Anssi Mänttäri - suomielokuvan kummisetä (world premiere)

Tero Hiltunen, Sampsa Huttunen: Anssi Mänttäri - suomielokuvan kummisetä (FI 2024).

DIRECTOR: Tero Hiltunen, Sampsa Huttunen

COUNTRY: Finland

YEAR: 2024

DURATION: 114 min

LANGUAGES: Finnish

CATEGORY: New Finnish Films, Puhuttu tai tekstitetty suomeksi

World premiere.

In the presence of Tero Hiltunen and Sampsa Huttunen, hosted by Heikki Kujanpää.

Viewed at Kitisen Kino, Sodankylä, Midnight Sun Film Festival (MSFF), 16 June 2024.

[Literal translation of the film's title: Anssi Mänttäri - a Godfather of Finnish Cinema.]

Joonatan Nikkinen (MSFF 2024): " Anssi Mänttäri is a living legend of Finnish cinema. Having been involved in over a hundred industry projects as a producer, screenwriter, and actor, Mänttäri’s personal directing credits include 26 feature films, as well as TV movies, series, short films, and documentaries. The documentary directed by Tero Hiltunen and Sampsa Huttunen allows the title character himself to speak up, making this film a perfect fit for the Midnight Sun Film Festival programme, not least because Mänttäri is one of the festival’s founders. "

" The documentary chronicles Mänttäri’s career chronologically. His theatre aspirations led to his first role in Mikko Niskanen’s Commando Assault, getting established in the film industry, and finally, his debut as a director with The Holy Family. With plenty of footage of Mänttäri’s films over the years, this biographical documentary meticulously combs through his filmography, also touching on his thoughts about winning a Jussi Award and founding the organisation ELKE ry. Not to forget the story of Samuel Fuller persuading the local rural police chief in a bar in Sodankylä to grant permission to hold the film festival just hours before its first screening. " Joonatan Nikkinen

AA: Anssi Mänttäri is a giant of Finnish cinema, a true original, with a prolific career. Having started in the studio system in the early 1960s he has been a part of the transition to New Wave, the television age, the meager years of the 1970s, the Kaurismäki syndrome, the home video challenge, the breakthrough of the internet, the digital era... surviving with incredible stamina as an independent film-maker. In retrospective, there is symbolical value that he collaborated even with the wild bird of Finnish cinema, Teuvo Tulio, in his final film Sensuela - a Lapland film. Perhaps not all Mänttäri's films are masterpieces, but none of them is indifferent. The Who Is Who of Finnish actors has appeared in his productions.

Tero Hiltunen and Sampsa Huttunen have created a portrait documentary of Mänttäri's long career, covering his life and times from the early 1960s to the present day. The many excerpts have been well selected. Mänttäri is a born storyteller and raconteur both in screenwriting and conversation, and he guides us through the thick and the thin of his many adventures. 

It is a puzzle of Finnish film literature that there is no biography or memoir book of Anssi Mänttäri. Now we heard that there is one in the works - also by Tero Hiltunen and Sampsa Huttunen, the directors of this entertaining and informative documentary.

Fittingly this film has its Uraufführung in Sodankylä - Mänttäri was the one who established the contact with the Sodankylä community and had the balls to pursue the crazy idea of a film festival above the Polar Circle, leading to the founding of the Midnight Sun Film Festival.

Sodankylä morning discussion 2024: Dag Johan Haugerud

Dag Johan Haugerud, Liselott Forsman. The morning discussion at the School, 16 June 2024. Photo: Juho Liukkonen.

Dag Johan Haugerud.

Hosted by Liselott Forsman. In English. 60 min

The School, Sodankylä, Midnight Sun Film Festival (MSFF), 16 June 2024.

Timo Malmi (MSFF 2024): " From the perspective of a neighbouring country, Norwegian Dag Johan Haugerud seems to have achieved a national breakthrough with his first feature film I Belong, which won Amanda Awards (Norway’s “Oscars”) for best film, director, and screenplay in 2013. On a Scandinavian level, a similar thing happened with his next feature Beware of Children, which was shown on Finnish TV and screened at the Midnight Sun Film Festival. It won both the 2020 Nordic Council Film Prize and the Dragon Award for Best Nordic Film at the Gothenburg Film Festival. Though the film also received attention elsewhere, such as at the Venice Film Festival, it is Haugerud’s new trilogy on sexuality and the role of men that is set to secure his international renown, as the first instalment Sex triggered the momentum with its premiere at the Berlin Film Festival earlier this year. "

" Haugerud uses fairly minimalist means to observe the behaviour of the characters in his films and creates tension between them with artful subtlety. But “sparsity” does not apply to the dialogue: Haugerud’s films are full of conversation, and he excels in developing an expressive, rich tapestry of dialogue that often propels the narrative on. This talent likely stems from his experience as an author since 1999. Haugerud, who grew up in the small town of Eidsberg, originally trained as a librarian, and has long been employed as such at the Norwegian Academy of Music. He has also pursued film and theatre studies at university level, both in Norway and Stockholm. "

" Haugerud’s early career followed a familiar path in that he directed his first short film in 1998 and made several more before transitioning to feature films. His filmography also includes hour-long specials such as the monologue drama I’m the One You Want (2015) and the musical comedy The Light from the Chocolate Factory (2020). Both in his films and, reportedly, in his novels, he reflects on the fundamental questions of existence in everyday situations, amidst social pressures and norms. His affinity for collaborating with trusted actors from the outset is evident in the final product. Dag Johan Haugerud’s thoughtfully captivating output has reflected the lives of teachers, nurses, and other urban middle-class Oslo residents but now, with the chimney sweep families in Sex, it is tempered with a flavour of contemporary working-class Norwegian life. " Timo Malmi

MSFF Press release 16 June 2024: " Aamukeskustelua jatkoi kiireisen jälkituotantoprosessin keskeltä Sodankylään hypännyt norjalainen kirjailija ja ohjaaja Dag Johan Haugerud. Maatilayhteisössä kasvanut Haugerud muistaa lapsuudestaan Disney-elokuvat ja televisiossa myöhään esitetyn Draculan (1931), joka pelotti häntä lapsena niin paljon, ettei hän uskaltanut laskea jalkojaan sohvalta lattialle. Ohjaajan isän piti kantaa poika nukkumaan. 

Työväenluokkaisesta taustasta huolimatta Haugerud luki lapsena paljon ja näki elokuvia, sillä isä oli kiinnostunut amerikkalaisesta kulttuurista ja Hollywood-elokuvista. 

‘’Isäni luki Steinbeckiä ja Hemingwayta. Kävimme elokuvissa joka sunnuntai’’, Haugerud kertoi. Hänelle ovat jääneet mieleen myös maanantaisin Norjan ainoalta tv-kanavalta näytetyt suomalaiset draamasarjat. 

Haugerud opiskeli aluksi kirjastonhoitajaksi, mutta tie vei lopulta Tukholmaan ja raamatun tutkimuksen pariin.

 ‘’Matkustaessani Euroopassa satuin näkemään Leos Caraxin elokuvan Levoton veri (1986). Silloin sain idean opiskella elokuvaa. Halusin ymmärtää enemmän ja olla osa sitä maailmaa.’’

Haugerud teki ensimmäisen elokuvansa 16 Living Clichés Super8-kameralla. Tyyli on jalostunut vuosien varrella ihmissuhteita, seksuaalisuutta ja yhteiskuntaa tutkiviksi teoksiksi. Toisistaan erottuvien elokuvien sarjassa on kuitenkin yksi yhteinen nimittäjä: Oslo, joka tuntuu lähes omalta henkilöhahmoltaan.

‘’Koen olevani Oslossa ulkopuolinen. Kaupungissa on vahva luokkajako, joka heijastuu jokapäiväiseen elämään. En oikein ymmärrä Osloa, ja siksi haluan tutkia sitä elokuvissani’’, Haugerud summasi. 

Haugerudin uusin elokuva, suunnitellun trilogian ensimmäinen osa Sex (2024) tutkii seksuaalisuutta ja sen harmaita alueita, erityisesti miesten keskuudessa, sillä miesten seksuaalisuus on jäänyt stereotyyppisten representaatioiden vangiksi. Elokuvassa sukupuoliroolit ja seksuaalinen suuntautuminen kyseenalaistetaan leikkisästi. 

‘’Toisen ihmisen kokemukseen samaistuminen on kiehtovaa ja haastavaa. Elokuva haastaa miettimään niitä oletuksia, joita meillä on toisistamme’’, Haugerud kertoi. 

‘’Haluan kirjoittaa dialogia juuri tietyille näyttelijöille. Käyn paljon teatterissa ja kiinnitän huomiota heihin, joiden kanssa voisin tehdä töitä. Näyttelijöiden pitää tottua olemaan katseiden kohteina ja ilmaisemaan monimutkaisia tunteita kehollaan. Se on minusta valtavan kiehtova ammatti.’’

Harjoittelu on Haugerudille olennainen osa elokuvien jännitteen luomista. ‘’Teksti luo pohjan, mutta workshopit näyttelijöiden kanssa ja näyttelijöiden sitoutuminen projektiin luovat suurimman osan siitä intensiteetistä, joka elokuvista välittyy. Kohtauksella on oltava jokin olennainen merkitys ja jännite, joka vetää katsojan mukaansa.’’

Musiikin merkitys Haugerudin elokuvissa on kiistämätön. Hän on tietoinen musiikista kirjallisuuden ja elokuvan tyylikeinona, joka kertoo sanoja enemmän. ‘’Musiikki on oma hahmonsa elokuvissani. Se välittää enemmän tunteita ja merkityksiä kuin sanat tai kuvat voisivat yksinään tehdä. Rakastan tunnetta, kun kävelee kadulla ja tarkkailee ympäristöä musiikin soidessa korvissa. Se saa näkemään todellisuuden eri tavalla.’’

Haugerud, jonka sisko on sosiaalityöntekijä, on kiinnostunut sosiaalisista suhteista ja rakenteista, jotka vaikuttavat kaikkien elämiin. Häntä voikin kutsua elokuvataiteen piirissä enemmän osa-aikaiseksi sosiologiksi kuin pelkäksi taiteilijaksi. 

Haugerudin elokuvissa kommunikaatio ja ihmisten väliset suhteet joutuvat suurennuslasin alle. ‘’Minua on aina kiinnostanut kommunikaatio ja miten ihmiset satuttavat toisiaan sanoilla. Erityisesti perhesuhteet ovat kiinnostavia, sillä ihmiset ottavat toisensa itsestäänselvyyksinä ja voivat silloin olla hyvinkin piikikkäitä’’, hän kertoi. " MSFF Press release 16 June 2024

MSFF Press release 16 June 2024: " Sunday’s morning discussion continued with Norwegian writer and director Dag Johan Haugerud, who made time to visit Sodankylä in the midst of a busy post-production process. Growing up in a farming community, Haugerud recalls Disney films and the late-night television airing of Dracula (1931), which scared him so much as a child that he didn’t dare put his feet on the floor. His father had to carry him to bed.

