Stormskärs Maja / Stormskerry Maja

Tiina Lymi: Stormskärs Maja (FI 2023) with Linus Troedsson (Janne) and Amanda Jansson (Maja).

Myrskyluodon Maija.

    FI 2024. PC: Solar Films Inc. Oy. P: Jukka Helle, Hanna Virolainen, Markus Selin. EX: Gustav Oldén.

    D+SC: Tiina Lymi - based on the Stormskärs-Maja series of novels by Anni Blomqvist: Vägen till Stormskäret (1968), Med havet som granne (1969), Maja (1970), I kamp med havet (1971) and Vägen från Stormskäret (1973). DP: Rauno Ronkainen. PD: Otso Linnalaakso. Cost: Auli Turtiainen. Makeup: Kaisa Pätilä. VFX: Viivi Veivo (VFX Helsinki Oy). M: Lauri Porra. Cond: Dalia Stasevska. Orchestra: Sinfonia Lahti. Theme tune (1976): Lasse Mårtenson. S: Kirka Sainio. ED: Joona Louhivuori. Sailing expertise: Storbåt Aura / Turun perinneveneyhdistys, Sonja / Kustavin Talonpoikaispurjehtijat ry.

    C: Amanda Jansson (Maja), Linus Troedsson (Janne), Jonna Järnefelt (Maja's mother), Tobias Zilliacus (Maja's father), Amanda Kilpeläinen Arvidsson (Anna, Maja's sister), Desmond Eastwood (Wilson, British Navy officer), Tony Doyle (Harris, British Navy officer).

    Loc: Åland, 2022-2023.

    Language: Swedish.

    163 min

    Finnish premiere 19 Jan 2024, released by Nordisk Film with Finnish subtitles by Iira Tuominen.
    Viewed at Tennispalatsi Isense, Helsinki, 20 Jan 2024.

Previous adaptation: Stormskärs Maja 1-6 (TV series, FI 1976), D: Åke Lindman, SC: Benedict Zilliacus, M: Lasse Mårtenson, C: Rose-Marie Rosenback, Leif Sundberg.

Filmikamari Pressit: " Myrskyluodon Maija on koskettava tarina vahvasta naisesta ja hänen kohtaamistaan haasteista myrskyisällä saarella. Elokuva perustuu Anni Blomqvistin samannimiseen romaaniin ja sijoittuu 1800-luvun Suomen rannikkoseudulle. Nuori 17-vuotias Maija avioituu vasten tahtoaan kalastajamies Jannen kanssa. Hänen elämänsä Myrskyluodolla on täynnä haasteita ja vastoinkäymisiä: kalastajan vaimona hän joutuu selviytymään miehensä pitkistä poissaoloista merellä ja huolehtimaan perheestään yksin. Maijasta on kuitenkin kasvanut lujatahtoinen ja itsenäinen nainen, joka ei pelkää tarttua toimeen karussa saaristossa. Maijalla ja Jannella on vahva yhteys, sekä ajan myötä syventynyt rakkaus. Janne tukee vaimonsa pyrkimyksiä ja ymmärtää, että perheen vahvuus syntyy yhteisistä ponnisteluista. "

" Myrskyluodon Maija on tarina tahdosta, voimasta ja rakkaudesta. "

AA: "Storm Cliff Women" is a formidable cycle of novels by a family of female authors from the municipality of Vårdö in the Åland archipelango, launched by Sally Salminen with Katrina in 1936, an international bestseller in some 20 languages. Her sister Aili Nordgren (née Salminen) also became a writer, famous for Väljer du stormen [If You Choose the Storm] among others. Also two of their brothers became writers. Their second cousin was Anni Blomqvist, whose most popular achievement was the Stormskärs-Maja series of five books. All five were born before Finland's independence, when even Åland belonged to the autonomous Grand Duchy of Finland in the Russian Empire.

The Storm Cliff Women phenomenon in 1936 belonged to a new wave of young female protagonists in Finnish fiction, including Liisa Harju (in Hilja Valtonen's Nuoren opettajattaren varaventtiili), Ilona Ahlgren (in Hella Wuolijoki's Niskavuoren naiset), and Katri Ukonniemi (in Auni Nuolivaara's Paimen, piika ja emäntä). All were  memorably filmed - Katrina in Sweden, directed by Gustaf Edgren in 1943. During wartime, filming on Åland was forbidden, and exteriors were filmed in the Stockholm archipelago. The new Stormskärs Maja is the first theatrical Storm Cliff movie shot on real Åland locations.

I have loved the actor-director Tiina Lymi since her breakthrough role in Akvaariorakkautta and as a director since her short film Naisen nimi. Sharp wit, great sense of humour, perfect timing and talent in eliciting good performances were there from the beginning. I have had the privilege to interview her, and when I praised her luonnontunne (feeling for nature) she protested and declared that she does not even know what that is, being a city girl. But I found it in Äkkilähtö and Napapiirin sankarit 3 in reverse, satirizing our estrangement from nature and in Ilosia aikoja, Mielensäpahoittaja in paradox, the retro attitudes of the Curmudgeon appearing hip from an ecological viewpoint.

