja/TV series, 1 jakso/episode, 1992), Weather (1992), London Labyrinth (lyhyt/short, 1993), Surveillance (lyhyt/short, 1993), Thriller (tv-elokuva/TV movie, 1993), Bookmark (tv-sarja/TV series, 1 jakso/episode, 1994), Rudy Wurlitzer (tv-lyhytelokuva/TV short, 1994), Death of a Bank Manager (tv-elokuva/TV movie, 1995), Network First (tv-sarja/TV series, 1 jakso/episode, 1996), The Falconer (tv-elokuva/TV movie, 1998), Dead TV (lyhyt/short, 1998), Radio On Remix (tv-elokuva/TV movie, 1998), Negative Space (tv-elokuva/TV movie, 1999), Asylum (tv-elokuva/TV movie, 2000), The Carfax Fragment (lyhyt/short, 2001), London Orbital (2002), Unrequited Love (2006), Content (tv-elokuva/TV movie, 2010), The Film That Buys the Cinema (2014), D is for Distance (2025)

AS SCREENWRITER

Radio On (1979), Sopimaton tehtävä naiselle/An Unsuitable Job for a Woman (1982), Lento Berliiniin/Flight to Berlin (1984), Paluuta ei ole olemassa/Chinese Boxes (1984), The Falconer (tv-elokuva/TV movie, 1998), Dead TV (lyhyt/short, 1998), Negative Space (tv-elokuva/TV movie, 1999), Asylum (tv-elokuva/TV movie, 2000), London Orbital (2002), Unrequited Love (2006), Mozartbique (yhdessä/with Arfus Greenwood, Chris Petit, Christopher Roth, Franz von Stauffenberg, 2013), D is for Distance (2025)

AS CINEMATOGRAPHER 

Dead TV (lyhyt/short, 1998), Negative Space (tv-elokuva/TV movie, 1999), The Carfax Fragment (lyhyt/short, 2001), London Orbital (2002), Unrequited Love (2006), Content (tv-elokuva, TV movie, 2010), D is for Distance (2025)

Kronos Kairos (world premiere 2024 Sodankylä) (in the presence of Herra Ylppö, Mika Lätti and Kirka Sainio)

Herra Ylppö: Kronos Kairos (FI 2025). Kari Reini listens to the sounds of the cosmos on a mountain top in Fuengirola, Andalusia.

Herra Ylppö and Kirka Sainio at Lapinsuu, Sodankylä, Midnight Sun Film Festival, 13 June 2025. Photo: JLa, Midnight Sun Film Festival.

FI 2025. DIRECTOR: Herra Ylppö. SCREENPLAY: Mika Lätti, Herra Ylppö • CINEMATOGRAPHY: Herra Ylppö • EDITING: Herra Ylppö • PRODUCTION DESIGN: Teemu Kaskinen • COSTUMES: Herra Ylppö, Teemu Kaskinen, Toni Järvinen, Kari Reini • SOUND: Kirka Sainio • MUSIC: HRDMNN • CAST: Protoni Järvinen, Mira Luoti, Kari Reini, Mika Lätti, Tero Höglund, • PRODUCTION: Kovameno • PRODUCERS: Mika Lätti, Herra Ylppö, Toni Järvinen, Jari Sarasvuo, Mariska, Bo Malmberg • FORMAT: DCP • LANGUAGE: Finnish • SUBTITLES: English. 70 min

Sodankylän Elokuvajuhlat / The Midnight Sun Film Festival (MSFF) 2025

In the presence of Herra Ylppö, Mika Lätti and Kirka Sainio

Viewed at Lapinsuu, 13 June 2025

Lauri Timonen (MSFF 2025): "Ajattoman karu, asujaansa riepotteleva mustavalkoinen maisema luo puitteet eron aiheuttamalle kosmiselle tuskalle. Mira Luodin tulkitsema yrmeä moderni Dulcinea ilmoittaa heti kärkeen löytäneensä toisen miehen, ja hylätyksi tullut harhailija (Toni ”Protoni” Järvinen) vajoaa korvien soinnin ja mielen järkkymisen sumentamaan välitilaan. Seurakseen tai ”aseenkantajakseen” hän löytää äyriäisallergiasta kärsivän palkkamurhaajan, ja entisten virheiden korjaaminen liittyy olennaisesti uuden strippitangon rakentamiseen."

"Muusikko-runoilija-kuvataiteilija-kirjailija Herra Ylppö (s. 1973) on hionut taitojaan kymmenien musiikkivideoiden tekijänä, joten viipyilevän intensiivinen esikoiselokuva edustaa kokeneen ohjaajan vakaata käsialaa. Science fictionin sävyt yhdistyvät mustaan huumoriin, ja kivisillä kentillä haahuilevien protagonistien wellesiläis-gilliamilainen, utopistinen melankolia muistuttaa vieraalle planeetalle pudotetun Don Quijoten päämäärätöntä vaellusta lynchiläisessä yössä."

"Muodot ottavat roolia leijuvina palloina ja katkeilevina putkina, maskeina, naamioina, hihnoina, tahroina ja tehtaan tuotantolinjan monotonisena jyskeenä. Vastaukset saavuttavat enintään sanattoman hahmon, antonionilainen autiomaa ankaroittaa ihmissuhteiden kitkaa, ja väkivalta väijyy hapertuvissa rakenteissa."

"Käsillä on yksi festivaalisesongin omalaatuisimmista, mieleenpainuvimmista luomuksista: elämys, jonka Aki Kaurismäki nimesi heti tuoreeltaan ”surrealistiseksi mestariteokseksi”." (LT)

"A timeless, stark, black-and-white landscape, ruthless to its inhabitant, sets the stage for the cosmic pain of separation. Right at the start, Mira Luoti’s sullen modern Dulcinea announces that she has found another man, and the jilted wanderer (Toni ”Protoni” Järvinen) sinks into a blurry in-between zone that rings in the ears and bends the broken mind. He finds a shellfish-allergic contract killer as his companion/squire, and it soon becomes clear that righting past wrongs will essentially be about building a new stripper pole."

"Musician-poet-photographer-writer Herra Ylppö (b. 1973) honed his skills as the maker of dozens of music videos, and this lingeringly intense debut film represents the steady hand of the experienced director. Science fiction tones are combined with black humor, and the Wellesian/Gilliamian utopian melancholy of the protagonists wandering in rocky fields recalls the aimless wanderings of Don Quixote – dropped on an alien planet in a Lynchian night."

"The screen reflects a variety of shapes: floating balls, broken tubes, masks, straps, stains, and a factory production line with its monotonous thud. The answers to the questions posed by the film take on a vague unspoken form, while the Antonionian desert exacerbates the friction of human relationships and violence lurks in the fragile structures."

"This will be one of the most original and memorable films of the festival season: an experience that Aki Kaurismäki immediately described as a surrealist masterpiece." (LT)

AA:

Kronos = ordinary time

Kairos = extraordinary time

Cosmic visions fill the screen.

The soundscape emits messages from beyond.

Triangle drama after a painful separation.

Conducted in duels of many kinds and series of retributions.

"He that troubleth his own house shall inherit the wind."

A tablecloth is flapping on the windy mountain top.

Recorded in black and white in long takes and long shots.

The tracksuit is full of stains.

Octopuses abound. They are swallowed raw.

Calamari Union?

