Eden (Ulla Heikkilä, 2020)

 

Ulla Heikkilä: Eden (2020). Bruno Baer (Panu), Linnea Skog (Jenna), Aamu Milonoff (Aliisa), Amos Brotherus (Sampo).

 
FI © 2020 Tekele Productions. P: Miia Haavisto.
    D+SC: Ulla Heikkilä. Cin: Pietari Peltola. PD: Juha-Matti Toppinen. Cost: Roosa Marttiini. Makeup: Kaisu Hölttä. M: Babel (Karin Mäkiranta, Mikko Pykäri). S: Arttu Hokkanen. ED: Hanna Kuirinlahti. Line P: Marja Pihlaja. Script editor: Jan Forsström.
    C: Aamu Milonoff (Aliisa), Linnea Skog (Jenna), Bruno Baer (Panu), Amos Brotherus (Sampo), Pinja Hiiva (Jutta), Jere Ristseppä (Esa), Tommi Korpela (Juhani), Satu Tuuli Karhu (Tiina).
    Nooa Salonen (Ilmari), Alisa Röyttä (Ella), Irina Pulkka (Sari), Ona Huczkowski (Maryam), Elsa Brotherus (Emilia), Anna Kauppinen (Kreeta), Amadou Abdoulrahman-Coulibaly (Hasim), Vanotit Muyau (Bilal).
    Essi Patrakka (Lola), Elina Knihtilä (Leena), Jani Volanen (Asko), Minna Haapkylä (Kristiina), Juho Milonoff (Jyrki), Siru Summanen (Nela), Pietu Kukkonen (Myrsky), Inka Liukkonen (Sarkku), Toni Nikka (Kari), Matias Löfberg (Tuomas), Edit Viljamaa (Iisa), Sela Rubinstein (Ruusa), Onni Vesikallio (Nestori), Pablo Ounaskari (Ville), Irina Pulkka (Sari), Yasmin Najjar (Silja), Pyry Vaismaa (Matti), Severi Vilkko (Santtu), Laura Birn (Laura), Sirkka Tanttu (Aliisan mummo), Raisa Karimo (Aliisan sisko)
    Loc: Kurssikeskus Hvittorp (Kirkkonummi), June–July 2019.
    In memory of Pauli Heikkilä and Pirkko Haavisto.
    92 min
    Translations: Aretta Vähälä, Anna-Maija Lehmus.
    Premiere: 7 Aug 2020, distributor: Nordisk Film.
    A Vimeo screener viewed at a forest retreat in Punkaharju on a tv set, 6 Aug 2020.

 AA: Eden is an assured feature film debut from director Ulla Heikkilä. She displays a keen sense of psychology and a talent of satirical observation in contemporary life. These have already been hallmarks in her short films Golgotha (2016), #sovitus (2017) and Let Her Speak (2019).

As the director and the critics have incredulously noticed, Eden is the first film about a beloved Finnish institution, the rippileiri – the confirmation camp. Hardly any works of literary fiction have focused on it, either, although it is a rewarding subject in many ways. It's about coming of age. It's about a generational experience. It's a dramatic stage for the clash of contemporary life with ancient faith.

When Lutheran youth reaches the age of 15, confirmation instruction is offered.  The tradition dates back to Reformation, but the rippileiri arrangement is a Finnish innovation from the year 1936. In the course of a six-month confirmation instruction, it is optional, but the rippileiri has become so popular that it has defied even secularization as a rite of passage, a fixture of youth culture and even an export article copied in Sweden, Norway and Germany.

In previous centuries, confirmation instruction was different. In Aleksis Kivi's novel Seven Brothers (1870), the brothers run away from the harsh discipline of the confirmation school to live as outlaws in the forest. But affirmation of baptism is a condition for Christian marriage. You must master the tenets of faith, and to achieve that, you must know to read and write. All this to qualify to marry (naimalupa).

In Aleksis Kivi's times the confirmation school with locked doors, corporal punishment and yelled inquisitions may have had affinities with the concentration camp, but since the establishment of the rippileiri it may have started to resemble the Garden of Eden, Terrestrial Paradise. The locations are often the most beautiful, such as Lapland or Punkaharju – or Hvittorp, as in Ulla Heikkilä's movie.

Ulla Heikkilä captures special qualities of the rippileiri experience: summer camp circumstances, a life-affirming approach, an atmosphere of dignity and respect, welcoming young people on equal terms, an open and relaxed attitude to criticism, and a seriousness in meeting the biggest questions in life. 

Eden is an ensemble piece, and there is a fine sense of unanimisme in conveying the growing communal spirit of the young protagonists, though they are all different and full of conflicts and insecurities. The main parts are played by Linnea Skog (Jenna), Aamu Milonoff (Aliisa), Bruno Baer (Panu) and Amos Brotherus (Sampo). This is a tale of "Disorder and early sorrow", Unordnung und frühes Leid, to quote the title of a story by Thomas Mann.

Heikkilä has a fine sense of humour in her dramatic setpieces, and the audience is caught in the thrill of making sense in the modern world of Genesis, the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Sex, a topic everybody is interested in, is introduced by a beautiful passage from the Song of Songs. An enactment of the Christian wedding ceremony is an eagerly expected part of the agenda.

All this is so out of touch with today's views about science and gender that the trappings appear as historical relics. We may smile and we may laugh, because there is something ridiculous in the spectacle. But there is more than meets the eye beyond the quaint surface. In all cultures even humble objects may convey a sense of the sacred.

Two priests carry the main charge. The seasoned veteran Juhani (Tommi Korpela) represents a relaxed and easy-going approach, understanding very well the confusion of the young confirmands. The newcomer Tiina (Satu Tuuli Karhu) would prefer a higher voltage of religious passion. She proposes starting each morning with a flag ritual, but to her chagrin everybody votes her down. She transforms a storehouse into a field chapel, which proves popular for private retreat and worship.

Towards the finale, Tiina stages "a Way of Atonement", an imitatio Christi, complete with everybody taking turns in hanging on the cross. Such a dramatization seems controversial (too "hard core" for Juhani), but provokes emotional reactions. Powerful religious experiences and conversions were common in confirmation schools in the past, but today they are avoided. Tiina comes to repent the turmoil she has caused, but her lingering questions about the lost sense of the sacred and the mystery remain. And she has managed to shake the confirmands deeply.

The topics are great. "Life is God's speech". "The visible is timebound, the invisible is eternal". "The search is the reason why we are here". Drama, even clumsy and ridiculous, even hide-and-seek, a ball game, a dance contest or a wedding enactment, can contribute to our quest.

The Genesis motif has topical and alarming implications: the Expulsion from Paradise, Noah's Flood and the Tower of Babel. We inherited Eden, and we are busy destroying it. Everybody knows this, and the Greta Thunberg generation of young people cannot go on living like we have done. "Our family does not fly anymore", says one of the young ones. "Does anything matter any more?", comments another. Heikkilä does not push this issue, but for me, the lingering impact of Eden is a look of profound unrest on the young people's faces.

The structure of the movie and the rippileiri camp itself are divided into the seven days of the week like the Creation. The graphic design, including the chapter titles for the days, are appealing, and a special feature in the closing credit sequence is a montage of actual confirmation age photographs of the cast and the crew.