Despite his working-class background, Haugerud read a lot and watched movies, as his father was interested in American culture and Hollywood films.

“My father read Steinbeck and Hemingway. We went to the movies every Sunday,” Haugerud says. He also remembers the Finnish drama series shown on Norway’s only TV channel on Mondays.

Haugerud initially studied to become a librarian but eventually ended up in Stockholm studying the Bible.

“While traveling in Europe, I happened to see Leos Carax’s film Mauvais Sang (1986). That’s when I got the idea to study film. I wanted to understand more and be part of that world.”

Haugerud made his first film, 16 Living Clichés, with a Super 8 camera. His style has evolved over the years into works exploring relationships, sexuality, and society. Though his films are diverse, they share a common element: Oslo, which feels almost like its own character.

“I feel like an outsider in Oslo. The city has a strong class divide that is reflected in everyday life. I don’t quite understand Oslo, which is why I want to explore it in my films,” Haugerud summarises.

Haugerud’s latest film and the first part of a planned trilogy, Sex (2024), explores sexuality and its gray areas, especially among men, as male sexuality has remained trapped in stereotypical representations. The film playfully questions gender roles and sexual orientation.

“Empathising with another person’s experience is fascinating and challenging. The film challenges us to think about the assumptions we have about each other,” Haugerud explains.

“I like to write dialogue specifically for certain actors. I go to the theatre a lot and pay attention to those I could work with. Actors need to be used to being in the spotlight and expressing complex emotions with their bodies. I find that a tremendously fascinating profession.”

Rehearsals are an essential part of creating the tension in Haugerud’s films. “The script provides the foundation, but workshops with actors and their commitment to the project create most of the intensity that comes through in the films. A scene must have an essential meaning and tension that draws the viewer in.”

Music plays an undeniable role in Haugerud’s works. He sees music as a stylistic device in literature and film, conveying more than words alone can. “Music is its own character in my films. It conveys more emotions and meanings than words or images alone could. I love the feeling of walking down the street, observing the surroundings with music playing in my ears. It makes you see reality differently.”

Haugerud, whose sister is a social worker, is interested in social relationships and structures that affect everyone’s lives. He can be seen more as a part-time sociologist in the realm of film art rather than just an artist.

In Haugerud’s films, communication and relationships are under scrutiny. “I have always been interested in communication and how people hurt each other with words. Family relationships are particularly intriguing because people take each other for granted and can be quite sharp with each other,” he explains. " MSFF Press release 16 June 2024

AA: Added notes:

Q: WHAT WAS THE FIRST FILM YOU SAW?

A: A Disney movie with father and Dracula on tv. We were not strict about tv watching. I was so scared I could not move. I was 7. I sat there half the night until father carried me to bed.

I grew up in a farming community. Father was a car mechanic, mother a housewife. Uncles were farmers.

He had books. He had been a teenager during WWII. Nevil Shute, Hemingway, Steinbeck.

With father we went to the cinema and watched tv together. There was only one tv channel.

The Monday movie was usually American.

On Tuesday there was often a Finnish drama.

"Life is too short for Finnish tv drama".

The feeling for tempo is different.

Norwegian critics still use that sentence.

Walking the dogs, all people shut the television at the same time.

Monday: entertainment.

Tuesday: working class drama.

I wrote a lot as a child.

In my circumstances, nobody was writing.

It did not exist.

I thought about becoming a dentist after high school.

Right - Oslo. Left - Stockholm.

In Stockholm I joined a church choir.

A school for Biblical studies.

I worked as a guard for Moderna Museet.

I know a lot about the Bible.

I figured out I was not a Christian.

Q: EUROPEAN VACATION.

A: Germany - France - Canada - Edinburgh. I saw a Leos Carax film, Mauvais sang. Then I pursued film studies for 3 years.

Q: WHEN LEOS CARAX HEAD ABOUT THIS HE SAID "I FEEL SO OLD".

Q: 16 LEVENDE KLISJEER.

A: I needed to be pushed. Super 8. An old Super 8. A party, I won the competition. I was 33.

Q: FOUR NOVELS.

A: A very different Word document rather than literature.

Q: WRITER - PUBLISHER - SCREENWRITER - PRODUCER.

A: Publisher - your own voice - about the art. 

Producer - much more commercial.

Super-8 - 3 min 18 sec - edit in the cemra.

Text: one perosn.

10-12" portraits.

A 50 min single drama.

Blow-up for the cinema to 35 mm.

CLIP: Som du ser mig / I Belong (NO 2012).

First meeting with publisher. Publisher is with her baby. The writer is embarrassed. 

A: Success book in translation. Hand made for actors. Motivation to work with actors. At the theater I look at the actor who is not speaking. In character all the time. You have to enjoy being on display, be an exhibitionist.

Q: INTENSITY EVEN WITH TALKING HEADS.

A: Writing, rehearsing - tempo, rhythm, suspense, building up.

Q: HOW LONG

A: A script meeting, read it a year before.

Challenge actors, workshop situation.

Q: BARN

A: Accident on a schoolyard. I was 10, an impact in the community, build-up of all kinds of feelings, focus on grown-ups, girl accused of the accident, talking around her.

Social work, nurse, investigation, communication, everyday subjects, everyday life.

Not much analysis, talk character, quite thorough.

Q: OSLO IS LIKE A CHARACTER, A RELATIONSHIP WITH OSLO.

A: I'm not from Oslo. I still feel like I don't quite belong. I cannot figure out how the city is working.

I feel it in my body.

I have an interest in architecture.

I like music videos.

Sony Walkman.

Music you cannot have in literature.

Film has this opportunity to communicate music.

Q: TRILOGY: SEX - DREAMS - LOVE.

TWO MEN DISCUSS IN A CALM MANNER DREAMS OF THE NIGHT BEFORE.

A: Where shall I begin? The male roles in Norwegian society.

After many years of feminism.

The male role is narrowing.

A look into ourselves.

How does it feel to be a man or a woman?

We are more alike.

Many identify as gay, as bisexual.

It's all secretive.

In the US it is the same situation.

Having sex with men without being gay.

Q: FAVOURITE INFLUENCES AND INSPIRATIONS?

A: Rohmer at 16. I sat there giggling. I did not understand anything. I'm a very big fan now.

Tanner.

Wiseman, in recent years.

Q: WHICH FILM WOULD YOU TAKE TO THE DESERT ISLAND?

A: I would not see anything.

Rosemary's Baby.

Sodankylä morning discussion 2024: Asli Özge

Asli Özge, Kaisu Isto, Timo Malmi. The morning discussion at the School, 16 June 2024. Photo: Susanna Pesonen.

Asli Özge.

Hosted by Timo Malmi and Kaisu Isto. 60 min

The School, Sodankylä, Midnight Sun Film Festival (MSFF), 16 June 2024.

Kaisu Isto (MSFF Catalogue 2024): " Istanbul-born screenwriter-director Aslı Özge knew early on as a teenager that she wanted to be a filmmaker. After first studying communications, she eventually graduated in 1999 from the Film and Television Academy of the University of Marmara in Istanbul. In 2000, she moved to Berlin, where she studied philosophy and co-founded her own production company with fellow filmmaker Emre Erkmen. In her films, Özge has dealt with societal mechanisms in both her country of origin as well as her new home country. Her first feature-length directorial work was Ein bisschen April (2003), a small-budget made-for-TV film commissioned by the German broadcaster ZDF and shot in only ten days. From her very first film, Özge employed a method intended to elicit the most authentic possible performance out of her cast: the actors were not given a chance to familiarize themselves with the whole script, knowing only their own character and lines, but not those of their co-stars. "

" The award-winning Men on the Bridge (2009), which has been screened at dozens of film festivals, is a shrewd portrayal of Turkish society told through the stories of three men whose paths cross on the Bosphorus Bridge. The performances of the amateur actors playing the flower salesman, the shared taxi driver, and the traffic officer serve to reinforce the documentary feel of the film. Lifelong (2013) is a skilled exploration of a married couple whose passionless life is hidden behind a middle-class façade. "

" Having lived in Germany for 15 years, Özge felt she was ready to take on the topic of German society, and she gained the favor of both audiences and critics with her dark psychological thriller All of a Sudden (2016). The story of an upstanding small-town family’s social downfall shows how flexible the concepts of honesty and loyalty can be. In 2019, Özge directed a German-Belgian co-production in the form of a six-part crime series, and in 2023 she completed Black Box, whose Belgian co-producers were Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne (who attended our festival in 2005). The film is an ensemble drama about the residents of a German city block, who find themselves in exceptional circumstances as the police shut down the block, blocking both entry and exit. Nobody knows what’s going on as hearsay spreads, and fear, suspicion, and hostility begin to take hold. Together, the residents of the block form a kind of miniature society that acts as a window into the mechanisms of power. Özge had already finished writing the script when the pandemic began, and says she had no idea that the dystopia she was writing about would soon become a reality through COVID-19. "

" Özge’s latest film, Faruk, premiered in the Panorama section of this year’s Berlinale, where it also won the prize of the FIPRESCI jury. Combining elements of documentary and fiction, the film depicts the life of Özge’s elderly father in Istanbul and the inexorable transformation of the city due to gentrification. In Özge’s films, the location — be it a bridge, a city block, or a whole city — often emerges as a character in and of itself. This also holds true for Faruk, in which the city of Istanbul and the protagonist’s life are tightly interconnected. "

" In a short period of time, Özge has emerged as a new and influential voice in German cinema, but she also continues to depict her country of origin with a keen eye. Often, the characters in her films, too, reside in a liminal space, in the intersection between the old and the new. " Kaisu Isto (MSFF Catalogue 2024)

MSFF Press Release, 16 June 2024: " Aamukeskustelun avasi turkkilainen elokuvaohjaaja Aslı Özge, joka on tehnyt kansainvälistä uraa dokumenttia ja fiktiota sekoittavilla teoksillaan. Istanbulissa syntynyt Özge muistaa ensimmäisen elokuvansa olleen eroottinen arabiankielinen draama, jonka hän näki 6-vuotiaana äitinsä ja tätinsä kanssa. Hän muistaa vaivaantuneen ilmapiirin ja tunteen jostain kielletystä. 

Äitinsä sairastuttua syöpään Özge kävi aina matkalla sairaalaan katsomassa elokuvan. Elokuvista muodostui voimakas lohdun lähde, joka tuki vaikeassa elämäntilanteessa. Elokuvissa käydessään Özgen mielessä alkoi kypsyä ajatus elokuvaohjaajan urasta, sillä hän koki sen hyvänä kanavana käsitellä äitinsä sairautta. 

Kulttuuria kuluttaneessa perheessä ei ollut luovan alan ihmisiä, joten Özgen uravalinta oli pienoinen yllätys. Hän opiskeli aluksi viestintää kunnes pääsi sisään elokuvakouluun. 