Theatre of the Absurd.

A large grave memorial on the mountain.

A man shadow boxing.

A woman pole dancing.

A solo handjob simulated with a big black baton.

A dancing pole cut in half with a grinder ("rälläkkä").

In Morse code: K-R-O-N-O-S - K-A-I-R-O-S.

Tinnitus rampant in the blackest night.

Fixing the bicycle.

Drinking Le Havre wine.

A satellite watches us from the sky.

Industrial art. To the shower with the raincoat on.

Convulsions of pain.

"Blood flows in streams like champagne".

Drool, vomit, slime.

All male nudity.

Listening to the sounds of the cosmos.

Burdocks.

...

Herra Ylppö (Frank Mikko Kalevi Mäntymäki, 16 March 1973 Harjavalta) is a Finnish musician (singer, lyricist, front figure in bands) rock, alternative rock), writer, illustrator and music video director. Kronos Kairos is his first feature film. He legalized the forename Frank inspired by the movie Calamari Union.

In the Q&A after the screening Herra Ylppö told us that the movie was eight years in the making. It is a tool in processing a painful divorce, followed by depression and tinnitus. The ears were screaming. Tinnitus never ends. But this tinnitus did.

The sound designer Kirka Sainio told that he had saved weird sounds that had never found a place in movies. In a silent screening of Kronos Kairos he knew that this is their home.

...

Last year we celebrated the centenary of surrealism. In Finnish feature films surrealism has been a rarity, but there are exceptions like Maria Ruotsala's Apeiron (FI 2013). Herra Ylppö's Kronos Kairos is a milestone in Finnish cinematic surrealism. There is a compelling oneiric drive. The sounds and visions are unique and disturbing.

Since psychedelia in the 1960s, music videos have been the main forum of surrealism* in moving images. Equally close Kronos Kairos comes to the Theatre of the Absurd. But art is fundamentally unclassifiable. 

* Julien Temple in his morning discussion yesterday selected Luis Buñuel's El ángel exterminador as his desert island film.

Sodankylä morning discussion 2025: Dominique Sanda

Dominique Sanda, Sodankylä, 12 June 2025. Foto Antti Yrjönen.

Dominique Sanda, Sodankylä, 11 June 2025. Foto Antti Yrjönen.

Dominique Sanda. Photo: Midnight Sun Film Festival online 2025.

In French. Translated by Kaisa Kukkola. Hosted by Timo Malmi (Part I) and Satu Kyösola (Part II). 120 min

The School, Midnight Sun Film Festival (MSFF), Sodankylä, 13 June 2025.

Lauri Timonen (MSFF 2025): "Dominique Marie-Françoise Renée Varaigne syntyi 11. maaliskuuta 1951 keskiluokkaiseen katoliseen pariisilaisperheeseen ja loi opintojen ohella uraa Glamour-, Elle– ja Vogue-lehtien valokuvamallina. Intensiiviset otokset kiinnittivät mestariohjaaja Robert Bressonin huomion, ja tämä roolitti nimensä Sandaksi vaihtaneen tulokkaan Suloisen naisensa (1969) pääosaan. Enigmaattinen tulkinta ja ainutlaatuinen kyky hallita pienin elein valtavia kompleksisia psykologisia kenttiä nostivat Sandan nopeasti eurooppalaisen taide-elokuvan arvostetuimpien näyttelijätärten joukkoon."

"”Ranskan Garbo” sävähdytti sellaisissa italialaismestarien poliittista historiaa purkaneissa pääteoksissa, kuten Vittorio De Sican Finzi Continin puutarhassa (1970), Bernardo Bertoluccin Fasistissa (1970) ja 1900:ssa (1976). Mauro Bologninin diabolinen Musta leski (1976) toi parhaan näyttelijättären palkinnon Cannesissa, ja Liliana Cavanin Nietzsche-kuvaelmassa Hyvän ja pahan tuolla puolen (1977) Sanda tulkitsi filosofin piinattujen tunteiden kohdetta Lou Saloméa."

"Näyttelijätär oli yhtäläisen kotonaan myös viihteellisemmissä kansainvälisissä tuotannoissa, esimerkkeinä Philippe Labron chandlerilainen Ed McBain -sovitus Kymmenen plus yksi (1971), John Frankenheimerin satuttava lemmenleikki Teemana rakkaus (1973), John Hustonin vakoilutrilleri Tapa tai kuole (1973), Jack Smightin kovaa kulttimainetta nauttiva apokalyptinen scifi-eepos Hornankuja (1977) ja Pierre Laryn ilakoiva Hitchcock-pastissi Viritetty ansa (1982). Hän iski kierteisiä vastapalloja Paul Newmanin, Max von Sydowin, Robert De Niron, Gérard Depardieun, Jean-Louis Trintignantin, Klaus Kinskin, Charles Bronsonin ja Rutger Hauerin kaltaisille, eeppisen presenssin omanneille miestähdille."

"Arthouse-suosikkina polku eteni sekä huomattavien kirjallisuussovitusten – muun muassa Erste Liebe (Maximilian Schell, 1970), Steppenwolf (Fred Haines, 1974), Les Ailes de la colombe (Benoît Jacquot, 1981), Yo, la peor de todas (María Luisa Bemberg, 1990) – että omaleimaisten auteurien (Philippe Garrel, Marguerite Duras) parissa. Erityisinä helminä voi mainita Jacques Demyn upean, läpilauletun ”aikuisten musikaalin” Huone kaupungissa (1982) ja eroottisen naamioleikin Salainen matka (Michel Deville, 1980), josta kasvaa eräänlainen muistojen ja mielikuvitusmatkojen kikatteleva menuetti."

"Sandan muita merkittäviä ohjaajia ovat olleet esimerkiksi Damiano Damiani, Lina Wertmüller, Alexandre Astruc, Mathieu Kassovitz, Nicole Garcia ja Sodankylässäkin vierailleet Dino Risi, Edgardo Cozarinsky, Fernando E. Solanas, Gian Vittorio Baldi, Amos Gitai ja Bertrand Bonello. Saavutusten laajuuden täydentää rinnakkainen ura näyttämöllä."

"Dominique Sandan luontainen hehku on arvoituksellinen yhdistelmä klassisten yhdysvaltalaisten film noirien kohtalokkaita, salaisuuksia kantavia femme fataleja ja moderneja eurooppalaisia naisia, jotka ovat sinut halujensa ja vartaloidensa kanssa ja hallitsevat painokkaammin hiljaisuudellaan kuin huudollaan. Roolikuvien vertaaminen Greta Garboon osuu osaltaan oikeaan, mutta luontevammin Sanda rinnastuu Lauren Bacallin tulkitsemiin, samalla mitalla voimaa ja herkkyyttä huokuviin hawksilaisiin olentoihin. Ruotsittaren hymy oli sitä paitsi kylmä, kun haavoittuvaisuuden ja petomaisuuden ristiaallokossa etenevän ranskattaren katseessa on sydämet sulattavaa lämpöä, sitä kameran rakastamaa ikiaikaista mysteeriä."

"Hauras tai vahva – milloin valon onnellinen lapsi, milloin varjojen eteerinen asukki – Dominique Sanda kuuluu millä tahansa mittarilla sukupolvensa hienoimpiin näyttelijöihin."

