Salla Tykkä: Untitled (White - Alps)

Salla Tykkä: Untitled (White – Alps).

National Competition 7
Tampere International Film Festival (TFF)
Plevna 5, Tampere, 6 March 2020.
    Languages: English, French.
    In the presence of Salla Tykkä.

UNTITLED (WHITE – ALPS)

Salla Tykkä | Finland, Switzerland, France 2019 | Documentary | 70 min

TFF: "A travelogue film about looking and the human need to see and understand the world and about the limits of the sensory system as mind penetrates deeper in the matter, time and space."

"Matkakertomus etsimisestä, ihmisen tarpeesta nähdä ja ymmärtää maailmaa sekä aistijärjestelmän rajoitteista, kun mieli tunkeutuu syvemmälle materiaan, aikaan ja tilaan." (TFF)

AA: An experimental film, a philosophical film, a gallery art film.

A film of duration, a film of meditation, a film of contemplation.

A film shot on film, the visual experience is that of a journey over the Alps around Chamonix in a hot air balloon. The aesthetique is that of the long take. The camera is mobile, and towards the finale there are even 360° aerial panoramic shots. The film is based on extreme long shots. We see the magnificence of the Alps in a big picture in great detail. It is rewarding to experience this movie on a big cinema screen.

The soundtrack is a compilation of statements from top cosmologists. They are not identified during the course of the movie, and their names flash past in the final credits too fast to read the names properly. A cosmologist tells she is focusing on the first second of the universe. Black holes and issues of gravity are discussed. Many questions are ontological: what matter is, what life is. Discussion opens from physics to chemistry and biology. The recitative is very intriguing. It is read in English by a female foreign speaker with a nasal accent, and during the course of the feature film what would be perfect in a lecture hall becomes slightly grating.

The concept is fascinating: the journey over the Alps becomes an ontological journey. At the same time, regarding Swiss ski resorts and Chamonix we cannot help but worry about what is happening as the climate change is by now an existential threat to the legendary ski paradises. A film with views like this might soon be impossible to make.

PS. List of experts from the end credits retrieved from a screener link: Paula Eerola, Kari Enqvist, Antti Hakanen, Riitta Hari, Markku Kulmala, Eero Aleksi Kurkela, Kati Lassila Perini, Anne Lähteenmäki, Susanna Miettinen, Manu Tamminen, Esko Valtaoja.