‘’Ohjaajan pitää aina olla todistelemassa jotain. Se voi olla aluksi vaikeaa’’, Özge toteaa. 

Kansainvälistä elämää viettävä Özge uneksi jo nuorena ulkomaille muuttamisesta. ‘’Turkki voi olla poliittisesti ja taloudellisesti vaikea maa, joten teini-ikäisenä kaikki ystäväni suuntasivat katseensa ulkomaille.’’ 

Özgen luottokuvaaja ja kumppani Emre Erkmen houkutteli hänet aikoinaan mukaansa Saksaan, sillä Erkmen oli siirtymässä Saksalaiseen elokuvakoulu DFFB:n. Berliiniin muutettuaan Özge alkoi suunnitella ensimmäistä elokuvaansa. ‘’Minulla ei ollut juuri yhtään rahaa, joten ensimmäinen projektini sai alkunsa lähinnä verkostoitumalla ja päättäväisyydellä. Menin elokuvakoulun osaston johtajan puheille ja sanoin, että jos en saa heiltä kameroita lainaksi, varastan ne. Vasta silloin hän suostui’’, Özge kertoi. 

Ensimmäinen elokuva, Pieces of April (2003), kertoi jatkuvasti asunnosta toiseen muuttavista nuorista, jotka etsivät paikkaansa vieraassa maassa. Elokuva valmistui nopealla aikataululla ja sisälsi runsaasti improvisointia. Yllättäen elokuva poimittiin saksalaiseen televisioon, ja ovet saksalaiseen elokuvateollisuuteen alkoivat avautua. 

‘’Fyysisesti elin Saksassa, mutta ajatukseni olivat yhä Istanbulissa. Halusin käsitellä turkkilaisia aiheita Saksasta käsin, sillä se on yhä kotini’’, Özge kertoo. Hän sai kuvaajansa Erkmenin kanssa idean elokuvaan Men on the Bridge (2009), joka sijoittuu Bosporinsillalle ja kuvaa taloudellisesti prekaarien ja monesti paperittomien nuorten elämää. Erkmeninillä oli elintärkeä rooli projektin onnistumisessa. 

‘’Olemme Emren kanssa tiimi. Hän on ensimmäinen ihminen, jonka kanssa keskustelen käsikirjoituksesta ja kuvauksesta. Hän ajattelee kameran kautta. Olemme päättäväisiä. Tiedämme, että vaikka kukaan ei antaisi meille rahaa, tekisimme elokuvan kuitenkin.’’ 

Özge pitää hybriditeemoista. Saksalaisen miehen ja turkkilaisen kuolemaan päättynyttä suhdetta kuvaava All of a Sudden (2016) törmäyttää yhteen saksalaisen ja turkkilaisen kulttuurin oikeuskäsitykset. Monet hänen teoksistaan syntyvät kahden genren rajalla, määrittelemättömällä vyöhykkeellä dokumentin ja fiktion välissä. Men on the Bridge on tässä mielessä enteellinen, sillä se tapahtuu sillalla, vertauskuvallisesti Aasian ja Euroopan välissä. 

Özge tunnetaan myös ohjausmetodeistaan ja amatöörinäyttelijöiden suosimisesta. ‘’En halua antaa käsikirjoitusta näyttelijöille liian aikaisin, tai annan jokaiselle eri version tekstistä. Silloin säilytetään spontaanius ja yllätyksellisyys näyttelijöiden välisissä kohtaamisissa’’, Özge kertoi. 

Black Box (2023) sijoittuu asuintalon sisäpihalle, joka yhdistää ihmisiä eri kulttuureista ja sosioekonomisista suhteista. Elokuvan tekeminen herätti Özgen ajattelemaan politiikkaa uudesta näkökulmasta.

‘’Politiikka on läsnä jokapäiväisessä elämässämme. Se vaikuttaa kaikkiin ihmissuhteisiin, emmekä kuitenkaan puhu siitä. Black Box on yhteiskunta pienoiskoossa ja sen konfliktit ovat läsnä kaikkialla yhteiskunnassa.’’

Uusin elokuva Faruk (2024) käsittelee Istanbulin gentrifikaatiota seuraamalla läheltä ohjaajan 96-vuotiaan isän elämää. Isän kotitalon purkaminen heijastaa suuria muutoksia turkkilaisessa yhteiskunnassa. Isä elää kahden maailman välissä, vanhan kotitalon muistojen ja edessä muuttuvan tulevaisuuden rajamailla. 

‘’Vanhemmat ihmiset eivät ajattele kuolemaa kuten me. Isäni saattoi kuulla aamulla naapurin kuolemasta ja illalla lauleskella television ääressä. Näkökulma ikääntymiseen ja kuolemaan muuttuu iän myötä. Isäni tutkiminen opetti minuakin valmistautumaan menetyksiin ja ikääntymiseen’’, Özge kertoi. 

Esikuvistaan Özge nostaa esiin Stanley Kubrickin. ‘’Kubrickin jokainen elokuva on täydellinen mutta ne ovat täysin erilaisia. Opin häneltä, että minun ei tarvitse juuttua yhteen tyyliin, vaan voin olla monipuolinen.’’ Autiolle saarelle hän ottaisi mukaan Michelangelo Antonionin Punaisen erämaan (1964). " MSFF Press Release, 16 June 2024

MSFF Press Release, 16 June 2024: " Sunday’s morning discussion was opened by Turkish film director Aslı Özge, who has made a name for herself internationally with works that blend documentary and fiction. Born in Istanbul, Özge remembers her first film being an erotic Arabic-language drama she saw at the age of six with her mother and aunt. She recalls the awkward atmosphere and the feeling of something forbidden.

When her mother fell ill with cancer, Özge would always watch a film on her way to the hospital. Movies became a powerful source of comfort that supported her during a difficult time. During these cinema visits, Özge began to nurture the idea of a career as a film director, seeing it as a way to process her mother’s illness.

In a family that consumed culture but had no creative professionals, Özge’s career choice was a slight surprise. She initially studied communications until she was accepted into film school.

“A director always has to prove something. It can be challenging at first,” Özge states.

Living an international life, Özge dreamed of moving abroad from a young age. “Turkey can be a politically and economically difficult country, so as teenagers, all my friends looked abroad,” she says.

Her trusted cinematographer and partner Emre Erkmen enticed her to join him in Germany when he was moving to study at the German Film and Television Academy Berlin (DFFB). After moving to Berlin, Özge began planning her first film. “I didn’t have much money, so my first project started mainly through networking and determination. I went to the head of the film school department and said that if they didn’t lend me the cameras, I would steal them. Only then did he agree,” Özge recounts.

Her first film, Ein bisschen April (2003), told the story of young people constantly moving from one apartment to another, searching for their place in a foreign country. The film was completed on a tight schedule and included a lot of improvisation. Unexpectedly, the film was picked up by German television, and doors to the German film industry began to open.

“Physically, I lived in Germany, but my thoughts were still in Istanbul. I wanted to address Turkish themes from Germany because it is still my home,” Özge says. She and her cinematographer Erkmen got the idea for the film Men on the Bridge (2009), set on the Bosphorus Bridge and depicting the economically precarious and often undocumented lives of young people. Erkmen played a crucial role in the project’s success.

“We are a team with Emre. He is the first person I discuss the script and filming with. He thinks through the camera. We are determined. We know that even if no one gives us money, we will still make the film.”

Özge is known for her directing methods and preference for amateur actors. “I don’t want to give the script to the actors too early, or I give each of them a different version of the text. This preserves the spontaneity and surprise in their interactions,” Özge explains.

Black Box (2023) is set in a residential courtyard that connects people from different cultures and socio-economic backgrounds. Making the film made Özge think about politics from a new perspective.

“Politics is present in our everyday lives. It affects all human relationships, yet we don’t talk about it. Black Box is a microcosm of society, and its conflicts are present throughout society.”

Her latest film, Faruk (2024), deals with the gentrification of Istanbul by closely following the life of her 96-year-old father. The demolition of her father’s home reflects the significant changes in Turkish society. Her father lives between two worlds, the memories of the old house, and the changing future ahead.

“Older people don’t think about death like we do. My father could hear about a neighbour’s death in the morning and sing by the television in the evening. The perspective on aging and death changes with age. Studying my father taught me to prepare for loss and aging,” Özge says.

Among her inspirations, Özge mentions Stanley Kubrick. “Every Kubrick film is perfect, but they are all completely different. I learned from him that I don’t have to stick to one style; I can be versatile.” On a desert island, she would take Michelangelo Antonioni’s Red Desert (1964). " MSFF Press Release, 16 June 2024

AA: Added notes:

Q: WHAT WAS THE FIRST FILM YOU SAW?

With mom and aunt I saw a glimpse of sex in an erotic film. When I was 16, my mother fell ill with cancer, and every time I visited her I went to the cinema and thought that I have to become a director. I was born in Istanbul and studied there. I was born into middle class, not an artistic family. I don't know where art came from. I participated in high school plays.

Q: READING BOOKS

A: Nietzsche. Bigger than me. The Turkish poet [Östif Azraf?].

Q: ROOTS IN TURKEY.

A: Berlin at 24. Everybody dreamed of going abroad. Private school. Everything in English. Learned English very early. 

German was new. Transfer to DFFB - Deutsche Film- und Fernsehakademie Berlin. The first 6 months I tried to learn German. Entered into philosophy for two years in German. I still didn't understand anything.

Reinhard Hauff, very important role, strong. Everybody was afraid of him. 

Camera: there is a line for cameras. Reinhard: "Don't steal, you'll have them." We shot it, Ein bisschen April, for 3sat. I managed to pay the rent. 

Leaving something behind and starting anew always interests me.

Q: GERMAN FILM INDUSTRY, ALREADY INTEGRATED NOW.

A: I did not know anything about contracts. In a month we saw Ein bisschen April on tv.

I spoke very little German, got the idea for Köprüdekiler / Men on the Bridge.

My first films were all set in Istanbul.

Film funds: - television - distributor.

In the first pitch, the Finnish TV [Yle, Erkki Astala] gave the first pitching in my life.

Q: COMPANY WITH A CINEMATOGRAPHER PARTNER EMRE ERKMEN, YOUR MUTUAL BABIES.

A: Emre is my partner, cinematographer and first reader. He likes to think with his camera. He shot all my films. Even if nobody gave us money, we would make the films. It's more difficult in the beginning. Emre always tries to give me space.

Q: ACTORS.

A: I look for new teams, hybrid things. 

I don't give the script. They know their character.

I have different scripts. I don't want them to get used to the dialogue. I like spontaneity.

I am not in love with what I have written.

Sentences like in daily life.

Q: HANNS ZISCHLER.

A: Agents read scripts. I won't give it. Simone Baer. Hanns Zischler ok to meet director at lunch.

Altena. In the movie with no future. Zischler: "My wife is from Altena."