Lauri Timonen

"Born into a middle-class Catholic family in Paris on March 11, 1951, Dominique Marie-Françoise Renée Varaigne pursued a career as a model for Glamour, Elle and Vogue while still a student. Her intense shots caught the attention of master director Robert Bresson, who cast the newcomer, by then known as Dominique Sanda, in the lead role of his A Gentle Woman (1969). Her enigmatic interpretation and unique ability to control complex psychological spheres with small gestures quickly made Sanda one of the most respected actresses in European art cinema."

"The “French Garbo” set the tone in masterpieces that deconstructed the political history by the Italian masters, such as Vittorio De Sica’s The Garden of the Finzi-Continis (1970) and Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Conformist (1970) and 1900 (1976). Mauro Bolognini’s diabolical The Inheritance (1976) won her the Best Actress prize at Cannes, and in Liliana Cavani’s Nietzschean Beyond Good and Evil (1977), Sanda played Lou Salomé, the object of the philosopher’s tortured emotions."

"The actress was equally at home in more entertaining international productions such as Philippe Labro’s Chandlerian Ed McBain adaptation Without Apparent Motive (1971), John Frankenheimer’s painful love play Story of a Love Story (1973), John Huston’s spy thriller The Mackintosh Man (1973), Jack Smight’s hard-hitting apocalyptic cult sci-fi epic Damnation Alley (1977) and Pierre Lary’s gleeful Hitchcock pastiche L’indiscretion (1982). She provided an intense counterpoint to the epic presence of men like Paul Newman, Max von Sydow, Robert De Niro, Gérard Depardieu, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Klaus Kinski, Charles Bronson, and Rutger Hauer."

"As an arthouse favourite, her path led to both notable literary adaptations including Erste Liebe (Maximilian Schell, 1970), Steppenwolf (Fred Haines, 1974), The Wings of the Dove (Benoît Jacquot, 1981), I, the Worst of All (María Luisa Bemberg, 1990), as well as films of original auteurs such as Philippe Garrel and Marguerite Duras. Particular gems include Jacques Demy’s wonderful, sing-through “adult musical” A Room in Town (1982) and the erotic masquerade A Sweet Journey (Michel Deville, 1980), which grows into a kind of giggling minuet of memories and imaginary journeys."

"Other notable Sanda directors include Damiano Damiani, Lina Wertmüller, Alexandre Astruc, Mathieu Kassovitz and Nicole Garcia, as well as Midnight Sun guests from previous editions such as Dino Risi, Edgardo Cozarinsky, Fernando E. Solanas, Gian Vittorio Baldi, Amos Gitai and Bertrand Bonello. A parallel career on the stage completes the range of her achievements."

"Dominique Sanda’s natural radiance is an enigmatic combination of the mysterious femme fatale of classic American film noir and modern European women who are at ease with their desires and their bodies, dominating with their silence rather than their screams. The comparison with Greta Garbo is partly correct, but Sanda is more naturally compared to the Hawksian creatures interpreted by Lauren Bacall, who exude the same strength and sensitivity. Moreover, the Swedish lady’s smile was cold, while the French Sanda’s gaze, a crusade of vulnerability and betrayal, has a heart-melting warmth, the eternal mystery that the camera simply loves."

"Fragile yet strong – sometimes a happy child of light, sometimes an ethereal inhabitant of shadows – Dominique Sanda is by any measure one of the finest actors of her generation."

Lauri Timonen

DOMINIQUE SANDA, B. 1951

AS ACTOR

Dim Dam Dom (tv-sarja/TV series, 1 jakso/episode, 1965–1971), Suloinen nainen / Une femme douce (1969), Fasisti / Il conformista (1970), Erste Liebe (1970), Sans mobile apparent (1971), Finzi Continin puutarha / Il giardino dei Finzi Contini (1970), La notte dei fiori (1972), Story of a Love Story (1973), Tapa tai kuole / The MacKintosh Man (1973), Steppenwolf (1974), Le Berceau de cristal (1976), 1900 (1976), Musta leski / L'eredità Ferramonti (1976), 1900 (1976), Hornankuja / Damnation Alley (1977), Hyvän ja pahan tuolla puolen / Al di là del bene e del male (1977), Utopia (1978), La Chanson de Roland (1978), Le Navire Night (1979), Le Voyage en douce (1980), Cabo Blanco (1980), Le Roman du samedi (tv-sarja/TV series, 1980), Les Ailes de la colombe (1981), L’Indiscrétion (1982), Huone kaupungissa / Une chambre en ville (1982), Poussière de l’empire / Dust of Empire (1983), Le Matelot 512 (1984), Corps et biens (1986), Les Mendiants (1987), Le lunghe ombre (1987), Lenin: The Train (tv-elokuva/ TV movie, 1988), Il decimo clandestino (tv-elokuva/TV movie 1989), In una notte de chiaro di luna / Crystal or Ash, Fire or Wind, As Long as It’s Love (1989), Guerriers et captives (1990), Tolgo il disturbo (1990), Voyage of Terror: The Achille Lauro Affair (tv-elokuva/TV movie, 1990), Yo, la peor del todas / I, The Worst of All (1990), Voglia di vivere (tv-elokuva/TV movie 1991), Sentiments (tv-sarja/TV series 1991), Naissance d’un Golem (1991), Non siamo soli (tv-sarja/TV series, 1991), The Voyage (1992), Warburg: A Man of Influence (1992), By Way of the Stars (tv-sarja/TV series, 1992–1993), Albert Savarus (tv-elokuva/TV movie, 1993), Der fall lucona (1993), Rosenemil (1993), Der Grüne Heinrich / Henry’s Romance (1993), Nobody’s Children (tv-elokuva/ TV movie, 1994) Raamattu: Joosef / Joseph (1995), Brennendes Herz (1996), Storia di un ufficiale di carriera (tv-elokuva/TV movie, 1996), Garage Olimpo (1999), Purppuravirrat / Les Rivières pourpres (2000), The Island of the Mapmaker’s Wife (2001), Un beau dimanche / Going Away (2013), Saint Laurent (2014), Il giovane Pertini – Combattante per la libertà (2019), Karakol (2020), The Peacock’s Paradise (2021).

MSFF RESUME OF THE MORNING DISCUSSION WITH DOMINIQUE SANDA 1) ENGLISH:

"In Friday’s discussion with festival guest Dominique Sanda, she shared her journey in becoming a film actor and about how the world created by Robert Bresson’s films has remained at the core of her artistic work.

The first film Sanda remembers seeing is West Side Story. The dance, acting, and music sparked a flame in her that has not faded since.

However, her path to becoming a film actor was not straightforward. Sanda remembers watching Disney films like 101 Dalmatians and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs with her mother, but there was no television in her childhood home. She did not feel like she was missing out, and says that she hates the noise and hubbub of television broadcasts.

“My work is to dream, and I hate anything that disturbs my dreaming”, she says.

From a young age, Sanda was very independent and spent a lot of time alone.

“I was often immersed in my own world, talking with my various imaginary friends.”

These conversations with herself enriched her inner world and through them, the actor within her began to emerge. At 14, a major transformation began: the once well-behaved girl became a rebellious teenager who wanted to break free from predefined roles.

“My parents didn’t understand me, but they also didn’t try to stop me. That gave me the freedom to create my own path.”