Stormskärs Maja is Tiina Lymi's greatest film, and it has nature feeling galore. It starts as a vision of nature. The sky and the sea and the bare rock: this is the edge of Eternity. The young protagonists Maja and Janne appear as Adam and Eve, and their tiny rocky island as Paradise. "We were young, we minted gold", wrote Johannes Linnankoski in Song of the Scarlet Flower about young lovers who have nothing, yet everything.

It is hard work from morning till night, a constant combat with the elements. First they have only each other, soon there are five children. The tough conditions of life are conquered with a sunny disposition, a life-affirming stance and a joy of sex. Maja is a true woman of the sea, hardened and unafraid of ice swimming, indeed, envigorated and reborn in an ice bath. Maybe love is not all you need, but with love, you can better survive anything.

The action takes place in 1840-1899, a period still dominated by torpparilaitos, where landowners had superior power and tenant farmers were dependent subordinates, just like Janne and Maja. (The situation changed only after the Civil War in 1918). But Janne and Maja take the first step to freedom by moving to the small island by themselves, and struggle towards freedom from there. Thereby they also escape pressure from their elders, including Maja's mother and sister. A Woman can be a wolf to a woman.

Stormskärs Maja is the first theatrical film in which I see scenes from the Åland War (in Finnish Oolannin sota, still famous from a popular song). The war took place in 1854-1856 between the Russian Empire and the Ottoman-British-French alliance, and because Åland was the Westernmost outpost of the Russian Empire, a British Navy Division appears on Maja's Stormskär and occupies it during a full year.

Maja helps Janne flee Russian draft. She keeps her family safe while British marines occupy the buildings. The Brits are immediately made to realize that transgression is out of the question. With chutzpah and willpower Maja also saves the family's only cow from being slaughtered for dinner. She deserves the respect of the officers and even provides nursing services when they are severely wounded in combat.

The British occupation is an ordeal. There is also true tragedy for Maja: the mother's greatest tragedy when her son Mikael drowns, and the wife's greatest tragedy when Janne drowns in the ice. Maja still refuses to leave Stormskäret. She will now take care of Stormskäret by herself, with help from her children, who are growing up.

She defies all obstacles: the class barrier, the gender barrier and the cultural barrier. Maja has grown up analphabete, but her children can by now read and write, and Maja learns with them. The gender barrier seems hard to overcome. 19th century women have not equal property and financial rights, but there is a way to arrange a loan from the mighty Saka (Carl-Kristian Rundman), and Maja gets unexpected support from Mrs. Saka (Andrea Björkholm) who is seen reading John Stuart Mill's The Subjection of Women.

The social charge in the novels of Sally Salminen and Aili Nordgren was frank. The writer sisters confronted oppression, exploitation and harassment in their novels, and their heroines were indefatigable fighters against injustice. This aspect was watered down in Gustaf Edgren's film adaptation. Stormskärs Maja belongs to the same tribe, but Anni Blomqvist was socially less engaged than her Storm Cliff predecessors. Nevertheless Stormskärs Maja is a mighty growing up saga of female independence, and in Tiina Lymi's adaptation, Amanda Jansson creates a terrific portrait of a fearless survivor and a woman full of love.

...

Storm Cliff Women is an international trend in fiction, also in the cinema. Last October in Pordenone at the Giornate del Cinema Muto festival I saw no less than three such movies (La divine croisière, Pêcheur d'Islande and Vent debout), all French, all set in Brittany. Some of the earliest films relevant to the context were inspired by Alfred Tennyson's poem "Enoch Arden", including D. W. Griffith's After Many Years (US 1908, with Florence Lawrence) and Enoch Arden (US 1911, starring Linda Arvidson), remade for Griffith as Enoch Arden (US 1915) by W. Christy Cabanne, with Lillian Gish. They etched the scene of a woman waiting for her lost husband's return from the sea into the cinema's most lasting imagery. In Stormskärs Maja, Tiina Lymi adds an original and powerful interpretation to this legacy.

...

For the 11 Jan 2024 issue of the Kirkko ja Kaupunki newspaper of the Helsinki congregations of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland, Tiina Lymi has granted an interview about the spiritual message of Stormskärs Maja. The Lutheran church plays an important part in powering the people in their daily struggle with the elements. The marriage, the baptism and the funeral sequences are mounted with stark devotion. The sea voyage to the child's funeral catches the unfathomable sorrow of the berieved mother in a vision comparable with Albert Edelfelt's painting "Ett barns likfärd" / "Conveying the Child's Coffin" (1879). But Maja's sense of the sacred is bifurcated. Beyond the official creed of the Church there is still the ancient spirituality of magic, pantheism and premonitions. Maja is organically rooted in the deepest atavistic forces of the earth and the sea. During all seasons, summer and winter, she finds solace at the bottom of the sea.