Workshops: physical activities, like a family, stayed there for a few months.

Q: AUF EINMAL / ALL OF A SUDDEN.

A: My first in Germany. Almost claustrophobic. Small town mentality.

In 2016 - sixteen years films in Turkey, then back in Germany.

A famous moderator died in the house. Guy was in charge of beauty contests. She had asthma. He did not call the ambulance. She was also a foreigner.

Q: BETWEEN MEN ON THE BRIDGE AND FARUK.

A:  Where do the rose sellers come from?

The bridge connects Asia to Europe.

The wait on the bridge is very metaphoric.

A massive image of the Bosphorus Bridge.

Faruk is about gentrification.

The poor people's situation.

Q: ALSO BETWEEN DOCUMENTARY AND FICTION.

CLIP: Faruk (TK 2024). Tahir passed away in the metro. Dead all day.

A: My father did not take it hard to hear about his neighbour's death. Getting old is losing things gradually. But life goes on. 

My father is 96. I am a late child. We have a close connection.

Q: BLACK BOX.

A: Faruk was 7-8 years in the making. Black Box happened in the interim, it has humour elements. I don't want a dark film about old age. During the pandemic, we had a courtyard where we could all live together. Doors were closed.

The first reaction: it's too early now. The surface: gentrification. Deeper: losing democracy. Methods of manipulation. We adapt into our daily lives.

Q: SUSPICION WHEN THE COURTYARD IS CLOSED.

A: A climate of fear, methods he used to get the flats he wants. In Berlin I live in a house with a courtyard.

Q: CINEMATIC INSPIRATIONS?

A: Of course, but I cannot give just a few names like Bresson, Antonioni, Bergman, Tarkovsky.

Kubrick: every film is different. I can try different things. Go with the subject. No repeating yourself.

Q: WHAT FILM WOULD YOU TAKE TO THE DESERT ISLAND?

A: It's the most difficult question.

Il deserto rosso.

Sodankylä 2024: Discussion with Finnish film-makers / Kotimaisten tekijävieraiden keskustelutilaisuus

Debate of Finnish film-makers: Elina Knihtilä, Katja Gauriloff, Virpi Suutari, Mika Taanila, Liselott Forsman (moderator), Pirkko Hämäläinen, Mika Kaurismäki, Oona Airola. The Little Tent, Midnight Sun Film Festival (MSFF), Sodankylä, 15 June 2024. Photo: Hilma Toivonen. Please click on the photo to expand it.

MSFF 2024: " Festivaalin suomalaiset elokuvantekijävieraat kokoontuivat lauantaina Pieneen telttaan keskustelemaan kotimaisen elokuvan tulevaisuudesta sekä muistelemaan, mikä toi heidät elokuvien äärelle.

Sade ropisi taustalla, kun näyttelijät Oona Airola, Pirkko Hämäläinen ja Elina Knihtilä sekä ohjaajat Katja Gauriloff, Virpi Suutari, Mika Taanila ja Mika Kaurismäki jakoivat ajatuksiaan työskentelytavoistaan, tekoälystä ja sen vaikutuksesta elokuvaan. Teltta ei onneksi vuotanut, kuten yleisöstä huikattiin.

Keskustelua johtanut Liselott Forsman kysyi elokuvantekijöiltä, ovatko nämä käyttäneet tekoälyä työssään tai pelkäävätkö he esimerkiksi, että tekoäly imitoi ohjaajien tyylejä tai näyttelijöiden kasvoja.

Yleisön seasta keskusteluun liittynyt näyttelijä Martti Suosalo kertoi esimerkin omasta työstään. Suosalo toimi hahmomallina Remedy Entertainmentin uusimmissa peleissä, kun hänen piirteensä lainattiin Ahti-nimiselle hahmolle. Kokemus toi esille kysymyksen siitä, voidaanko tekoälyn keinoin kopioituja piirteitä monistaa myöhemmin muissa projekteissa. Näyttelijä muistuttikin kollegoitaan oikeuksista huolehtimisen tärkeydestä.

Kokeellisen elokuvan ohjaajaveteraania Taanilaa tekoäly ei pelota. ”Teknologia aina vaikuttaa taiteeseen, oli se sitten hyvä tai huono juttu. Se on vain väline, ainoastaan lopputulos ratkaisee”, ohjaaja sanoi.

Myös näyttelijäntyön professorina toimiva Knihtilä totesi, että tekoälyyn on pakko totutella, sillä se on joka tapauksessa osa tulevaisuutta. Mika Kaurismäen elokuvassa Arvottomat (1982) näytellyt Hämäläinen muistutti, että teknologia on mullistanut elokuva-alan jo useaan otteeseen, kuten suoratoiston  muututtua arkipäiväksi. Kaurismäki ei ole työssään tekoälyä käyttänyt, sillä se veisi hänen sanojensa mukaan maun yhteistyöstä.

”Taiteessa täydellisyys ei ole kiinnostavaa”, luonnehti dokumenttielokuvaohjaaja Suutari. Elokuvan Havumetsän lapset (2024) ohjanneen Suutarin tausta on valokuvauksessa. Suutari kertoi tarvitsevansa työssään rahoituksen lisäksi maalaustaidetta sekä kirjallisuutta, joista hän ammentaa inspiraatiota.

Maailman ensimmäisen koltansaamenkielisen elokuvan Je’vidan (2023) ohjannut Gauriloff kertoi yleisölle, että ajatus elokuvan tekemisestä oli syntynyt jo 15 vuotta aiemmin. Ohjaaja kertoi, ettei ensin uskaltanut lähteä toteuttamaan projektia, ja tekikin rohkeutta kerätessään muita elokuvia. Kun elokuvan tekoon ryhdyttiin, ohjaaja valjasti sukulaisiaan näyttelemään rooleja, sillä koltansaamenkielisiä ammattinäyttelijöitä ei ole.

”On tosi paljon vastuuta, kun puhutaan näin pienestä kansasta” Gauriloff sanoi viitaten koltansaamenkieliseen yhteisöön. Koltansaamea puhuu äidinkielenään vain muutamia satoja ihmisiä.

Festivaaleilla nähdyssä elokuvassa Ohjus (2024) pääroolin näyttelevä Airola kertoi tekoälyn kauhistuttavan häntä, sillä esimerkiksi hänen kasvojaan tai ääntään voidaan käyttää laajan materiaalin takia. Näyttelijä kuitenkin sanoi, ettei mikään kone voisi korvata ihmisten välistä työtä. 

”Yritän olla optimistinen, että meillä näyttelijöillä on jotain mitä kukaan ei voi viedä.” " (MSFF 2024)

Sodankylä morning discussion 2024: Alfonso Cuarón

Alfonso Cuarón, Otto Kylmälä, Timo Malmi. The morning discussion at the School, 15 June 2024. Photo: Hilma Toivonen. Please do click on the photo to expand it.

Alfonso Cuarón

The School, Midnight Sun Film Festival (MSFF), 15 June 2024

Lauri Timonen (MSFF Catalogue 2024): " Alfonso Cuarón was born in Mexico City to a doctor father and a biochemist mother, studied philosophy at university before moving on to film studies, and earned his professional spurs in the 1980s with TV work and short films. His feature-length screen debut, the unabashed sex and frantic antics comedy Love in the Time of Hysteria (1991), tells the story of a woman who jumps from one bed to the next and is led to believe by one of her partners that she has contracted AIDS. Executed true to the traditional spirit of Hollywood screwball buffoonery, staggering from room to room – and window to window – in the fashion of Chaplin’s A Countess from Hong Kong (1967), recalling Almodóvar’s Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988) in its grim hysterics, the film became a major national hit that also attracted the attention of Sydney Pollack. "

" Cuarón’s conquest of America began with A Little Princess (1995), a remake of the beloved Shirley Temple classic containing stunning visual fantasies, based on the novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett (1905). His next directorial effort, Great Expectations (1998), a modernised adaptation of the Charles Dickens (1860-1861) novel now set in the waters of Florida and the New York art world, received a more mixed reception, was overshadowed in media attention of Titanic (1997) using similar storylines, and evidently does not figure among Cuarón’s own favourites either, although the film, more reminiscent of Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby (1925) instead of Dickens, features not only Gwyneth Paltrow’s innate charm but also the commanding supporting performances of Anne Bancroft and Robert De Niro. "

" Cuarón returned to the region of his birth and rediscovered himself with the raunchy and stealthily wise road movie Y tu mamá también (2001), which sealed his international breakthrough. Its success secured him a place as the director of the third part of the international wizard franchise, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004), a film perfectly suited to the magical touches Cuarón had already displayed in the past. The subsequent succession has been a dizzying soaring flight, and the trophy and awards cabinet of the director-writer-producer-cinematographer-editor approaching a renaissance figure in terms of the versatility of his craftsmanship now probably resembles a medium-sized Ice Hall, as it has accumulated several hundred international trophies and nominations. For example, there are Oscar nominations for producer, writer and editor, and no fewer than four wins: Best Director and Editor (Gravity, 2013), Best Director and Cinematography (Roma, 2018). As a producer, Cuarón’s credits include Guillermo del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth (2006), Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s Biutiful (2010), and Alice Rohrwacher’s short film The Pupils (2022), with music by the festival’s perennial favourite band Cleaning Women. Such has been the impact of the work of Cuarón, del Toro, Iñárritu and Emmanuel Lubezki, who won three Best Cinematography Oscars in a row between 2013 and 2015, that it’s fair to say that Mexico is undergoing a new revolution. "

" The essential thing about Cuarón’s art, however, is not his external merits, but the deep essence of cinema and the love of the genre that shines through his work. All his feature films are, as if recalling Louis Malle’s choices, completely different from one another; Children of Men (2006), which at times mimics the brutal front-line images of news broadcasts, is a dark dystopia and an angsty Christian allegory; the lofty, and expansive Gravity living up to its title as a frenetic, gravity-defying gem of modern filmmaking, marked by a camera relishing its infinite directions, ingenious sound design and thriller-like staccato beats; the soulful, black-and-white Roma, stripped of all extraneous flamboyance, an intimate return to the sources of more traditional filmmaking and the director’s childhood memories. "

" We warmly welcome the Mexican master! " Lauri Timonen (MSFF Catalogue 2024)

MSFF Press Release 15 June 2024: " Meksikolaiselle Alfonso Cuarónille oli pienestä asti selvää, että hän halusi tehdä elokuvia. Hänellä on ollut aina hyvä mielikuvitus, mutta se täytyi piilottaa, sillä se tuntui hänestä nololta. Lauantain aamukeskustelussa Cuarón kertoi, ettei lapsena ymmärtänyt eroa kuvittelun ja elokuvan välillä. ”Sitten opin, että elokuvassa on ohjaaja.” 