Sanda’s modelling career also began at age 14. After a walk with her mother, they stumbled upon a local beauty pageant. Unexpectedly, Sanda ended up on the stage – and won the contest. Winning the pageant opened doors to modelling agencies. Although her success as a model was fast and intense, it came with an inner conflict.

“It was wonderful to see myself in pictures, but at the same time, it made me feel ashamed”, she says.

It was through a modelling agency that film director Robert Bresson discovered Sanda. She played the lead role in Bresson’s film A Gentle Woman (1969).

“God sent me a wonderful opportunity—Robert Bresson”, Sanda says, adding that she still feels grateful.

Bresson’s method was unique. He didn’t call his cast actors, but rather “models” that he himself wanted to shape.

“He wanted a person to be completely open and pliable, like clay he could mould as he wished”, Sanda explains.

Working with Bresson required total surrender, which not everyone could handle. Guy Frangin, Sanda’s co-star in A Gentle Woman, found the work difficult and visibly struggled during filming.

Sanda, however, felt at ease right away. While she had been rebellious in school, surrendering to Bresson’s direction felt natural. What made a difference was that Bresson gave her something she hadn’t received in her family: trust.

“I had received love, but not the feeling of someone completely trusting me. Bresson did, and that gave me wings.”

Working with Bresson launched a new career for Sanda, one that included collaborations with many notable directors. Still, Bresson’s world remained permanently in her mind and at the core of her artistic work.

“Bresson helped set me on the path that became my life”, Sanda says.

Finally, Sanda answered the classic question of MSFF’s morning discussions: Which film would you take on a desert island? Unable to choose just one, she named two: The Eternal Flame and The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, both of which explore themes of life and death."

2) FINNISH:

"Perjantain aamukeskustelussa festivaalin tekijävieras Dominique Sanda kertoi tiestään elokuvanäyttelijäksi ja siitä, miten Robert Bressonin maailma jäi pysyvästi hänen työnsä ytimeen."

"Ensimmäinen elokuva, jonka Sanda näki, oli West Side Story. Siinä tanssi, näyttelijäntyö ja musiikki kietoutuivat yhteen ja sytyttivät Sandassa kipinän, joka ei ole sammunut koskaan."

"Tie elokuviin ei kuitenkaan ollut itsestäänselvä. Vaikka Sanda muistaa katsoneensa äidin kanssa Disney-elokuvia, kuten 101 dalmatialaista ja Lumikki ja seitsemän kääpiötä, ei kotona ollut televisiota. Sanda ei sellaista kaivannut, sillä hän sanoo vihaavansa ääntä ja hälyä, joita televisio aiheuttaa."

"“Työni on unelmoida ja vihaan kaikkea, mikä estää minua unelmoimasta”, hän toteaa aamukeskustelussa."

"Sanda kertoo olleensa hyvin itsenäinen ja viettäneensä paljon aikaa yksin jo nuoresta lähtien."

“Olin paljon omissa maailmoissani ja keskustelin erilaisten mielikuvitusystävien kanssa.” 

"Nämä keskustelut täyttivät yksinolon hetket ja rikastuttivat Sandan sisäistä maailmaa, ja näiden keskustelujen kautta Sandassa alkoi herätä näyttelijä. 14-vuotiaana Sandassa alkoi suuri muutos, ja kiltistä tytöstä tuli kapinallinen nuori, joka halusi vapautua valmiiksi määritellyistä rooleista."

“Vanhempani eivät ymmärtäneet minua, mutta eivät myöskään yrittäneet estää. Se antoi minulle vapauden suunnata omalle polulleni.” 

"14-vuotiaana alkoi sattumalta myös Sandan mallinura. Äidin kanssa tehdyn kävelyn päätteeksi he eksyivät paikallisiin missikisoihin, ja yllättäen Sanda päätyi lavalle ja koko kisan voittajaksi. Voiton myötä ovet avautuivat mallitoimistoihin. Vaikka menestys mallina oli nopeaa ja kiihkeää, mukana kulki koko ajan ristiriita."

”Toisaalta oli ihanaa nähdä itsensä kuvissa, ja toisaalta se hävetti”, hän sanoo.

"Mallitoimiston listoilta Sandan löysii myös elokuvaohjaaja Robert Bresson, jonka elokuvassa Suloinen nainen (1969) Sanda näytteli."

“Luoja lähetti minulle upean mahdollisuuden – Robert Bressonin”, Sanda sanoo ja kertoo tuntevansa edelleen kiitollisuutta.

"Bressonin metodi oli omalaatuinen. Hän ei kutsunut työryhmänsä jäseniä näyttelijöiksi vaan ”malleiksi”, joita muovasi."

"”Hän halusi, että ihminen on täysin avoin ja taipuva, kuin muovailuvahaa, josta hän voi muotoilla haluamansa”, Sanda kuvaa."

"Bressonin työtapa vaatikin ehdotonta antautumista, jota kaikki eivät kestäneet. Esimerkiksi Guy Frangin, Sandan vastanäyttelijä Suloinen nainen -elokuvassa, koki työnteon raskaaksi ja voi kuvauksissa selvästi huonosti."

"Sanda taas tunsi olonsa heti kotoisaksi. Siinä missä hän oli koulussa kapinallinen, heittäytyminen Bressonin ohjaukseen tuntui luontevalta. Ratkaisevaa oli se, että Bresson antoi hänelle jotain, mitä hän ei ollut perheessään saanut: luottamusta."

”Olin kyllä saanut rakkautta, mutta en sitä tunnetta, että joku luottaa minuun täysin. Bresson teki niin, ja se antoi minulle siivet.”

"Bressonin kanssa työskentely avasi Sandalle uuden uran, jonka varrelle mahtuu työskentelyä useiden merkittävien ohjaajien kanssa. Silti Bressonin maailma jäi pysyvästi hänen mielensä ja työnsä ytimeen."

"“Bresson auttoi minut polulle, josta tuli elämäni”, Sanda toteaa."

"Viimeisenä Sanda vastaa aamukeskustelujen klassikkokysymykseen siitä, minkä elokuvan ottaisi mukaansa autiolle saarelle. Yhden elokuvan mainitseminen ei onnistu, joten Sanda mainitsee kaksi: Ikuinen liekki sekä Kummitus ja rouva Muir, joissa on elämän ja kuoleman teemat."

...

AA notes:

Timo Malmi: What was the first film you saw?

Dominique Sanda: West Side Story. 

Clips: 

Une femme douce: proposal at the zoo

Making of 1900

Il conformista: the dance

Une chambre en ville

Satu Kyösola: Which film would you take to the desert island?

Dominique Sanda: I would not take a movie.

Peter Ibbetson. The Ghost and Mrs. Muir.

AA remarks:

Dominique Sanda's was one of the truly great, indispensable and unforgettable Sodankylä morning discussions. 

Susan Sontag wrote an essay on the spiritual style of Robert Bresson. 

Dominique Sanda is a living embodiment of it. 

We were graced by a luminous and articulate presence.

...

From talking points I prepared for a screening of Un condamné à mort s'est échappé in March:

Dominique Sanda was not an actor when Bresson cast her, but she became one after Une femme douce. She was the sole model of Bresson's who was an actual model: a mannequin and a beauty queen.

