Tampere Film Festival 2020: National Competition 10

Risto-Pekka Blom: Kanarialintu / Canary. The tragedy of school bullying. Everybody looks the other way.

National Competition 10
Tampere International Film Festival (TFF)
Plevna 5, Tampere, 6 March 2020.
    Q &A with Antero Jokinen, Emma Louhivuori, Jan Ijäs, Miia Tervo and Sampsa Huttunen.

KANARIALINTU
CANARY

Risto-Pekka Blom | Finland 2020 | Experimental, Fiction | 5 min

TFF: "Every morning thousands of children go to school like canaries in a coal mine, measuring toxicity. The film deals with the chain of harassment and the way we all are broken in our own ways."

"Joka aamu tuhannet lapset lasketaan kouluun, kuin kanarialinnut kaivokseen testaamaan ilman myrkyllisyyttä. Elokuva kertoo kiusaamisen ketjuuntumisesta ja siitä kuinka olemme kaikki omalla tavallamme rikkinäisiä." TFF

AA: A high angle crane shot opens the film like in Lang and Mizoguchi. We witness traces of extreme cruelty and bullying by schoolmates. The solitude of the little girl, abandoned by father, abandoned by mother. She disappears into a path in the forest.

Nalle Sjöblad: Limbo with Martti Suosalo going down and Iida Kuningas going up, a bit like Jean and Miss Julie in August Strindberg's tragedy.

LIMBO

Nalle Sjöblad | Finland 2019 | Fiction | 10 min

TFF: "A quiet staircase of an ordinary office building. Two colleagues, Markku, an older accountant, and Eeva, younger HR manager are heading down the stairs, one after another. It turns out that earlier that day, Eeva has had to tell Markku that he has been fired from the company after many years. Markku is bitter and full of rage. Then something unordinary happens."

"Hiljainen porraskäytävä tavanomaisessa toimistorakennuksessa. Kaksi kollegaa, vanhempi kirjanpitäjä Markku ja nuorempi henkilöstöpäällikkö Eeva, kävelevät perätysten portaita alas. Käy ilmi, että aiemmin päivällä Eevan täytyi kertoa Markulle, että tämä on irtisanottu vuosien työsuhteen jälkeen. Markku on katkera ja täynnä raivoa. Sitten tapahtuu jotain epätavallista." TFF

AA:A contemporary rage of drama of an outsourced male veteran (Martti Suosalo) and the female human resource manager (Iida Kuningas) who has just fired her. They spit out a full register of contemporary outrage as they descend in an elevator and then go down an endless staircase in nightmare mode. From Nalle Sjöblad who gave us the brilliant Love & Anarchy Helsinki Film Festival trailer Mannerheim kuulee (2014) based on the meme on Der Untergang.

Emma Louhivuori: Hänen päänsä / Her Head. Her head is a cat.

HÄNEN PÄÄNSÄ
HER HEAD

Emma Louhivuori | Finland 2019 | Animation | 7 min

TFF: "A woman’s life is difficult because her head is a cat."

"Naisen elämä on hankalaa, koska hänen päänsä on kissa." TFF

AA: An animation based on line drawing, reduced in the extreme, black and white with colour spots, naivist. The story of a woman whose head is a cat.

Juulia Kalavainen: Checkpoint. The sentry and the little girl who fools him.

CHECKPOINT

Juulia Kalavainen | Portugal 2019 | Fiction | 6 min

TFF: "A war-torn area. A solitary military checkpoint. A soldier stands guard alone, the only soul between two conflicting areas. Amidst the oppressive and desolate landscape, he discovers an unexpected connection with a little girl."

"Sodan repimä alue. Syrjäinen armeijan tarkastuspiste. Sotilas seisoo yksin vartiossa, ainoana sieluna kahden vastakkaisen alueen välissä. Pakahduttavan, aution maiseman keskellä hän löytää odottamattoman yhteyden pikkutytön kanssa."

AA: A live action drama vignette about a little girl who fools a military man on guard by inviting him to a bout of football.