Cuarónin nuoruudessa 70-luvun Meksikossa elettiin erilaisten elokuvaklubien aikaa. Parasta klubia pyöritti paikallinen jesuiitta, joka näytti joka kuukausi Ingmar Bergmania, Federico Felliniä ja muita mestariohjaajien töitä. Kulttuuri-instituutit taas näyttivät omien maidensa klassikoita, joten Cuarón sai nuorena aimo annoksen vanhaa neuvostoliittolaista, puolalaista, unkarilaista ja tšekkiläistä ja japanilaistakin elokuvaa. Vanhemmilleen hän sanoi käyvänsä jalkapalloharjoituksissa, ja nämä kustansivat mielellään pojan terveellisen urheiluharrastuksen.

 ”Mutta noissa klubeissa ei ollut kyse vain elokuvista, vaan yhteisöstä”, Cuarón sanoi. Nuoret eivät välttämättä kokoontuneet klubeille elokuvien takia vaan siksi, että niiden jälkeen oli juhlat. Samalla tuli kuitenkin katsottua elokuva jos toinenkin. ”Ihmiset eivät tavoita loistavien elokuvien pointtia, jos fokus ei ole yhteisössä”, Cuarón sanoo.

Katsellessaan Bergmania teini-ikäinen Cuarón ajatteli tämän kertovan elokuvissaan absktrakteista asioista. Hän ajatteli niiden olevan jonkinlaisia filosofisia argumentteja. Sitten hän tajusi niiden kertovan yleisemmin elämästä.

Cuarónin kertoi hiippailleensa sisään kodin lähellä sijainneisiin mainosstudioihin, ja viettäneensä siellä enemmän ja enemmän aikaa. Pikkuhiljaa pieniä töitä alkoi ilmaantua, hanttihommia siellä täällä studion työryhmässä. Siten hän oppi miten televisiota tehdään. Sitten joku kysyi häneltä, mitä seuraavaksi, aiotko työllistyä telenoveloiden kirjoittajana. ”Pelästyin. Se ei ollut minun tieni, joten pakotin itseni kirjoittamaan ensimmäisen käsikirjoitukseni.”

Vuonna 1991 Cuarón sai ulos ensimmäisen pitkän elokuvansa, Love in the Time of Hysteria, mutta kesti vielä jonkin aikaa, tarkemmin kymmenen vuotta, ennen kun Cuarón ymmärsi, mistä elokuvien tekemisessä on kyse. Kyse ei ole niinkään lopputuloksesta, valmiista elokuvasta, vaan siitä mitä hän oppii seuraavaa elokuvaansa varten.

Hän asui tuolloin New Yorkissa ja oli jumissa. Jossain näillä main tarinaa ranskalaisohjaaja Leos Caraxilla on pieni mutta merkittävä sivurooli, kuten sivuroolit parhaimmillaan ovat. Kerran Cuarón istui Caraxin kanssa 7–8 tuntia panssaroidussa, ilmastoimattomassa autossa ja Carax poltti ketjussa kahta savuketta samaan aikaan. ”Ajattelin, että voisihan sitä olla myös tuollainen.”

Cuarón päätti mennä videovuokraamoon ja vuokrasi sieltä 30–35 elokuvaa, vaikka lainausraja oli vain viisi. Hän meni kotiin, katsoi ne kaikki ja huomasi, miten kauas oli tullut siitä mitä todella halusi. ”Olin kadottamassa oman tieni. Se teki minut surulliseksi.”

Leffamaratonin jälkeen Cuarón soitti veljelleen ja kysyi, haluaisiko hän kirjoittaa jotain yhdessä. Paria päivää myöhemmin veli laskeutui New Yorkiin ja alkoi Ja äitiäs kans -elokuvan käsikirjoittaminen. Cuarónin sanottua, että haluaa elokuvaan kertojaäänen taustaselostuksen, veli uhkasi lentää saman tien takaisin Meksikoon. Mutta kun Cuarón näytti Jean-Luc Godardin Maskuliini feminiinin (1966), kertojaääni sai jäädä.

Taustaselostuksen avulla Cuarón halusi tehdä tarinan, jossa tärkeämpää on taka-ala kuin etuala, where background is more important than the foreground. Tarinan taustakangas on Meksikon voimakas ja tukahduttavaa ilmapiiriä luova luokkajako. Toinen pojista on rikkaan perheen lapsi, toinen asuu kerrostaloasunnossa ja on alempaa keskiluokkaa. Jännitettä etualan ja taustan välillä luotiin esimerkiksi laajoilla kuvakulmilla. ”Kaksi poikaa luovat tavallaan tekosyyn kertoa taustalla vaikuttavan tarinan.”

Kun Cuarón viimeisteli Ja äitiäs kans -elokuvaa, hän tarjosi jo seuraavaa käsikirjoitusta eteenpäin, mutta kukaan ei kiinnostunut siitä. Noihin aikoihin hän kertoi puhelimessa ystävälleen, meksikolaiselle elokuvaohjaaja Guillermo del Torolle, että Warner Bros. oli soittanut ja tarjonnut kolmatta Harry Potter -elokuvaa ohjattavaksi. Cuarón ei innostunut ideasta, sillä hän ei ollut lukenut yhtäkään Harry Potter-kirjaa.

 ”You are a fucking arrogant brick”, del Toro totesi ja käski hänen lukea ensimmäisen kirjan heti. Del Toro soittaisi kahden päivän päästä uudelleen. Yllättäen Harry Potter vaikuttikin hauskalta. Cuarón ajatteli, että jos hän keksii, miten ratkaisee tämän tarinan, hän keksii myös miten ratkaisee myöhemmin Children of Men -elokuvan ongelmat. Jotkut teokset ovat matkoja seuraavan luo. Ne tehdään, jotta jotain muuta voisi syntyä myöhemmin.

Cuarónin mukaan on mahdotonta tehdä elokuvia, jotka eivät käsittelisi elämää. Elämällä hän tarkoittaa sitä, mitä todellisessa maailmassa tapahtuu. Ja äitiäs kans -elokuvassa maailma vilahtelee onnettomuuksina taka-alalla, kotinsa menettäneinä kävelemässä kadulla, Children of Men taas kävi Cuarónin mukaan jollain tapaa toteen jo vuonna 2008, ei vuonna 2027 kuten elokuva ehdottaa.

”Loppujen lopuksi olen toiveikas tulevaisuuden suhteen. Minulla on tapana olla pessimistinen nykyhetkestä mutta optimistinen tulevaisuudesta.”

Samoin kuin Cuarónin elokuvissa, myös hänen urassaan elämällä on ratkaiseva rooli. Children of Menin jälkeen oli jälleen taloudellisesti tiukkaa, ja piti keksiä jokin potentiaalinen myyntihitti. Syntyi Gravity. Ja Gravityn menestyksen pohjalta Roma saattoi syntyä. ”Elämä keksii elämän”, life with a big L invents the little one of my own, Cuarón sanoo.

Roma oli Cuarónin sukellus omaan lapsuuteensa ja paluu Ja äitiäs kans –elokuvasta alkaneeseen meksikolaisen luokkayhteiskunnan kuvaukseen. Hänelle oli tärkeää luoda tilkitty kupla, jossa elokuva voisi syntyä. Se tarkoitti rekvisiitan ja miljöön valmistelua kahden vuoden ajan: hän halusi rakennuksiin tietyt tiilet, huoneeseen tietyn sohvan ja laatikoihin tietyt esineet. Näyttelijät ja muu työryhmä eivät saaneet käsikirjoitusta luettavaksi etukäteen, vaan ymmärrys ja hahmot rakentuivat kuvauksissa.

Kokemus oli intensiivinen, eikä Cuarón yrittäisi vastaavaa projektia enää uudelleen.

“En suosittele sitä kenellekään.” " MSFF Press Release 15 June 2024

Kuva: Hilma Toivonen

MSFF Press Release 15 June 2024: " It was always clear to Mexican Alfonso Cuarón that he wanted to make movies. He had a vivid imagination that he had to hide, because he was embarrassed of it. In Saturday’s morning discussion he told, that as a child, he could not make a difference between make-believe and movies. “Then I learned that [in the movies] there is a director.”

In Cuarón’s youth in the 70s Mexico was a time of different film clubs. The best club was run by a local Jesuit who screened works by Ingmar Bergman, Federico Fellini and other master directors. Cultural institutes programmed classics from their countries, so from an early age Cuarón had a chance to watch old Soviet, Polish, Hungarian, Czech, and even Japanese films. To his parents he claimed that he went to football practice, and they gladly paid for a healthy, active hobby.

”But those clubs were not only about movies, but community,” Cuarón said. Some of the youth gathered at the clubs for the parties after the screenings. However, they would end up seeing a film or two by coming. Cuarón stated: “People miss the point of great films, if the focus is not community.” 

Watching Bergman as a teenager, Cuarón thought that his films were about abstract things. He thought that they were some sort of philosophical arguments, until he realised that they were about life.

Cuarón told that he sneaked into advertisement studios near his home, spending more and more time there. Steadily he started doing small tasks, helping the studio’s crew here and there. Then he learned how television was made, and someone asked him what was next and if he planned to write telenovelas. “I got scared. That wasn’t my way and I forced myself to write my first script.”

In 1991 Cuarón released his first film Love in the Time of Hysteria but it took a decade before Cuarón understood what filmmaking was really about. It is not for the result, but what you learn for the next film.

At the time he lived in New York and was stuck. Around that time French director Leos Carax played a small but significant supporting role on Cuarón’s journey. One time Cuarón sat with Carax in an armoured car without air conditioning for seven to eight hours, while Carax kept on smoking two cigarettes simultaneously. “I thought that I could also be like that.”

Cuarón decided to go to a video rental and rented some 30 to 35 movies, even though the limit was just five. He went home, watched them all and realised how far he had gone from what he had really wanted. I was losing my way. It made me sad.”

After the movie marathon Cuarón called his brother and asked if he would like to write something together. A couple of days later the brother landed in New York, and they started writing Y tu mamá también. When Cuarón said he wanted an audio narration in the film, his brother threatened to fly right back to Mexico. But whenCuarón showed him Jean-Luc Godard’s Masculin Féminin (1966), the narration could stay.

With the narration Cuarón wanted to create a story where background is more important than the foreground. The backdrop of the story is based on the atmosphere caused by the strong and suffocating class differences in Mexico. In the film, the other boy comes from a rich family whilst the other one is lower middle class and lives in an apartment building. The tension between the foreground and background was achieved for example with wide camera angles. “Those kids are the excuse to tell the story in the background.”

While finishing Y tu mamá también, Cuarón pitched his next screenplay but without results. Around that time he told his friend and fellow Mexican director Guillermo del Toro that Warner Bros. had called with an offer to direct the third Harry Potter film. Cuarón was not convinced as he had never read the books.

”You are a fucking arrogant prick,” del Toro stated and ordered Cuarón to read the first book immediately. Del Toro would call again in two days, and Harry Potter seemed fun after all. Cuarón thought that if he could solve this story, he would find resolutions for the problems in Children of Men (2006). According to him, some stories are paths to others, and they are made to create something else later.