Dominique Sanda testifies that the models were precious treasures for Bresson. He approached them as if taming them and merging with them in an instinctive intercourse that had nothing to do with directing an actor. "I wanted to bring out the soul and the presence of something noble that is omnipresent everywhere and that is God". He quoted Robert Bernanos: "There is no kingdom of the living, no kingdom of the dead, there is only the kingdom of God and we are all inside". (From Dominique Sanda's foreword to Lauri Timonen's Robert Bresson, luultavasti [Robert Bresson, Probably], 900 p., 2023).

...

In the morning discussion, Sanda told about Bresson as her teacher. She was a teenage rebel, but Bresson commanded respect. "I was fragile, vulnerable and shy. I had not received any support. Out of my own stupidity I made wrong choices. The turning-point was Bresson, my maestro in art. He revealed a new side of myself, something that I had not recognized myself, something that my own father failed to recognize. People connected with Bresson knew that she was casting Une femme douce and said: 'tu es vraiment ce personnage'. There was a phone call, and Bresson invited me to Île Saint-Louis. The stars had determined so. Bresson m'a donné la confiance. In my family I had received love but not trust. At school I had rejected everything, but this was something that I had been missing. The trust gave me wings."

Sanda has been inspired by Matthieu Galey's interview essay with Marguerite Yourcenar called Les Yeux ouverts, whose title refers to the last sentence of the Memoirs of Hadrian: "Tâchons d'entrer dans la mort les yeux ouverts" ("Let us try to enter death with our eyes open"). Hadrian writes through her.

Bresson asked me to look – pas dans les yeux / not in the eyes – but in the ears. Il y a une puissance dans le regard. [I wish I could quote this passage of the dialogue in extenso and in verbatim.]

He personally selected every detail of the clothes and items of décor. Clothes were very important. Une femme douce was shot on real locations, not at the studio. Chaque lieu a son âme / every location has a spirit of its own. There was absolute silence on the set. The filming was conducted in an atmosphere of respect. We never saw any rushes. Everything was post-synchronized. 

Une femme douce was Bresson's first film in colour, and the cinematographer was Ghislain Cloquet. Il conformista was shot by Vittorio Storaro. Le monde de la lumière. Des gens aimables. 

"The light. – The air is matter. – Acting is dancing with the air. – The cinematographers are humble, precise, capturing the world of light. – Sometimes I am disturbed by the too intensive stare of some person and I ask the person to leave the set."

Sanda also discussed Bertolucci and Demy.

Sometimes she is disappointed by changes happening midway in a film project. But her discipline is to finish what has started. "Je me suis sentie complètement trahie par Jacques. Me je ne laisse pas tomber".

Currently Dominique Sanda is writing a book of memoirs.

Drømmer / Dreams

 

Dag Johan Haugerud: Drømmer / Dreams (NO 2024)

NORJA/NORWAY 2024

OHJAUS/DIRECTOR: DAG JOHAN HAUGERUD 

Sex Dreams Love Trilogy

KÄSIKIRJOITUS/SCREENPLAY: Dag Johan Haugerud • KUVAUS/CINEMATOGRAPHY: Cecilie Semec • LEIKKAUS/EDITING: Jens Christian Fodstad • PUVUSTUS/COSTUMES: Ida Toft • ÄÄNI/SOUND: Yvonne Stenberg, Gisle Tveito • MUSIIKKI/ MUSIC: Anna Berg • NÄYTTELIJÄT/CAST: Ella Øverbye, Selome Emnetu, Ane Dahl Torp, Anne Marit Jacobsen, Andrine Sæther • TUOTANTO/PRODUCTION: Motlys • TUOTTAJAT/PRODUCERS: Hege Hauff Hvattum • ESITYSKOPIO/PRINT SOURCE: NFI • ESITYSFORMAATTI/FORMAT: DCP • KIELI/LANGUAGE: norja/Norwegian • TEKSTITYS/SUBTITLES: englanti/English • KESTO/DURATION: 110 min

Sodankylän elokuvajuhlat / Midnight Sun Film Festival (MSFF) 2025

Viewed at Iso Teltta / The Big Top, 12 June 2025

Otto Kylmälä (MSFF 2025): "Berliinin elokuvajuhlien pääpalkinnon voittanut Dreams kertoo 17-vuotiaasta Johannesta, joka prosessoi rakastumistaan opettajaansa kirjoittamalla tuntemuksistaan sensuellin tekstin. Vuosi ihastumisen jälkeen Johanne jakaa tekstin äitinsä ja isoäitinsä kanssa, jotka reagoivat täysin eri tavoin. Äiti miettii, aloittaako kouluun ja opettajaan kohdistuvan tutkinnan, kun taas runoilijaisoäiti tunnistaa tekstissä kirjallisen lahjakkuuden."

"Käsikirjoittaja-ohjaaja Dag Johan Haugerud rakentaa elokuvan pitkälti Johannen tekstin ja äänen varaan, jolloin intiimin henkilökohtainen kokemus avautuu katsojalle tunteikkaana ensirakkauden kuvauksena. Katseet, kosketukset ja arkiset hetket saavat elämää suuremman merkityksen, kun ne nähdään katkeransuloisen rakkauden lävistäminä. Elokuva kuvaa ihastumiseen liittyvää haaveilua, joka voi tuntua todelta, kunnes arkitodellisuus muuttaa kaiken."

"Eräät ovat hakeneet vertailukohtaa Lukas Moodyssonin Fucking Åmålin nuoren rakkauden kuvauksesta, mutta Haugerudin elokuvan vertailu muihin tuntuu turhalta. Trilogian kaikki osat käsittelevät teemoja tavalla, joka poikkeaa virkistävästi romanttisen komedian kaavamaisista konventioista. Tulevaisuudessa muita elokuvia tullaan vertaamaan Haugerudiin." (OK)

"Winner of the main prize at the Berlin Film Festival, Dreams tells the story of 17-year-old Johanne, who comes to terms with her love for her teacher by writing a sensual text about her feelings. A year after her infatuation, Johanne shares the text with her mother and grandmother, who react in very different ways. The mother wonders whether to launch an investigation into the school and the teacher, while the poet-grandmother recognises the literary talent in the text."

"Writer-director Dag Johan Haugerud builds the film largely around Johanne’s text and voice, allowing the intimate personal experience to unfold as an emotional portrayal of first love. Glances, touches and everyday moments take on a larger-than-life meaning when seen through bittersweet love. The film depicts the dream of infatuation that can seem real until everyday reality changes everything."

"Some have looked to Lukas Moodysson’s depiction of young love in Show Me Love for comparison, but comparing Haugerud’s film to others seems pointless. Each part of the trilogy deals with themes in a refreshing departure from the formulaic conventions of romantic comedy. In the future, other films will be compared to Haugerud’s." (OK)

AA: Dreams is the second film I have seen from Dag Johan Haugerud's Sex Dreams Love trilogy. Last year I was impressed by Haugerud's morning discussion in Sodankylä and his movie Sex (NO 2024) caught at Love & Anarchy: Helsinki International Film Festival. Haugerud turned out to be a revelation in the cinema of conversation, like Éric Rohmer and Louis Malle. Superb actors and fine dialogue can get you anywhere in the guidance of a director like Haugerud.

Like Sex, Dreams takes us to the queer zone. It also belongs to the contemporary trend of films that deal with inflammatory situations at school. The starting point may seem familiar, but Haugerud rejects safe solutions and interpretations.