Jan Ijäs: Waste No. 4 New York, New York. An epic of garbage, the biggest manmade monument in history.

WASTE NO. 4 NEW YORK, NEW YORK

Jan Ijäs | Finland 2019 | Experimental, Documentary | 20 min

TFF: "Waste no. 4 New York, New York revisits the history of the City in twenty minutes through twelve cemeteries and one landfill. The short documentary is the fourth, independent episode from the ten-part Waste series."

"Waste no. 4 New York, New York kertaa New Yorkin historian 20 minuutissa kahdentoista hautausmaan ja yhden kaatopaikan välityksellä. Lyhytdokumentti on neljäs, itsenäinen osa kymmenosaista Waste-sarjaa."

AA: A new entry into Jan Ijäs's devastating series about waste. Potter's Field in New York is compared with the Great Wall of China, Egyptian grave monuments and the Sun Temple in Mexico: it beats them all. It is the finest portrait of Western civilization, built before the age of recycling, incorporating also the WTC twin towers. It is the garbage capital of humanity. Stunning. I have blogged twice about Waste No. 2 Wreck (2016).

Miia Tervo: Ei mitään hätää / It's All Right. A Kafkaesque trial: the first case of the prosecutor (Johannes Holopainen) is a brutal rape processed as mere routine. Shot on location at the Helsinki Court House in Salmisaari, modernist architecture by Väinö Vähäkallio.

EI MITÄÄN HÄTÄÄ
IT’S ALL RIGHT

Miia Tervo | Finland 2019 | Fiction | 17 min

TFF: "The young prosecutor Aleksi is unexpectedly called to his first trial, which is about rape. Aleksi represents Niina, who has waited for the trial for years. Aleksi has had way too little and Niina way too much time to prepare. Will the system give mercy to Aleksi and justice to Niina?"

"Aloitteleva syyttäjä Aleksi (Johannes Holopainen) joutuu yllättäen ensimmäiseen oikeudenkäyntiinsä, joka käsittelee raiskausta. Aleksi edustaa Niinaa (Lotta Kaihua), joka on odottanut käsittelyä jo vuosien ajan. Istunnon alkaessa Aleksilla on ollut liian vähän ja Niinalla aivan liian paljon valmistautumisaikaa. Antaako systeemi armoa Aleksille ja oikeutta Niinalle?" TFF

AA: I have blogged about Miia Tervo's masterpiece (my favourite film of the world cinema in 2019) in my entries on Tottumiskysymys and Yksittäistapaus.

Sampsa Huttunen: Toinen linja / Second Lane. Just when they have found the way to do something right with drug addicts the city of Helsinki calls the contract off. Toinen linja [Second Line] is a street in the district of Kallio in Helsinki, one of five lines that follow each other horizontally across the hill on top of which is the Kallio Church.

TOINEN LINJA
SECOND LANE

Sampsa Huttunen | Finland 2018 | Documentary | 29 min

TFF: "Second Lane is a story about drug addiction, living with it and fighting it. It is a documentary about people who use intravenous drugs and the professionals and peers working with those people. What happens when ‘Vinkki’, a social and healthcare counselling centre in Helsinki, closes its doors due to a lost contract."

"Toinen linja on tarina huumeriippuvuudesta, sen kanssa elämisestä ja sitä vastaan taistelemisesta. Se on dokumentti suonensisäisten huumeiden käyttäjistä ja ammattilaisista, jotka työskentelevät heidän parissaan. Miten käy, kun terveysneuvontapiste ”Vinkki” Helsingin keskustassa sulkee ovensa menetettyään sopimuksensa?" TFF

AA: A deeply moving film about a very special center for drug addicts, the Vinkki center which was forced to close after the city of Helsinki renewed the contract and switched to another service. Seven peer helpers soon died after the devastating event. There is no artistic approach in this film which is a straight documentary record, but it has a lot to say about the history of drug addiction, dating back to WWII years, and about possibilities to help those who are the most difficult to help.