In Cuaróns view it is impossible to make movies that are not about life. By life he means the events of the real world. In Y tu mamá también the world is seen in flashes of mishaps in the background with the homeless on the streets. On the other hand, Cuarón believes that in some ways, Children of Men came true in some ways already in 2008, and not in 2027 as the timeline within the movie.

“In the end I’m hopeful of reality. I tend to be pessimistic about the present but optimistic about the future.”

Like in his movies, life plays a significant role in Cuarón’s career. After Children of Men his financial situation was not great, and he had to come up with a potential hit. That is how Gravity (2013) came to be. Because of Gravity’s success, he was able to make Roma (2018). “Life invents life – Life, with a big L, invents the little one of my own,” Cuarón muses.

For Cuarón Roma was a deep dive into his childhood and a return to a study of the Mexican class society that he had begun with Y tu mamá también. It was important for him to create a tight bubble in which the movie could emerge. The props and set were built during a two-year period. He wanted certain tiles for the buildings, a specific sofa and items in drawers inside. The cast and crew were not given the script beforehand, so that the understanding of the story and characters grew throughout the shoot.

The experience was intense, and Cuarón said that he would not do a project like that again. “I would not recommend anyone to do it.” " MSFF Press Release 15 June 2024

AA: Added notes:

Q: WHAT WAS THE FIRST FILM YOU SAW?

A: The Sword in the Stone.

Q: THE CINEMAS?

A: There were the big cinemas of the boulevards. Then there were second-run cinemas and non stop screenings.

Q: FAMILY?

A: Very middle-class. Staff at home - indigenous. Disparity. That unfortunately still goes on. Low income family help. Catholic oppression.

Q: RELIGION?

A: Father, mother - not. Grandmother - very. Tamales. Comic books. Me and my brother could not care less about religion.

Q: READING BOOKS?

A: My father was not the best pedagogue. To him, TV was bad, damaging imagination.

Ray Bradbury was my entry to books. I started in sci-fi. Isaac Asimov. Later, Philip K. Dick.

Then European, American 20th century literature.

Q: SCHOOL?

A: Hated it. I was pretty bad in most everything. Never worst, never shining. No sport. 

Films were highly censored. Costa-Gavras: L'Aveu. Clandestine screening. Hearts and Minds.

Since a kid I wanted to make films, make-believe.

No difference between reality and make-believe.

Sergio Leone, Butch Cassidy, Terence Hill.

Working already during high school, odd jobs.

At the university, philosophy in the afternoon. Then film school in the morning.

Q: YOU KNEW EARLY?

A: That it was the film.

Discovered European, Japanese films at 8, 9.

A lot I would not understand, then watch them again.

Older, I started to get it.

Bergman, bored. Teenager, not bored anymore. Now again I don't understand anything. An abstraction of life. Philosophical argument, not a life argument.

A golden age of film societies.

Cultural institutes (France, Germany), New German cinema

Nouvelle vague: Vivre sa vie was my favourite.

A Jesuit film club - Bergman, Fellini - US 1970s - Pasolini, Visconti - [C.U.C. - Catholic Union of Cinema?] - the Jesuit film club was a point of departure to the party - my cinematographer I met at the [C.U.C.?]. The focus was the community - the films led to the community - the community led to the films. Mexico had access to Eastern bloc cinema - Soviet Union - Czechoslovakia - Poland. We explored world cinema. The real school for me.

Q: AMATEUR?

A: The school was a mess, politicized, a group dictating doing a documentary, they had the power. I was a still photographer. His first super-8 film - Emmanuel Lubezki.

I had a school as a young man.

In 12 films assistant camera, foreign productions shot in Mexico.

The old guard was supportive.

Pedro Armendariz, Felipe Casals very supportive to young generations.

Telenovelas.

I forced myself to write my first film.

Q: SOLO CON TU PAREJA.

A: A comedy - Lubitsch, Hawks, Blake Edwards.

I burned my bridges.

Antagonized administration.

Ambition European.

My anxiety to pay the rent.

I never live in L.A.

In my second film: one scene is ok.

The next time: the film is ok.

Only later, cinema.

Learning curve.

Q: HOLLYWOOD

A: Fallen Angels, an anthology of noir stories directed also by Soderbergh, Cruise, Hanks, Joanou, Kaplan, Bogdanovich, Dahl, Gordon, Holland, Hunter, Lehmann, McBride, Sutherland.

A tough experience.

Little Princess: an incredible experience, a joyful time.

I never see my film when I finish.

Q: GREAT EXPECTATIONS

A: Terrible. I did not know what I was doing.

Don't tell anyone you are a writer.

I was 35. Not able to pay the rent.

Reader of very bad scripts.

I came to Europe watching films, seeing friends.

Met Leos Carax. In an armored car. No ventilation. Smoke all over.

Robert De Niro. Star struck. Never understood what the film was about.

Not going back to that.

Losing my way living in Europe. Son with me. In video shops I got 30-35 VHS cassettes.

How far I was drifting from what I was really like.

CLIP: Y tu mamá también (MX 2001).

Q: YOU AND YOUR BROTHER?

A: The dialogue is us.

The characters are the actors. They are still the same.

Stories about camping on the beach.

Masculin - féminin.

Q: FOREGROUND - BACKGROUND.

A: The film we would have done before film school.

Wide angle.

It took us one day. Steadicam - sent it back.

Limitations are super important.

Q: A SENSE OF CLASS REALITY.

A: It is impossible to ignore even now.

Rich kid, apartment kid vs. lower middle class kid. A dynamics.

Q: A NEW LEVEL OF COMEDY.

A: I wish I had mastered that art of business.

Children of Men - nobody wanted to do that.

Harry Potter - I had never read the books. Guillermo del Toro convinced me to direct the Harry Potter film. I saw it like a film noir. And it is also about two boys and a girl like Y tu mamá también. And Harry Potter solved the problem of Children of Men. 

I got to collaborate with incredible people. J. K. Rowling was very generous. Chris Columbus had established the cast and the design. Old school knowhow. I pretended to catch up. I am photochemical. I don't understand digital. It took a year. There was a school for the children in the cast. Michael Seresin was the cinematographer, had worked with Alan Parker, came with a darker, more subdued look. For the costume design we had to fight. To Daniel Radcliffe I showed The 400 Blows. 

The worst to a child is to direct him like a child.

Q: CHILDREN OF MEN.

A: You know what you are doing. Misery. Atrocities.

CLIP: Children of Men (GB/US/JP 2006). The long take with a plan-sequence approach of the escape car assaulted on a forest road. The driver shoots the policemen.

Q: ICONIC EXAMPLE OF A LONG TAKE.

A: An attempt in real time. Pretty much designed like that. Long shot, wide angle, foreground and background. References: Sarajevo, Bosnia. End of the 1990s, after 11 September. No prophecy. Already happening. I don't like making-of. Now social media exists. I'm hopeful about humanity. Pessimist about today, optimist about the future.

Q: GENRE.

A: I don't have one.

I don't think I'm a fan of genre.

I don't know the rules.

Genre: it's not my interest.

Q: BRESSON AND GRAVITY.

A: Thanks to Gravity, can make Roma.

Life invents my life - big L, small l.

A Man Escaped (Un condamné à mort s'est échappé). 

The quietness.

The best prison escape.

Gravity: A man escapes in space.

Gravity came to save my life.

We were told you could not do it.

Cameron - 700 million.

Fincher - 7 years.

I'm a photochemical person.

We did not know what we were doing.

Everything could be out of synch.

Five years in edit.

Q: THE IMPOSTOR SYNDROME.

A: Roma: I want to do a short foreign movie.

You look around: I'm not as bad as all that.

You look up: I'm not up there.

Q: YOU ARE ONE OF THE BEST CINEMATOGRAPHERS.

A: A light alchemist.

Lab - it's not a technical - but creative process.

In the 1990s pushing Kodak - to reduce grain - to solidify blacks - Roger Deakins.

Digital solves - black - white - grain. In that regard superior to film.

Not one way or the other. There are tools.

VFX digital - James Cameron - a film of VFX.

I love 35 mm, 16 mm.

Roma: I insisted wide - I insisted b&w.

With whom can I collaborate in Spanish.

Without him a different film, not necessarily better, but mine.

Awards - important mostly to put my next film together.

At the end, only time will tell.

Time rules.

Q: ROMA.

A: Not about me.

I wanted to follow this character, very important in my life, even now.

A certain oppression.

The Olympic massacre, 200 students killed by the paramilitary of the government.

Soon after the World Cup, another massacre.

A big push towards democratic reforms.

Youth disenchanted.

Guerrilla, dirty war, genocides of several groups.

You could feel that atmosphere-

Domestically, completely different sotry.

The house is genuine.

1960s romanticized. Very few privileged.

For us, 1960s happy times.

In Mexico, end of the 1990s.

Rock concerts were forbidden. Very clandestine to go to.

Radio: conventional music.

Nobody read the screenplay.

I had to finance myself. "Never do this". Shot in continuity. Two years.

Special tile. Special sofa. Special drawers. Obsessed in recreation. Identical cars. Identical cast.

I was very angry all the time. The street where I grew up. How many people have that opportunity? The scene where my father leaves my family. A weird thing, exercise of an obsession, not healthy.

Q: FAVOURITE DIRECTORS?

A: I always refuse to answer. Swimming in the ocean of endlessness. Alain Tanner was a teenage favourite.

Q: WHICH FILM WOULD YOU TAKE TO THE DESERT ISLAND?

A: I don't bring any film. Except maybe "How to Survive on a Desert Island".

[After repeated persuasion, hesitating between Ordet and Sunrise:]

Sunrise.

Epäonnistunut tyhjyys / Failed Emptiness

Mika Taanila: Epäonnistunut tyhjyys / Failed Emptiness (FI 2024). 

DIRECTOR: Mika Taanila

COUNTRY: Finland

YEAR: 2024

DURATION: 66 min

LANGUAGES: Finnish, subtitled in English

CATEGORY: Finnish Films, New Finnish Films, Puhuttu tai tekstitetty suomeksi, Subtitles in English

Festival premiere: 25 Jan-4 Feb 2024 International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR).

In the presence of Mika Taanila and Nika Son, hosted by Juhana von Bagh.