Even more than a conversation film, Dreams is a monologue. It is a speech-driven Bildungsroman of a 17-year-old girl going through an affair of unrequited love and getting an unexpected start to a possible career as a writer. Grandmother and mother fail to help. They only get confused themselves.

Dreams is a tale of transference, and the question is whether it is also a tale of a seduction. There are subtle clues when Johanne discovers a predecessor to her predicament, both now considering psychiatric help.

This is a serious affair, dealing with the deepest core questions of a young person's identity. But Haugerud knows how to develop the gravity of the matter with a healthy dose of humour. 

Dreams is a saga of secrets and lies, and a pursuit of truth and honesty.

While the movie is speech-driven, it is also based on strong visual concepts. Views of the new urban architecture of Oslo alternate with scenes of forest walks as the protagonists seek clarity to their dilemma in the darkness of the forest. 

The vertical dimension is prominent for instance in powerful images of "Jacob's Ladder". The question of religion / the spiritual dimension lurks not far beyond the surface. 

An obvious but beautiful symbol is the unfurling of a jasmine flower in a transparent teapot. The protagonists are not squeamish about anything, yet clueless in front of the mystery of a first love. Is it imagined or real? Your guess is as good as mine. My guess: it is real enough for Johanne, her first love and first pain. For her teacher, it is about warm and tender friendship between women without a sexual dimension.

Sodankylä morning discussion 2025: Julien Temple

Julien Temple at the morning discussion at the School, Sodankylä, 12 June 2025. Foto Juho Liukkonen, Midnight Sun Film Festival 2025.

Julien Temple. Photo: Midnight Sun Film Festival online 2025.

Hosted by Milja Mikkola. In English. 120 min

The School, Sodankylä, Midnight Sun Film Festival (MSFF), 12 June 2025.

JULIEN TEMPLE

S./B. 1953

Lauri Timonen (MSFF 2025): "Lontoossa 26. marraskuuta 1953 syntyneen Julien Templen huima, melkein 200 nimikettä kattava filmografia sai alkunsa 70-luvun lopulla punkrockin aallonharjalla. Läpimurtona toimi kohuryhmä Sex Pistolsin vaiheita fiktiivisparodisessa mockumentary-hengessä taltioinut The Great Rock ’n’ Roll Swindle (1980), joka muistetaan muun muassa Sid Viciousin ikonisen brutaalista My Way -tulkinnasta."

"Olennaiseksi urapoluksi kasvoi järisyttävä curriculum vitae legendaaristen musiikkivideoiden tekijänä. Artistien lista on häkellyttävä (muun muassa Judas Priest, Dexys Midnight Runners, Stray Cats, The Kinks, Jean Michel Jarre, Depeche Mode, Culture Club, The Rolling Stones, Accept, Sade, David Bowie, Janet Jackson, Iggy Pop, Billy Idol, Neil Young, Tom Petty, Kenny Rogers, Whitney Houston, Luther Vandross, Bryan Adams, Duran Duran, Blur, ZZ Top, Van Halen, Paul McCartney ja Paul Weller)."

"Toisen keskeisen juonteen muodostavat pitkät, monesti rosoisten kohteidensa mukaan hieman kieli poskessa toteutetut dokumentit ja henkilökuvat, kuten Sex Pistolsin vaiheisiin palaavat The Filth and the Fury (2000), There’ll Always Be an England (2008) ja Christmas with the Sex Pistols (tv, 2013), The Clash -päällikkö Joe Strummerin villiintynyt ruumiinavaus The Future Is Unwritten (2007), Dr. Feelgood -bändologia Oil City Confidential (2009) ja keulakuva Wilko Johnsonin koskettava potretti The Ecstasy of Wilko Johnson (2015), intiimi Rollari-dialogi Keith Richards: The Origin of the Species (tv, 2016) sekä kaikkien janoisten sankarin ja The Pogues -vokalistin lämminhenkinen lähikuva Crock of Gold: A Few Rounds with Shane MacGowan (2020)."

"Myös merkitykselliset maantieteelliset miljööt ovat käyneet aiheiksi teoksille: urbaanin Baabelin rappioitumista käsittelevälle Detroitin sielunmessulle (Requiem for Detroit?, tv, 2010), Lontoo, uuden Babylonin (London: The Modern Babylon, 2012) nostalgiselle aikamatkalle taiteilijan menneisyyteen, Rio de Janeiro -esseelle Rio 50 Degrees (2014), Havanna-oodille (Habaneros, 2017) ja Ibiza: The Silent Movielle (2019). Edellä mainittujen ainesten suvereenista koonnasta käy mestarillisen rouhea festivaalihistoriikki Glastonbury (2006), jonka lumoava kompilaatio yhdistelee lajin varhaisempien klassikkojen (Monterey Pop, 1968, Woodstock, 1970, The Isle of Wight -tallenteet) hengessä mutaa, ulosteita ja performansseja ritareihin, maahisiin, menninkäisiin, druideihin ja heimoidentiteettiin."

"Fiktion parissa Temple todensi vanhoja Hollywood-musikaaleja kohtaan tuntemaansa rakkautta taidokkaan vimmaisella helmellä Absolute Beginners (1986), jonka tuotantohistoria tuo mieleen toisen unohdetun merkkiteoksen, Francis Ford Coppolan yhtäläisellä pieteetillä luodun Suoraan sydämestä (One from the Heart, 1981). Yhdysvalloissa valmistuivat scifi-komedia Maan tytöt ovat helppoja paloja (Earth Girls Are Easy, 1988) ja Mickey Rourken intensiivisen roolityön kannattelema heroiininhuuruinen pienoishelmi Bullet (1996). Euroopassa Temple toteutti taiteilijan alkuperäisen elokuvakipinän sytyttäneelle ranskalaismestarille kunniaa tekevän Vigon (1998) ja kahden runoilijan – Samuel Taylor Coleridgen ja William Wordsworthin – kohtauspintoja kartoittavan Pandaemoniumin (2000)."

"Astukaa siis autuaina omaleimaisen visualistin, talttumattoman vastakulttuurioriginellin, wellesiläisen montaasin maestron, viuhuvan kameran vapahtajan ja elinvoimaisen esseistin Julien Templen anarkistiseen taikapiiriin! Rohkein uskaltanee jo tässä kohtaa ennustaa, että rock’n’rollin todelliselta sisäpiiriläiseltä saatetaan kuulla aamukeskustelussa myös muutama hurjemman puoleinen muusikkotarina…" LAURI TIMONEN

"Julien Temple was born in London on November 26, 1953, and his staggering filmography – approaching 200 works – began in the late 1970s at the peak of punk rock. His breakthrough came with the fictitious parody mockumentary The Great Rock ’n’ Roll Swindle (1980), which depicts the rise and fall of the controversial group the Sex Pistols. The film is particularly remembered for Sid Vicious’s brutally iconic rendition of My Way."

"Another significant path in Temple’s career is his impressive résumé as a director of legendary music videos. The list of artists he’s worked with is staggering: among others, Judas Priest, Dexys Midnight Runners, Stray Cats, The Kinks, Jean-Michel Jarre, Depeche Mode, Culture Club, The Rolling Stones, Accept, Sade, David Bowie, Janet Jackson, Iggy Pop, Billy Idol, Neil Young, Tom Petty, Kenny Rogers, Whitney Houston, Luther Vandross, Bryan Adams, Duran Duran, Blur, ZZ Top, Van Halen, Paul McCartney, and Paul Weller."

"A crucial thread throughout Temple’s career is his long-form, tongue-in-cheek, and often rough-around-the-edges documentaries and biopics. These include The Filth and the Fury (2000), which revisits the phases of the Sex Pistols; There’ll Always Be an England (2008); and Christmas with the Sex Pistols (TV, 2013). He also explored the legend of The Clash in Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten (2007), dove into the saga of Dr. Feelgood with Oil City Confidential (2009), and painted a touching portrait of frontman Wilko Johnson in The Ecstasy of Wilko Johnson (2015). Temple’s intimate dialogue with the Rolling Stones is captured in Keith Richards: The Origin of the Species (TV, 2016), and he offers a warm-hearted close-up of The Pogues’ singer in Crock of Gold: A Few Rounds with Shane MacGowan (2020)."

"Temple has also explored relevant geographical milieus in his work. These include the portrayal of urban decay in Requiem for Detroit? (TV, 2010); a nostalgic time-travel through his native city in London: The Modern Babylon (2012); an essay on Rio de Janeiro in Rio 50 Degrees (2014); an ode to Havana in Habaneros (2017); and the sun-drenched mythology of Ibiza: The Silent Movie (2019)."

"The sovereign collection of all these themes finds its culmination in the masterfully raucous festival history Glastonbury (2006), an enchanting compilation that – much like the early classics of the genre (Monterey Pop [1968], Woodstock [1970], The Isle of Wight recordings) – melds mud, excrement, and performance art with knights, gnomes, goblins, druids, and tribal identity."

"In fiction, Temple expressed his love for old Hollywood musicals with the artful and frenetic gem Absolute Beginners (1986), whose production history evokes another underappreciated landmark: Francis Ford Coppola’s painstakingly crafted One from the Heart (1981). In the United States, Temple directed the sci-fi comedy Earth Girls Are Easy (1988), and the heroin-fueled miniature gem Bullet (1996), in which Mickey Rourke delivers an intense performance as a convict and junkie."

"In Europe, Temple created Vigo (1998), a tribute to the French master who originally sparked his cinematic passion, and Pandaemonium (2000), a poetic imagining of scenes between Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth."

"So, step blissfully into the magic circle of the anarchist Julien Temple – the distinctive visualist, untamed counterculture original, master of Wellesian montage, savior of the flickering camera, and vibrant essayist. At this point, the boldest among us might even predict that In Discussion With will feature a few ferocious tales about musicians from this true insider of rock ’n’ roll…"  LAURI TIMONEN

The Tunnyng of Elinour Rummyng (1976), Where is Your Love (1979), Punk Can Take It (1979), Biceps of Steel (1980), The Great Rock ‘n’ Roll Swindle (1980), The Comic Strip (1981), The Secret Policeman’s Other Ball (1982), The Comic Strip Presents (lyhyt/short, 1981), Matrap (1983), David Bowie: Jazzin’ for Blue Jean (1984), Come Dancing with The Kinks (1986), Absolute Beginners (1986), Running Out of Luck (1987), Aria (1987), Earth Girls Are Easy (1988), Into The Great Wide Open (1991), Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers: Take the Highway Live (1992), Bullet (1996), Vigo (1998), The Filth and the Fury (2000), blur | The Best Of (2000), Pandaemonium (2001), David Bowie: Best of Bowie (2002), We Are Scissor Sisters… And So Are You (2004), Scissor Sisters: Return to Oz (2004), Glastonbury (2006), Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten (2007), Sex Pistols: There’ll Always Be an England (2008), The Eternity Man (2008), Madness: The Liberty of Norton Folgate (2009), Oil City Confidential (2009), Detroit sielunmessu (2010), Ray Davies: Imaginary Man (2010), Glastopia (2012), London: The Modern Babylon (2012), Sex Pistols: Never Mind The Bollocks, Here’s The Sex Pistols (2012), Never Mind the Baubles: Xmas ‘77 with the Sex Pistols (2013), Rio 50 Degrees: Carry on CaRIOca (2014), The Clash: New Year’s Day ‘77 (2015), The Ecstasy of Wilko 

Johnson (2015), Keith Richards – The Origin of the Species (2016), Habaneros (2017), My Life Story (2018), Ibiza: The Silent Movie (2019), Crock of Gold: A Few Rounds with Shane MacGowan (2020)

Sodankylä 2025 tribute:

ABSOLUTE BEGINNERS

THE FILTH AND THE FURY

JOE STRUMMER: THE FUTURE IS UNWRITTEN

LONDON: THE MODERN BABYLON

CROCK OF GOLD: A FEW ROUNDS WITH SHANE MACGOWAN

AA notes

Milja Mikkola: What was the first film you saw?

Julien Temple: There were no films. I came from a radical family. But still I remember A Hard Day's Night and El Cid from my childhood. At the university, Le Mépris made an impression. When I started a film society, on 16 mm, L'Atalante.

Clips: 

Sex Pistols: God Save the Queen (orig. GB 1977, screened was a later version)

ABC: Poison Arrow (GB 1982)

The Kinks: Predictable (GB 1981)

The Rolling Stones: Undercover of the Night (GB 1983)

Kenny Rogers: Planet Texas (US 1989)

Sid Vicious: My Way (GB 1978) from The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle (GB 1980)

Milja Mikkola: Which film would you take to the desert island?

Julien Temple: El ángel exterminador.

MORNING DISCUSSION RESUME FROM MSFF 2025 WEBSITE:

"During the morning discussion, the British director Julien Temple revealed that he had visited a late night viewing the previous night since a construction work had woken him up. The audience did not notice any fatigue though, as the director reminisced about his career as a film maker, especially in the British music scene."

"Temple hardly watched films as a kid. He remembers how he saw Jean-Luc Godard’s Le mépris (1963) as an architecture student, but did not understand a thing. He had to watch the film six times before he felt that he had the hang of it. This experience led to his practice of watching a lot of films. During this period, he saw L’Atalante (1934) by Jean Vigo that blew Temple’s mind. Temple rented a 16 mm print copy of the movie, which he accidentally dropped into a river and had to dry out afterwards. “I studied every frame of it. The film must’ve been bigger when it left”, Temple said."

"Temple was active in the counter-cultural scene in Britain, which led him to meet the Sex Pistols and The Clash before their breakthrough. Temple filmed the beginnings of both bands, before the competing managers of the rising punk bands made an ultimatum requiring him to choose between whom to affiliate himself with. Temple chose The Sex Pistols, which made The Clash bitter for years to come."

"By the time Temple graduated from film school, the Sex Pistols had grown to be such a huge phenomenon that their manager Malcolm McLaren began to plan for a film about the band. Temple started out his career to film directing as a film director as an assistant to Russ Meyer. “He was not at all into the punk thing. When touring clubs, all he wanted to know was where the girls with big tits are”, Temple reminisced on the long-term exploitation movie director."

"McLaren wanted a person representing the counter cultural movement to direct the film, but eventually Meyer, a Korean war veteran, had enough of the punk rockers’ mischief. The film The Great Rock ‘n Roll Swindle (1980) was eventually parsed together by Temple from the filmed material. “It was a mashup of media, which seemed to echo the punk aesthetic of grabbing things from wherever”, Temple told the audience."

"This misleading and fact-mangling film was not his only point of contact to the subject, as Temple estimates that he has made 20 movies about the Sex Pistols, six of which are longer than a music video. The definite story of the band is the documentary The Filth and the Fury (2000)."

"Temple’s latter career did not depend only on his closeness to the Sex Pistols though. “In the beginning, Judas Priest was the only band asking me to make music videos for them. I thought they were a comedy band, so I shot comedic music videos”."

"Slowly Temple started to net recognition, and he ended up directing videos to The Rolling Stones, David Bowie, The Kinks, and Neil Young. Young’s video made fun of corporations, so MTV ended up canceling it to appease their sponsors. “It still won MTV’s own Best video award, even though they wouldn’t show it”, Temple smiled."

"His long career of working on music videos ended up with him developing a love-hate relationship towards the business, so he returned to England to direct to fictional films, which were based on his idols: Vigo (1998), based on film director, and Pandaemonium (2000), telling the story of the writer Samuel Colleridge. The latter had its premiere in September 2001. “Empty cinemas – the story of my life”, Temple sighed."

"After returning to London, Temple patched his relations to the lead man of The Clash, Joe Strummer, after he appeared at a garden party Temple hosted. Strummer had a habit of lighting a fire after dark, with guests gathering around it to have discussions and jam. Strummer passed away in 2001."

"For Temple, these gatherings represented Strummer’s final piece of art. “The film I made was like a wake around the fire. He was a magic person”, Temple said"

"For his ‘desert island film’, Temple chose Luis Bunuel’s satire The Exterminating Angel (1962), as it too is set in one place, from where there’s no escape. Still, “I would like to have the entire Criterion Collection [with me]”, Temple says."

"Pitkän linjan brittiohjaaja Julien Temple kertoi aamukeskustelussa käyneensä vielä myöhään edellisenä yönä elokuvansa esityksessä, kun aamulla hotellin ulkopuolella ollut rakennustyö oli herättänyt hänet. Väsyneisyyttä ei kuitenkaan huomannut ohjaajan muistellessa omaa historiaansa elokuvantekijänä erityisesti brittimusiikin parissa."

"Lapsena Temple ei juurikaan katsonut elokuvia. Hän muistaa, kuinka hän arkkitehtiopiskelijana näki Jean-Luc Godardin Sen täytyi tapahtua (Le mépris, 1963), eikä ymmärtänyt siitä mitään. Temple joutui katsomaan elokuvan kuusi kertaa, ennen kuin koki päässeensä kärryille. Tästä hänelle kehittyi tapa katsoa paljon elokuvia. Samoihin aikoihin hän näki omien sanojensa mukaan hänen tajuntansa räjäyttäneen Jean Vigon L’Atalanten (1934). Temple vuokrasi elokuvasta 16 mm printin, jonka hän vahingossa pudotti jokeen, ja jota hänen piti jälkikäteen kuivattaa. “Tutkin siitä jokaisen ruudun. Elokuva lieni kooltaan isompi kun palautin sen”, hän kertoo."

"Vastakulttuuripiireissä pyöriminen tutustutti Templen Sex Pistolsin ja The Clashin muusikoihin ennen näiden läpimurtoa. Temple kuvasi kummankin alkuaikoja, ennen kuin nousevien punk-yhtyeiden kilpailevat managerit käskivät tehdä bändien välillä valinnan. Temple valitsi The Sex Pistolsin, mikä herätti The Clashissä vuosiksi katkeruutta."

"Templen elokuvakoulusta valmistumisen aikoihin Sex Pistols oli noussut jo niin isoksi ilmiöksi, että manageri Malcolm McLaren kaavaili yhtyeestä tehtävän elokuvaa. Temple siis aloitti ohjaajauransa elokuvaohjaaja Russ Meyerin apulaisena. “Häntä ei punk kiinnostanut. Kun hän kiersi klubeilla, hän kysyi vain missä ovat isotissiset tytöt”, Temple muistelee eksploitaatioelokuvien pitkän linjan tekijää."

"McLarenin idea oli ottaa vastakulttuuria edustava henkilö ohjaamaan elokuva, mutta lopulta Korean sodan veteraani Meyerilla tuli mitta täyteen punkkareiden sekoilusta. Elokuvaa varten kuvatusta materiaalista Temple koosti elokuvan The Great Rock ‘n Roll Swindle (1980). “Siitä tuli kooste eri mediamateriaaleja, mutta sehän heijastaa punkin estetiikkaa, eli sitä että noukitaan sitä mitä sattuu.”"

"Tämä ei jäänyt ainoaksi kosketukseksi aiheeseen, sillä kyseessä oli tarkoituksellisen harhaanjohtava ja faktoja sekoittava teos. Temple arvioi tehneensä Sex Pistolsista 20 elokuvaa, joista kuusi on musiikkivideon mittaa pidempiä. Selkeimmin yhtyeen tarinan kertoo dokumentti The Filth and the Fury (2000)."

"Ura ei kuitenkaan urjennut pelkästä läheisyydestä aikansa kohuyhtyeeseen."

"“(Heavy metal -yhtye) Judas Priest oli aluksi ainoa, joka kysyi minua musiikkivideoidensa ohjaajaksi. Minusta he olivat komediayhtye, joten tein heille komediallisia musiikkivideoita.”"

"Hiljakseen mainetta alkoi kuitenkin kertyä, ja Temple ohjasi videoita niin The Rolling Stonesille, David Bowielle, The Kinksille kuin Neil Youngille. Youngin video pilkkasi korporaatioita, joten MTV kielsi sen sponsoreidensa suojelemiseksi. “Se voitti silti kanavan palkintogaalassa parhaan videon palkinnon, vaikka sitä ei voitu edes näyttää”, Temple myhäilee."

"Pitkään musiikkivideoiden kanssa työskentely oli luonut Templelle viha-rakkaussuhteen alaan, joten hän palasi Englantiin ohjaamaan kaksi fiktioelokuvaa, jotka perustuivat hänen idoleihinsa. Elokuvaohjaajasta kertova Vigo valmistui vuonna 1998 ja kirjailija Samuel Colleridgestä kertova Pandaemonium vuonna 2000. Elokuva sai Yhdysvaltain ensi-iltansa heti syyskuussa 2001. “Tyhjät elokuvateatterit ovat elämäni tarina”, Temple huokaa."

"Lontooseen palattuaan hän sai paikattua myös välinsä The Clashin johtomiehen Joe Strummerin kanssa, kun tämä ilmaantui hänen puutarhajuhliinsa. Strummerilla oli tapa sytyttää pimeän tultua nuotio, jonka ympärille keräännyttiin keskustelemaan ja musisoimaan. Strummer kuoli äkisti vuonna 2001."

"“Tein hänestä elokuvan, josta tuli kuin valvojaiset. Siinäkin keräännytään muistelemaan nuotion ympärille”. Temple pitää kokoontumisia kokon äärellä tavallaan Joen viimeisenä taideteoksena. “Hän oli maaginen persoona.”"

"Lopulta kysymykseen “minkä elokuvan ottaisi autiosaarelle”, Temple poimii Luis Bunuelin satiirin Tuhon enkeli vuodelta 1962, sillä siinäkin jumahdetaan yhteen paikkaan, josta ei voi poistua. “Olisi tosin mukava saada vaikka koko Criterion Collection mukaan”, hän haaveilee."