Viewed at The School, Sodankylä, Midnight Sun Film Festival (MSFF), 14 June 2024

Olaf Möller (MSFF 2024): " In the beginning, Failed Emptiness was supposed to be a cycle of short films – cinematic epigrams, melancholic anecdotes about the inherent strangeness of life simply passing by, made eerie through the exclusive use of black-and-white thermal cinematography. But at some point, after two of these having gotten realized, filmmaker-artist Mika Taanila and poet supreme Harry Salmenniemi felt that the project should get reconsidered, with sound artist Nika Son invited as a third voice. And thus, they embarked on one final work, feature-length this time, that would offer more breathing space. "

" The artistic concept (similar to that of their earlier collaboration Tectonic Plate, 2016) remained the same as for the shorts: All is told in images and sounds plus written poetry on monochrome ground – no spoken words, no dialogue etc. – Antonioni squared, modernity pushed to its limits, even partly dangling over the abyss of an unknown morrow of mores and aesthetics not yet quite imaginable. The way Taanila looks at the world, the woman, and her doings paints them as important and enigmatic as the old turtle doing its thing or the cleaning robot going through its motions; the soundscape suggests parallel worlds near as well as far. One would assume that the story is that of the woman we see going through the rituals and routines of her life, but it could be somebody else as well. Yours, for example. " Olaf Möller

AA: After the remarkable Mannerlaatta / Tectonic Plate, another major collaboration between Mika Taanila and the poet Harry Salmenniemi. In Sodankylä, Mika Taanila took the floor together with the composer-sound designer Nika Son.

The visual world and the soundscape clash seamlessly to create a dizzying experience in a space that no one has entered before.

It is beyond reality and unreality, beyond consciousness and the unconscious, beyond dream and awakening. 

It is not psychedelia. Our senses are alert, but we move in an uncharted mental landscape.

An extra-cinematic event took place in the beginning: the third fainting spell of the day. The heat of the midnight sun and the insufficient air conditioning of the school classroom may have contributed.

Some experimental films can cause nausea, migraine and fainting, but this accident was not the movie's fault, although somehow it became meaningful in the performance.

Ostranenie. The film is about the ordinary turning extraordinary.

Through the fascinating black-and-white thermal cinematography by Jussi Eerola.

Through the inventive and creative musique concrète of Nika Son.

Through the unique poetry of Harry Salmenniemi. I have loved Salmenniemi's poetry since Texas, sakset, Runojä and Kivirivit, also his contributions in Vastakaanon.

Salmenniemi is at his best in Epäonnistunut tyhjyys. I laughed quietly all through the picture. His lines are terse, matter-of-fact, to the point. They express the most ordinary issues. Yet always with a slight twist, almost unnoticeable, until there is a cumulative impact.

Lola Rogers is a wonderful translator, one of the best. The English translation is immaculate, but the finest aroma of the poetry and the sense of humour are lost in translation. Nobody could succeed with words with multiple meanings like "läpikuultava naapuri".

The sense of humour has affinities with Jacques Tati (Mon oncle, Playtime, Trafic).

Reportedly Harry Salmenniemi calls this work an "existential thriller".

There was a discussion after the movie about the meaning of its title. I proposed that it means "plenitude". Like in Jim Jarmusch's Paterson, where Paterson (Adam Driver) has lost his poetry notebook. A Japanese traveller gives him a new notebook and states that "an empty page is full of possibilities". He also remarks that "poetry in translation is like taking a shower with a raincoat on".

Laskovoe bezrazlilchie mira / The Gentle Indifference of the World

Adilkhan Yerzhanov: Laskovoe bezrazlilchie mira / The Gentle Indifference of the World (KZ 2018).

DIRECTOR: Adilkhan Jerzhanov

COUNTRY: Kazakhstan, France

YEAR: 2018

DURATION: 100 min

LANGUAGES: Kazakh, Russian

CATEGORY: Adilkhan Yerzhanov, Special Guests' Films, Subtitles in English

Viewed at The School, Sodankylä, Midnight Sun Film Festival (MSFF), 14 June 2024

Timo Malmi (MSFF 2024): " Getting its title from Albert Camus’ The Stranger, The Gentle Indifference of the World is a minimalist but colourful and offbeat melodrama. We witness two characters experiencing ”the gentle indifference of the world,” a young beauty named Saltanat and her devoted admirer, a long-time friend called Kuandyk. When Saltanat’s father dies, the daughter must try to pay the family’s notable debt in order to avoid a prison sentence. Her journey takes her and Kuandyk from a little village in the mountains to the capital city of Almaty and its corrupt circles. Here Saltanat is about to be abused by her uncle and his rich guardian, while Kuandyk is threatened by a mobster of the vegetable business. "

" Made in collaboration with French partners, the film’s Gaul references do not stop at Camus. There are, for example, allusions to French new wave and film noir thrillers – as well as Henri Rousseau’s paintings. His naïve art contains similar qualities to Yerzhanov’s poetic piece with its share of absurd moments. Unforgettable images include Saltanat’s red dress and red bloodstains on a white flower; only love lasts forever. "

" As Cyril Béghin sums up in Cahiers du cinéma, “The film takes shape in the brightness of the day, (…) resolving the equation between primitivism and impressionism with a romanticism as dark as it is suffused with light—a poetic escape that says more than all the political analyses.” " Timo Malmi

AA: An imagist poem, a dark fairy-tale, a saga bordering on horror. Against the breathtaking beauty of the wide-open steppe, a narrative of a brutal trap. The young lovers face a structure of overwhelming corruption and violence. The mob has taken over the society, and the people have no protection, no organization, no safety. Love and beauty are soiled, compromised and destroyed. "The spirit of higher", declared Yerzhanov after the screening.

Sodankylä morning discussion 2024: Adilkhan Yerzhanov

Adilkhan Yerzhanov, Midnight Sun Film Festival, Sodankylä, 13 June 2024.

Adilkhan Yerzhanov

In Russian, hosted by Timo Malmi, translated by Anna Lankinen. 6o min

The School, Sodankylä, Midnight Sun Film Festival (MSFF), 14 June 2024

Timo Malmi (MSFF 2024): " On aina jännittävää tutustua tuntemattoman elokuvamaan ohjaajapersooniin, nyt Kazakstanin 2000-luvun elokuvan huomattavimpaan tekijänimeen Adilkhan Jeržanoviin. Jezqazğanin kuparikaupungissa 1982 syntynyt käsikirjoittaja-ohjaaja-leikkaaja edustaa nimenomaan maan neuvostoajan jälkeistä ”aaltoa”. Toisaalta mitäpä tiedämme Neuvosto-Kazakstanin aikaisesta elokuvastakaan, vaikka olimme tuolloin tavallaan naapurimaassa – ja toisaalta onhan maa kaukana, mistä kertoo Jeržanovin vuoden 2015 läpimurtotyön The Owners valinta tuolloin sadan parhaan aasialaisen elokuvan joukkoon Etelä-Korean Busanin filmijuhlilla. "

" Sodankylän kaikkien aikojen ensimmäinen kazakkivieras Jeržanov, jolta toki olemme aikaisemmin esittäneet kolmekin elokuvaa, tekee yhtä hyvin niin villiä tragikomediaa, värikästä melodraamaa kuin mustaa dekkaritrilleriäkin. "

" ”Rakkaus. Ja rahanpuute. Kun nämä kaksi asiaa yhdistyvät, alkaa runous. Tapahtuu aineellisen ja henkisen maailman konflikti. Tulee tiettäväksi se, kuinka paljon ihminen on tuomittu modernissa, pragmaattisessa maailmassa.” Tämä Jeržanovin motto suoratoistopalvelu MUBI:n kotisivulta summannee osuvasti hänen 2007 käynnistyneen 15 pitkän elokuvan, 2 lyhytfilmin ja yhden tv-sarjan laajuisen tuotantonsa, jossa toki on ”puhtaita” komedioitakin. " 

" Adilkhan Jeržanov tulee etäisestä kulttuurista, mutta kun ajattelemme The Ownersista käynnistyneitä puheita hänen minimalisminsa Aki Kaurismäki -vaikutteista ja tunnemme Kazakstanin vuorten reunustamien arojen tuttuutta Lapin tuntureiden taustoittaman ”taigan” kanssa, kohtaamme jälleen elokuvataiteen yleismaailmallisen resonoinnin. " 

" It is always exciting to familiarise yourself with directorial personalities from countries with lesser-known film industries, in this case Adilkhan Yerzhanov, the most notable name in 2000s Kazakhstani cinema. Born in 1982 in the copper mining town of Zhezkazgan, the writer-director-editor represents the country’s post-Soviet “wave.” Then again, how familiar are we with even Soviet-era Kazakhstani cinema, despite having been, in a sense, neighbouring countries at the time? And granted, the country is very remote from our perspective, as indicated by Yerzhanov’s 2015 breakthrough film The Owners being named among the 100 best Asian films at the Busan Film Festival in South Korea. "

" Yerzhanov, the first-ever Kazakh guest at Sodankylä (though we have screened three of his films before), is equally adept at creating wild tragicomedies, colourful melodramas, and dark detective thrillers. "

" “Love. And lack of money. When these two things come together, the poetry begins. The conflict between the material world and the spiritual world takes place. There comes an awareness of how much a person is doomed in a modern pragmatic society.” Yerzhanov’s motto, taken from the streaming service MUBI’s homepage, could serve as a summary of his filmography, which, spanning from 2007 onwards, consists of 15 feature-length films, two short films, and one TV show — though there are “pure” comedies in the mix as well. "

" Adilkhan Yerzhanov may come from a remote culture, but comments sparked by The Owners comparing his minimalist style to that of Aki Kaurismäki, and the sense of familiarity evoked by similarities between the mountain-fringed Kazakh steppes and the mountainous “taiga” of Lapland, once again remind us of the universal resonance of cinema. " Timo Malmi (MSFF Catalogue 2024)

MSFF Press Release 14 June 2024: " The morning discussion held on Friday at 11 am welcomed the festival’s first guest from Kazakhstan, Adilkhan Jeržanov. Born in the copper town of Jezqazğan in 1982, the screenwriter-director-editor is one of the most notable filmmakers of the 21st century from his home country. He represents the so-called post-Soviet wave, and in the discussion he straightforwardly stated that he does not feel any kind of nostalgia for the Soviet period.

Jeržanov is known for his absurd style. With a twinkle in his eyes, he referred to his style as Kazakh caricatural realism. His aesthetic was influenced by his first movie experience; at the time, he was three years old and slept throughout most of the movie. Once he woke up, he realised that the movie had mixed with his dream in his mind. He had imagined the plot of the film in which the main character is looking for a woman. “Since then, cinema has meant to me that the protagonist is seeking something. Cinema is like a dream,” he said.

As a child Jeržanov was open to all kinds of movies. He tried to watch as many films as possible, because he was never sure if they would be banned. Jeržanov saw particularly many Bruce Lee movies, but he grew tired of the fight scenes in them. “I observed that movies need to have more than fights.”

Jeržanov is careful with violence in his film, and in real life does not agree with it at all. In movies it has to be shown with consideration and it should not be glorified. “Violence is disgusting and it has to be disgusting on the big screen too,” he states.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union and the death of his father, Jeržanov did not attend school continuously, so he self-studied when not in school. “Maybe if I attended school normally, I would make normal films.”

In his filmography, Jeržanov examines corruption and bureaucracy with humour. According to him, bureaucracy is a major problem in the ex-Soviet country of Kazakhstan. “If Kafka had seen all of this he wouldn’t have written anything about absurdism, because reality is absurd enough.”

Jeržanov also said that he was significantly influenced by Finnish director Aki Kaurismäki. According to him, he recognises the same constraint and rhythm in Kaurismäki films as in the people of Kazakhstan’s steppes. “I hold Kaurismäki’s films close to my heart. I have seen all of his films that I could get a hold of.”

Another favourite director of Jeržanov’s is Japanese Takeshi Kitano. He feels like both Kitano and Kaurismäki share the same reservation, and making you laugh when you are not supposed to. “Both directors are able to showcase well what is characteristic in their culture. When I am tired of the flow of movies, I rewatch their films time and time again.”

Jeržanov was also asked about his aesthetic and use of colour. He said he drew a lot of comics with a limited selection of coloured pencils as a child. It taught him about the importance of colour. “When I started to make movies, I realised that they are the same with comics. I moved from shot to shot. The structure is the same… Maybe that’s why there is something childlike in them”, he said.

In Jeržanov’s opinion, playfulness and imagination have an important role in the society, especially in difficult times: “The harder the reality, the more imagination matters. Sometimes I feel that the only thing that can conquer reality is imagination.” (MSFF Press Release, 14 June 2024)

MSFF Press Release, 14 June 2024: " Perjantaina keskusteltiin kello 11 Sodankylän ensimmäisen kazakstanilaisen vieraan Adilkhan Jeržanovin kanssa. Jezqazğanin kuparikaupungissa vuonna 1982 syntynyt käsikirjoittaja-ohjaaja-leikkaaja kuuluu Kazakstanin 2000-luvun elokuvan merkittävimpiin elokuvantekijöihin. Hän edustaa maan neuvostoajan jälkeistä ”aaltoa”, ja toteaa aamukeskustelussa suoraan, ettei koe minkäänlaista nostalgiaa neuvostoaikaa kohtaan. 

Jerzanov tunnetaan humoristisen absurdista tyylistään. Hän kertoo pilke silmäkulmassaan käyttävänsä tyylistään nimeä “kazakki-karikatyyrinen realismi”. Kyseiseen tyyliin on vaikuttanut Jerzanovin ensimmäinen elokuvakokemus: hän oli tuohon aikaan kolmivuotias, ja nukkui suuren osan elokuvasta. Herättyään hän huomasi unen ja elokuvan sekoittuneen hänen mielessään. Hän oli kuvitellut elokuvaan juonen, jossa päähenkilö etsii naista. “Siitä lähtien elokuva on tarkoittanut minulle sitä, että päähenkilö etsii jotakin. Elokuva on ikään kuin uni”, hän totesi. 

Jerzanov oli lapsena elokuvien suhteen kaikkiruokainen. Hän yritti katsoa niin monta elokuvaa kuin mahdollista, koska hän ei voinut koskaan tietää, jos ne vaikka kiellettäisiin. Erityisen paljon Jerzanov katsoi Bruce Leen elokuvia, mutta niiden tappelut alkoivat tulla korvista ulos. “Totesin, että pitäähän elokuvassa olla muutakin kuin vain tappeluita.”

Jerzanov on tarkka väkivallan käytöstä elokuvissaan, eikä hyväksy sen käyttöä tosielämässä lainkaan. Elokuvissakin sitä pitää hänestä näyttää harkiten, eikä sitä sovi kaunistella. “Väkivalta on ällöttävää ja myös suurella näytöllä sen pitää olla ällöttävää,” hän toteaa.

Neuvostoliiton romahduksen ja isän kuoleman jälkeen Jerzanov ei käynyt koulua yhtäjaksoisesti, vaan korvasi sitä itseopiskelulla. “Ehkä, jos olisin käynyt koulua normaalisti, tekisin normaaleja elokuvia.”

Jerzanov käsittelee elokuvissaan humoristisesti korruptiota ja byrokratiaa. Hänen mukaansa byrokratia on mielettömän iso ongelma entisessä neuvostomaassa Kazakstanissa. “Jos Kafka olisi nähnyt kaiken tämän, hän ei olisi ikinä kirjoittanut absurdista mitään, koska todellisuus on niin absurdia.”

Jerzanov kertoi myös saaneensa paljon vaikutteita suomalaiselta ohjaajalta Aki Kaurismäeltä. Jerzanovin mukaan hän tunnistaa Kazakstanin arojen ihmisissä saman pidättyväisyyden ja rytmin kuin Kaurismäen elokuvissa. “Pidän Kaurismäen elokuvia lähellä sydäntäni. Olen nähnyt kaikki Kaurismäen elokuvat, jotka sain käsiini.”

Toinen Jerzanovin suosikki ohjaaja on japanilainen Takeshi Kitano. Hän kokee, että sekä Kitanolla ja Kaurismäellä on sama pidättyväisyys ja tapa naurattaa silloin kun ei pitäisi. “Molemmat ohjaajat pystyvät esittämään hyvin sen mikä on luonteenomaista heidän kulttuureissaan. Kun väsyn elokuvien virtaan katselen heidän elokuviaan uudestaan ja uudestaan.”

Jerzanovilta kysyttiin myös värien käytöstä ja visuaalisuudesta elokuvissaan. Hän kertoi piirtäneensä lapsena paljon sarjakuvia niin, että käytössä oli vain rajattu määrä värikyniä. Se opetti hänelle värien käytön merkityksestä. “Kun aloin kuvata elokuvaa, ymmärsin että elokuvat ovat samanlaisia kuin sarjakuvat. Siirryin otoksesta otokseen. Samanlainen rakenne… Ehkä sen takia niissä on jotakin lapsellista,” hän kertoo. 

Jerzanovin mielestä lapsellisuudella ja kuvittelulla on yhteiskunnassa tärkeä rooli, erityisesti vaikeina aikoina: “Mitä vaikeampi on todellisuus, sitä enemmän on mielikuvituksella merkitystä. Välillä minusta tuntuu, että ainoa, mikä voi voittaa todellisuuden, on mielikuvitus.” " MSFF Press Release, 14 June 2024

AA: Added notes:

Q: WHAT WAS THE FIRST FILM YOU SAW? A: I was three years old and slept through most of it. The Life of Klim Samgin, an old Soviet film. The film and the dream were mixed in my mind, and I thought that the protagonist seeks a woman. Since then, a film means to me that the protagonist searches for something. A film is like a dream. [AA: I am not aware of an old Soviet film adaptation of The Life of Klim Samgin. There is Zhizn Klima Samgina (TVM, SU 1986, D: Margarita Braslavskaya / Alina Kazmina / Andrei Goncharov, Anatoli Romashin, C: Anatoli Romashin) and the tv series Zhizn Klima Samgina 1-14 (SU 1988, D: Viktor Titov, C: Andrei Rudensky).

    I was 16 when the Soviet period ended. Instead of endless ballet on television, I watched Bruce Lee movies in pirated copies and American melodramas with Richard Gere. I was omnivorous and tried to see as many as possible.

Q: CHILDHOOD.

A: In the copper town of Jezqazğan my father was a finance inspector, always travelling on business. With him we were always on the move. We lived in all the towns of Kazakhstan. The fall of the USSR was a beautiful, magical time. A new world started, it was unprecedented. It was absurd and unusual. Now everything is ordinary and and peaceful.

Q: HESSE, READING BOOKS

A: I read all the regular books that children read. Then I discovered philosophy. Camus became my favourite author.

Q: RUSSIAN / SOVIET INFLUENCES?

A: Chekhov. Dostoevsky.

In the 1980s, 1990s like in America. The pure film genres of Hollywood. I took hold on genre and twisted it.

Q: SCHOOL, FILM SCHOOL

A: I went to school just until the third year. There was no father. The USSR fell down. Mother had a difficult time. I did not visit school continuously. I self-studied.

If I would have had normal studies, I would make normal films.

Q: FROM SHORTS TO FEATURES. HOW DID YOU BECOME AN INDEPENDENT FILM-MAKER?

A: The budget was small. I had friends. I made films for myself.

Q: THE THEME OF LOVE VS. MONEY. IS THE ACCOUNT OF CORRUPTION AND BUREAUCRACY FROM REALITY?

A: Officially no. But I don't sugarcoat reality. Sometimes I embellish.

Bureaucracy is a deranged, huge creature. If Kafka would have experienced it, he would not have written anything.

With young people in the non-governmental sector things happen faster.

Q: YOUR ABSURD SENSE OF HUMOUR RESEMBLES AKI KAURISMÄKI.

A: It does very much.

The restraint, the rhythm. The same rhythm.

I keep Aki close to my heart. I have seen almost all his movies.

The Man Without a Past.

The friendship. The style. The love.

Q: TAKESHI KITANO IS ANOTHER FAVOURITE.

The restraint. The laughter where you should not laugh.

Displaying national characteristics.

Two of my favourite directors since childhood.

Q: THE GENTLE INDIFFERENCE OF THE WORLD

CLIP: Laskovoe bezrazlichie mira / The Gentle Indifference of the World (KZ 2018). Scope. Inside looking out. Three window panels. The woman leaves for the city. Image-driven. Gorgeous colour. Sense of composition. The steppe. The red sky. The woman reads Camus. An old man stares unflinchingly. It rains outside. 

Q: THE VISUAL APPROACH.

A: I have read a lot of comics.

Brightness is important.

Films are comics.

From shot to shot.

Q: DRAWINGS AND PAINTINGS IN YOUR MOVIES.

A: Reality can only be conquered by imagination.

It is a struggle against reality.

Q: NAIVISM, SUCH AS DOUANIER ROUSSEAU IN THIS FILM.

A: I love Pirosmani.

Q: YOU HAVE CALLED YOUR STYLE "KAZAKH CARICATURAL NEOREALISM".

A: The sense of the absurd.

The dance scenes.

Q: MUSIC IS ALWAYS IMPORTANT.

A: In the most terrible scenes the music is the most joyful.

In the funniest scenes it is the saddest.

Music needs to provide contrast.

The worst use of music is mere commentary.

Dance is the best expression of human character.

Q: HOW ABOUT THE GENERATION GAP BETWEEN THOSE GROWN UP UNDER SOVIET TIMES AND THOSE GROWN UP UNDER CAPITALISM?

A: I never think in terms of a generational conflict.

The worst thing is the old thinking transferred into a younger generation.

I feel no nostalgia for the Soviet period.

Western collaboration is the future.

Q: OPTIMIST OR PESSIMIST?

A: Vesyoly pessimist. A happy pessimist.

Q: BORAT

A: [Kansa erittäin kirja ent. saa kova Cohenista.]

Q: VIOLENCE

A: There is a strict line between movie and reality.

I cannot stand violence.

No romanticization.

Q: PLANS

A: Two films in post-production. French coproductions.

Q: WHICH FILM WOULD YOU TAKE TO THE DESERT ISLAND?

A: Poslenie - my latest.

Not acceptable?

Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence.