Kan ya makan fi Ghazza / Once Upon a Time in Gaza

Arab Nasser & Tarzan Nasser: /كان يا مكان في غزة/ [Kan ya makan fi Ghazza] / Once Upon a Time in Gaza (FR/PS/DE/PT/AE/GB/JO/QA 2025). Majd Ejd (Osama) and Nader Abd Alhay (Yahya).

/كان يا مكان في غزة/ [Kan ya makan fi Ghazza] (The credit title is bilingual in Arabic and English)

France, Palestine, Germany, Portugal, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, Jordan, Qatar 2025. PC: Les Films du Tambour etc.

Director: Arab Nasser, Tarzan Nasser

Starring: Nader Abd Alhay, Majd Eid, Ramzi Maqdisi, Is'haq Elias

    Languages: Arabic

    Loc: Jordan

    87 min

    Distributor: The Party Film Sales, subtitles: English. French distributor: Dulac Distribution.

    World premiere: 19 May 2025 Cannes - Un Certain Regard.

    Love & Anarchy 38th Helsinki International Film Festival (HIFF)

    Viewed at Kinopalatsi 1, Helsinki, Sat 27.9.2025 at 18.15–19.42

"This Cannes-awarded drama by Palestinian brothers blends politics and crime cinema — with a Tarantino twist."

"Yahya, a young student from Gaza, meets Osama, a charismatic drug dealer, and together they start selling pills at a falafel kiosk using fake prescriptions. The atmosphere in the prison-like city becomes even more stifling when the corrupt police threaten their operation. Two years later, Yahya ends up starring in the first action movie filmed in Gaza, which reflects the real-life crime he witnessed."

"Tarantinoesque influences on the structure and depiction of violence are present in Tarzan and Arab Nasser’s third film, which won the duo the Best Director Award in this year’s Cannes Film Festival’s Un Certain Regard section."

"Using satire and genre references, the Nasser brothers explore the impact of friendship, crime, and political conflict on everyday life in Gaza. Whether the film is read as a once-upon-a-time fairy tale or an Italian western based on its title, one thing is sure: the film cannot be read as apolitical. Already the first few minutes send a chill down your spine as we hear Trump against a black background speaking about turning Gaza into a Middle Eastern Riviera. This somber crime film from the heart of darkness will not leave you cold." Otto Kylmälä (translated by Moritz Müller)

"Palestiinalaisveljesten Cannesissa palkittu draama yhdistelee politiikkaa ja rikoselokuvia Tarantino-twistillä."

"Nuori gazalainen opiskelija Yahya tutustuu karismaattiseen huumekauppiaaseen Osamaan, ja yhdessä he ryhtyvät pyörittämään väärennettyjen reseptien avulla pillerikauppaa falafelkioskissa. Vankilalta tuntuvan kaupungin ilmatila muuttuu entistä kuristavammaksi, kun korruptoitunut poliisi uhkaa heidän toimintaansa. Kaksi vuotta myöhemmin Yahya päätyy tähdittämään ensimmäistä Gazassa kuvattua toimintaelokuvaa, joka heijastaa hänen todistamaansa tosielämän rikosta. "

"Tarantinon vaikutus näkyy rakenteessa ja väkivallan kuvauksessa Tarzan ja Arab Nasserin kolmannessa elokuvassa, joka toi duolle parhaan ohjauksen palkinnon tämän vuoden Cannesin elokuvajuhlien Un Certain Regard -sarjassa."

"Satiirin ja genreviittausten keinoin Nasserin veljekset tutkivat ystävyyden, rikollisuuden ja Israelin sortopolitiikan vaikutusta Gazan jokapäiväiseen elämään. Lukeepa elokuvaa sitten sen nimen mukaisesti olipa kerran -satuna taikka italowesterninä, ainakin on selvää, että se on poliittinen. Kylmät väreet tulevat jo ensimmäisinä minuutteina, kun kuulemme mustaa taustaa vasten Trumpin puhuvan Gazan muuttamisesta Lähi-idän Rivieraksi. Tummanpuhuva rikoselokuva pimeyden ytimestä ei jätä kylmäksi." Otto Kylmälä 

AA: Today's viewing menu: from the Quay brothers to the Nasser brothers.

Once Upon a Time in Gaza by the Nasser Brothers was ten years in the making, and the screenplay was finished before the 7 October 2023 Hamas terror attacks on Israel.

To me, the approach and ambience is unheard-of, but I am intrigued to learn about the tradition of Arab television drama, also known as musalsal (plural: musalsalat), with affinities with the Latin American telenovela. The theatricality allows a range of discourses, from soap opera to political satire. Through all the metacontext, a sense of real life comes through. I realize that also Tarik Saleh's Eagles of the Republic, seen earlier during the Festival, has deep musalsal roots.

While still digesting what I just saw and how to make sense of it, I pay attention to the account of violence since the film's title contains a direct reference to Sergio Leone and Quentin Tarantino. We empathize with the ubiquitous presence of death of innocent civilians under the terror bombings of a militarist invader. The people are not brutalized, and their attitude to violence is the opposite to the gratuitous approach of Sergio and Quentin. For the people of Gaza, there is no entertainment in guns.

The film is a comedy, in the same way as Ernst Lubitsch's To Be Or Not To Be, set in Nazi-occupied Warsaw. What they suffered in the Warsaw Ghetto they now do to Gaza Ghetto. The comedy is the blackest kind. Not escapist but transcendent.

All protagonists are Gazaites, none are Israelites. There are two parts, each with a different story. The first part, set in 2007, is about the drug smuggler Osama (Majd Eid) caught by the corrupt drug policeman Abu Sami (Ramzi Maqdisi) who requests a cut. (A Finnish viewer can here refer to our Jari Aarnio affair, the drug police chief who doubled as a drug lord). When Osama refuses, Abu shoots him, but there is a hidden witness: Yahya (Nader Abd Alhay), a timid student, for whom Osama was a father figure.

The second part focuses on the making of a movie called The Rebel about a patriotic hero, a "Rambo of Gaza". Tongue in cheek, yet with a deadly earnest core. The unlikely casting choice is Yahya, who to the surprise of himself and everybody else rises to the occasion. Through a spoof attitude the film discusses serious matters of discrimination, harassment, settler violence and torture in the hands of the occupation. It also deals with freedom fight and martyrdom. Death in a just cause is preferable to endless insults and humiliation.

The juiciest satirical sequence is a visit of the film production team to the Ministry of Culture of Gaza. The budget of the movie is so small that they cannot afford special effects or visual effects and have to use real guns and live ammunition.

In the final scenes Yahya, who has grown in self-confidence while playing the hero of resistance, defeats Abu Sami in a showdown. In the final battle of the movie production,  a bullet from live fire kills him instantly.

The last title: IT WILL END.

... 

Love & Anarchy the Helsinki International Film Festival dedicates four films to the Free Palestine theme. I would like to see films also devoted to the deeds of Hamas, Hizbollah and Iran. Without them we cannot understand anything about what is going on. 

I would also like to see Israeli films on Palestine. They are being cancelled by the Israeli government. We should not follow the example of that government. I mean films like: 

Dani Rosenberg: The Vanishing Soldier (2023) 

Natalie Braun: Shooting (2025) 

Nadav Lapid: Yes! (2025) 

Shai Carmeli-Pollak: The Sea (2025)

...

Once Upon a Time in Gaza is a showcase of how world history can be telescoped in a low budget film.

What I miss most is the big picture. We live in the age of the instant, and indeed, Instagram, but more than ever we need the opposite, the long arch and the capacity to handle complexity.

The tragedy of the Middle East is one of the most complex in political history. We should start with the Ottoman Empire and the British Mandate of Palestine and face the injustice done to Arabs and Jews. Colonial powers set a death trap for both. Everybody who refused asylum for Jews (read Exodus by Leon Uris) shares a responsibility for what is happening today.

...

The slogan "From the river to the sea, Palestine shall be free" was shouted before the screenings. The slogan is open to interpretation. Among them is the 1988 Hamas charter (the Covenant of the Islamic Resistance Movement), revised in the 2017 charter. The ultimate goal is an Islamic state of Palestine and the destruction of Israel, in 2017 called the Zionist entity. The explicit antisemitism of the 1988 charter was edited away in the 2017 charter.

FROM THE 2017 HAMAS CHARTER: 

2. "Palestine, which extends from the River Jordan in the east to the Mediterranean in the west and from Ras Al-Naqurah in the north to Umm Al-Rashrash in the south, is an integral territorial unit. It is the land and the home of the Palestinian people. The expulsion and banishment of the Palestinian people from their land and the establishment of the Zionist entity therein do not annul the right of the Palestinian people to their entire land and do not entrench any rights therein for the usurping Zionist entity."

18. "The following are considered null and void: the Balfour Declaration, the British Mandate  Document, the UN Palestine Partition Resolution, and whatever resolutions and measures that derive from them or are similar to them. The establishment of “Israel” is entirely illegal and contravenes the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people and goes against their will and the will of the Ummah; it is also in violation of human rights that are guaranteed by international conventions, foremost among them is the right to self-determination."

19. "There shall be no recognition of the legitimacy of the Zionist entity. Whatever has befallen the land of Palestine in terms of occupation, settlement building, Judaization or changes to its features or falsification of facts is illegitimate. Rights never lapse."

20. "Hamas believes that no part of the land of Palestine shall be compromised or conceded, irrespective of the causes, the circumstances and the pressures and no matter how long the occupation lasts. Hamas rejects any alternative to the full and complete liberation of Palestine, from the river to the sea.  However, without compromising its rejection of the Zionist entity and without relinquishing any Palestinian rights, Hamas considers the establishment of a fully sovereign and independent Palestinian state, with Jerusalem as its capital along the lines of the 4th of June 1967, with the return of the refugees and the displaced to their homes from which they were expelled, to be a formula of national consensus."

...

Ghazi Hamad

Hamas Political Bureau

LBC TV (Lebanon)

24 October 2023

GHAZI HAMAD: "Israel is a country that has no place on our land.

We must remove that country, because it constitutes a security, military and political catastrophe to the Arab and Islamic nation, and must be finished.

We are not ashamed to say this, with full force.

We must teach Israel a lesson, and we will do this again and again.

The Al-Aqsa Deluge [7 October] is just the first time, and there will be a second, a third, a fourth... because we have the determination to resolve, and the capabilities to fight.

Will we have to pay a price?

Yes, and we are ready to pay it.

We are called a nation of martyrs, and we are proud to sacrifice martyrs.

We did not want to harm civilians, but there were complications on the ground, and there was a party in the area with (civilian) population...

It was a large area, across 40 kilometers...

The occupation must come to an end."

Q: Occupation where? In the Gaza strip?

GHAZI HAMAD: No, I am talking about all the Palestinian lands.

Q: Does that mean the annihilation of Israel?

GHAZI HAMAD: Yes, of course.

The existence of Israel is illogical.

The existence of Israel is what causes all that pain, blood and tears.

It is Israel, not us. We are the victims of the occupation. Period.

Therefore, nobody should blame us for the things we do.

October 7, October 10, October 1,000,000... everything we do is justified.

https://youtu.be/BJNccvNJtGk?si=7DGHVqqwtwOGT3Sp

https://www.memri.org/tv/hamas-official-ghazi-hamad-we-will-repeat-october-seven-until-israel-annihilated-victims-everything-we-do-justified

Sanatorium pod klepsydrą / Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass (2024)

Timothy Quay & Stephen Quay: Sanatorium pod klepsydrą / Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass (GB/PL/DE 2024).

Sanatorium pod klepsydrą według braci Quay

United Kingdom, Poland, Germany 2024

Director: Timothy Quay, Stephen Quay

Based on the novel (1937) by Bruno Schulz (1892-1942).

Animation with short live action inserts

Starring: Tadeusz Janiszewski, Allison Bell, Andrzej Klak, Wioletta Kopanska

Languages: Polish

76 min

    Distributor: The Match Factory, subtitles: English

    Love & Anarchy 38th Helsinki International Film Festival (HIFF)

    Viewed at WHS Teatteri Union, Helsinki, Sat 27.9.2025 at 16.30–17.46 

The Polish writer and painter Bruno Schulz was murdered by the Nazis on 19 Nov 1942 in the Drohobycz Ghetto in German-occupied Poland.

Previous film adaptation (live action): Wojciech J. Has: Sanatorium pod klepsydrą / The Hourglass Sanatorium (PL 1973). IMDb: "Józef visits his dying father at a remote mental institution, where time itself doesn't seem to exist, and the line between dreams and memories becomes indistinguishable."

Eija Niskanen (HIFF 2025): "The legendary Quay Brothers return with a surreal new ghost story, blending stop-motion animation with a dreamlike train journey through Eastern Europe."

"The twin brothers Timothy and Stephen Quay have spent decades creating their peculiar animations of captivating micro-worlds. Their latest work is their third feature-length film, following the path paved by Street of Crocodiles (1985). Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass is also based on the novels of the Polish-Jewish writer Bruno Schulz. The Quay brothers were fascinated by Schulz’s masterful use of language and the metaphorical imagery that seemed to detach from reality. Animation provides excellent tools for visualising such imagery."

"Sanatorium is divided into seven episodes, each beginning with looking through the retina of a dead eye. Jozef travels to an Eastern European sanatorium to visit his father, who is half in the realm of the dead, half alive. The story and characters seem to split in two, and the sanatorium reveals itself as a mysterious place full of misleading corridors and labyrinths."

"The Quay brothers spent nineteen years making the film, animating and filming it mostly on their own to a pre-existing musical score. When Polish television joined the production, live-action segments with Polish actors were filmed. Even these transform into dreamlike unreality in the hands of the Quay duo. Seeking a logical narrative is hopeless, but the film flows according to the reasoning of dreams and the subconscious." Eija Niskanen (translated by Kati Ilomäki)

"Legendaaristen Quay-veljesten surrealistinen uutuus on stop motion -animaatiolla maustettu kummitustarina, joka heittää katsojan huuruiselle junamatkalle Itä-Eurooppaan."

"Kaksoisveljet Timothy ja Stephen Quay ovat vuosikymmeniä luoneet omalaatuisia kiehtovien mikromaailmojen animaatioitaan. Uusin niistä on heidän kolmas täyspitkä elokuvansa, joka jatkaa Street of Crocodiles -animaation (1985) viitoittamalla tiellä. Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass perustuu niin ikään puolanjuutalaisen Bruno Schultzin romaaneihin. Quay-veljeksiä kiehtoivat Schultzin romaanien taitava kielenkäyttö ja niiden todellisuudesta irtoava metaforinen kuvasto. Niiden visualisointiin animaatio tarjoaa hyvät välineet."

"Sanatorium jakautuu seitsemään jaksoon, jotka alkavat aina kuolleen silmän retinan läpi katsomisesta. Jozef matkustaa jonnekin itäeurooppalaiseen parantolaan tapaamaan isäänsä. Isä on jo puoliksi tuonelan mailla, puoliksi elossa. Tarina ja henkilöt tuntuvat jakaantuvan kahtia, ja parantola paljastuu mystiseksi paikaksi täynnä harhaanjohtavia käytäviä ja labyrintteja."

"Quay-veljekset käyttivät 19 vuotta elokuvan tekemiseen animoiden ja filmaten sen pääosin kahdestaan jo valmiiseen musiikkiin. Puolan television tultua mukaan tuotantoon kuvattiin live-jaksot puolalaisten näyttelijöiden kera. Nekin muuntuvat Quayn parivaljakon käsissä unenomaisen epätodellisiksi. Loogista tarinaa on turha hakea, mutta unen ja alitajunnan logiikalla toimiva elokuva soljuu." Eija Niskanen

IMDb: "A ghostly train journey on a forgotten branch line transports a man visiting his dying father in a sanatorium to the edge of a mythic forest. Based on the book of the same name by Bruno Schultz."

AA:  The masters of stop motion animation, the Quay Brothers, return in Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass to the source of their breakthrough movie Street of Crocodiles (GB 1986): the Polish writer Bruno Schulz.

The movie is image-driven. It is a remarkable achievement in visual art.

I discovered the Quay Brothers (born in America, based in England) via Street of Crocodiles, and at the same time I found their soulmate and predecessor, the Czech stop motion guru Jan Švankmajer (born in 1934, still with us). The brothers had found their style before discovering Švankmajer. In our 1987 spring season we screened a Švankmajer/Quay program curated by Jayne Pilling for the BFI titled "Alchemists of the Surreal". During the same season, Tampere Film Festival mounted a Švankmajer retrospective of their own, and Street of Crocodiles won a prize. The impact was huge in the golden age of the music video, and directors from Terry Gilliam to Christopher Nolan became fans.

Last year was the centenary of surrealism, and after the passing of David Lynch earlier this year we can observe that the legacy is very much alive in the unique cinema of Matthew Rankin (Universal Language) and the Quay Brothers. (Neither of them filming in their native language: Rankin in Persian, the Quays in Polish).

The preposterous plot is a pretext for seven reflections in the dead eye of the voyager's father. But really the movie is a poem about time itself as the original title "sanatorium under the hourglass" announces. Time regained? Certainly not. It's more "time out of joint" to quote Hamlet, the play that has unexpectedly become a key text for this year.

Time is incarnated in the very object world: worn and torn, obsolete, yet conveying history, experience and life lived. This movie, like others in the Švankmajer / Lenica / Borowczyk / Norstein / Quay tradition, has affinities with the Japanese concept of wabi and sabi: the culture of the old and used, therefore connected with the "sculpting in time" aesthetics of Tarkovsky and Sokurov.

On the other hand, there is the lineage of Archimboldo animation: eccentric nature morte installations come alive.

In the middle I felt exhausted (which may have nothing to do with the movie), but the last chapters I found the most inspiring.

It's a treasure trove of imagery, carried by a restless and fecund imagination. It's cosmic and intimate. There are short live action inserts, like homages to late silent cinema of the 1920s. There are also short CGI passages that stand out and not in a good way. Their presence highlights the superior quality of the handcrafted stop motion animation. In it, the brothers are still at their greatest.

The Chronology of Water

Kristen Stewart: The Chronology of Water (US/FR/LV 2025). Lidia Yuknavitch (Imogen Poots).

United States, France, Latvia 2025

Director: Kristen Stewart

Screenplay: Kristen Stewart & Andy Mingo - based on the memoirs (2011) of Lidia Yuknavitch

Starring: Imogen Poots, Tom Sturridge, Thora Birch, Jim Belushi

Language: English

127 min

    Distributor: Les Films du Losange

    Festival premiere: 16 May 2025 Cannes - Un certain regard

    Love & Anarchy 38th Helsinki International Film Festival (HIFF)

    Viewed at Kinopalatsi 1, Helsinki, Fri 26.9.2025 at 21.00–23.07 

Rauli Karjalainen (HIFF 2025): "Kristen Stewart’s directorial debut is a fierce and ambitious portrayal of how trauma can ultimately be transformed into art."

"Actor Kristen Stewart’s fierce directorial debut The Chronology of Water is based on American writer Lidia Yuknavitch’s bestselling autobiography of the same name, published in 2011. It’s a fragmented and heavily stylised film that tells the story of an abused competitive swimmer, who goes from having a drug problem into being a successful writer and a mother."

"Imogen Poots throws herself into her raw performance as Lidia, whose life is haunted by sexual abuse and a difficult relationship with her father. Jim Belushi appears as counterculture icon Ken Kesey, from whose writing course Lidia enters to kickstart her writing career."

"The hectic narration digs deep into the conflicts of traumatic relationships. From the first frames, the viewer is sucked into an unpredictable stream, in which trauma, desire, addiction, and writing interlock. The restless editing and reluctant sound design constantly keep the viewer reminded that all is not well."

"The film had its premiere in the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes International Film Festival, where the audience received it with a standing ovation. Stewart is also the film’s co-writer beside Andy Mingo." Rauli Karjalainen (translated by Vilja Hynynen)

"Kristen Stewartin debyyttiohjaus on raivokas ja kunnianhimoinen kuvaus siitä, kuinka traumasta voi kasvaa taidetta."

"Näyttelijä Kristen Stewartin raivokas ohjausdebyytti The Chronology of Water perustuu amerikkalaiskirjailija Lidia Yuknavitchin samannimiseen omaelämäkertaan, joka ilmestyi vuonna 2011 ja on ollut myyntihitti. Se kertoo rajun katkelmallisesti ja vahvasti tyylitellen hyväksikäytetyn kilpatason uimarin muodonmuutoksesta huumeongelman kautta menestyneeksi kirjailijaksi."

"Imogen Poots tekee vereslihalle venyvän roolin Lidiana, jonka elämää varjostaa seksuaalinen hyväksikäyttö ja vaikea isäsuhde. Jim Belushi vierailee vastakulttuuri-ikoni Ken Keseynä, jonka ryhmäkirjoituskurssilta Lidia hakee vauhtia kirjoittajanuralleen."

"Kiihkeä ja fragmentaarinen kerronta pureutuu syvälle traumaattisen suhteen ristiriitaisuuksiin. Elokuva upottaa katsojan jo ensikuvista lähtien arvaamattomaan virtaan, jossa trauma, halu, addiktio ja kirjoittaminen lomittuvat. Levoton leikkaus ja vastahankainen äänisuunnittelu muistuttavat alati siitä, että kaikki ei ole hyvin."

"Elokuva sai ensi-iltansa Un Certain Regard -sarjassa Cannesin elokuvajuhlilla, missä yleisö otti sen vastaan seisoaltaan taputtaen. Stewart on myös toinen elokuvan käsikirjoittajista Andy Mingon lisäksi." Rauli Karjalainen

AA: Kristen Stewart's The Chronology of Water is a bold and unconventional growing up saga of a young swimming champion who loses her scholarship because of drug and alcohol addiction. She finds new inspiration in writing and puts her life back together. 

Stewart defies classical storytelling and creates a power flow of memories, sensations and fragments. She defies glamour and tells a visceral story about shock and injury. The Chronology of Water belongs to the territory of experimental cinema.

Stewart was inspired by the memoirs of Lidia Yuknavitch (born 1963 in San Francisco), her training to be an Olympic swimmer thwarted by the U.S. boycott of the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow. Hers is a tale of domestic violence and sexual abuse leading to a life of drugs and alcoholism. Drunken driving leads to a sentence of hard labour. She gives birth, but the baby is stillborn. In one of the most heartbreaking scenes, Lidia and her man release the tiny sack of ashes into the water. 

Meanwhile, Lidia has met an inspired teacher, Ken Kesey, the author of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest incarnated charismatically by James Belushi. Kesey opens her the door to literature and creative writing. There Lidia finds a way to come to terms with her pain and anger. She becomes a writer and a teacher. And a mother.

The Chronology of Water is not narrative cinema. It is a piece of psychedelia, a quest through altered states of consciousness. The expression "stream of consciousness" is literal here, since this is the tale of a swimmer, elliptic and fragmentary, yet with an engrossing flow. We are swept along the furious current without anchor points.

A tale of sound and fury, sensual, physical, leading to redemption. Fundamentally it grows into an exploration into the core of existence.

Imogen Poots gives an extraordinary performance in the leading role.

Kjærlighet / Love

Dag Johan Haugerud: Kjærlighet / Love (NO 2024). Snekkeren (Morten Svartveit),  Marianne (Andrea Bræin Hovig) and Heidi (Marte Engebrigtsen) on the ferry.

Norway © 2024 Motlys AS.

Director: Dag Johan Haugerud

Starring: Andrea Bræin Hovig, Tayo Cittadella Jacobsen, Marte Engebrigtsen,

Composer: Peder Kjellsby.

Language: Norwegian

120 min

    Distributor: Norwegian Film Institute, English subtitles by Nicolai Herzog.

    Love & Anarchy 38th Helsinki International Film Festival (HIFF)

    Viewed at Kinopalatsi 2, Helsinki, Fri 26.9.2025 at 15.45–17.45 

SEX DREAMS LOVE

Sex, 17 Feb 2024 Berlin International Film Festival

Drømmer, 23 Sep 2024 Oslo, 19 Feb 2025 Berlin International Film Festival

Kjærlighet, 6 Sep 2024 Venice Film Festival

In some posters the three films are called the Oslo Trilogy, but the official Oslo Trilogy is by Joachim Trier: Reprise (2006), Oslo, 31. august (2011) and Verdens verste menneske (2021). Also three films by Erik Poppe have been called an Oslo Trilogy: Schpaaa (1998), Hawaii, Oslo (2004) and De usynlige (2008).

Sanni Myllyaho (HIFF 2025): "Give way, Paris – Oslo is now the city of love. The summer night is full of possibilities, as strangers seek eye contact with each other on a ferry in the Oslo archipelago. In Dag Johan Haugerud’s film Love, Marianne, a doctor specialised in urology, and her nurse co-worker, Tor, are both exploring what it’s like to have your own kind of love life."

"Marianne is fully content with her life as a self-reliant woman, when her friend sets her up with a geologist, with whom sparks suddenly start flying. However, at their age everyone has their baggage. The geologist has his children, and as a neighbour his ex-wife, who enjoys wine a little too much. Marianne isn’t sure whether she wants to be a part of any of it. Tor, for one, only likes casual sex, until caring and affection start creeping into one of his encounters."

"Love is the second part of Haugerud’s Oslo trilogy, consisting of independent films (or third part, depending on Haugerud’s mood during the interview). Where the first part, Sex (R&A 2024 and 2025), showcases manhood and sexuality, Love fantasises what loving and wanting can look like at an older age, if you don’t let society’s expectations restrain you."

"Haugerud’s films (I Belong, R&A 2013; Beware of Children, R&A 2020) examine relationships cleverly and without judgement, and are always an occasion for the fans of mild-mannered dramas. Love is no exception." Sanni Myllyaho (translated by Vilja Hynynen)

"Väisty Pariisi, Oslo on nyt rakkauden pääkaupunki. Kesäyö on täynnä mahdollisuuksia, kun Oslon saariston yhteyslautalla haetaan katsekontaktia vieraiden ihmisten kanssa. Urologian erikoislääkäri Marianne ja tämän työpari, sairaanhoitaja Tor tutkivat kumpikin tahoillaan, minkälaista on elää omannäköistä rakkauselämää Dag Johan Haugerudin elokuvassa Love."

"Marianne on täysin tyytyväinen elämäänsä itsellisenä naisena, kunnes ystävän järjestämällä tapaamisella geologin kanssa yllättäen kipinöi. Tässä iässä itse kullakin on kuitenkin painolastinsa. Geologilla on lapset ja naapurina ex-vaimo, jolle viini maistuu vähän liian hyvin, eikä Marianne ole varma, haluaako hän mitään osaa heistä. Tor taas vannoo irtoseksin nimeen, kunnes erääseen kohtaamiseen alkaa sekoittua huolenpitoa ja välittämistä."

"Love on Haugerudin itsenäisistä elokuvista koostuvan Oslo-trilogian toinen osa (tai kolmas riippuen siitä, millä tuulella Haugerud on haastattelua antaessaan). Siinä missä ensimmäinen osa Sex (R&A 2024 & 2025) käsittelee mieheyttä ja seksuaalisuutta, Love fantasioi, mitä rakastaminen ja haluaminen voivat olla varttuneemmalla iällä, jos yhteiskunnan odotusten ei anna rajoittaa."

"Haugerudin (I Belong, R&A 2013; Lapset, R&A 2020) ihmissuhteita älykkäästi ja tuomitsematta tarkkailevat elokuvat ovat aina tapaus vähäeleisten draamojen ystäville, eikä Love ole tässä poikkeus." Sanni Myllyaho

AA: The main action in the films in Dag Johan Haugerud's trilogy is conversation, but each has also great imagery. In Sex the protagonists are chimney sweeps and thus we have the rooftops, the sky and the horizon. In Dreams, there is the contrast between urban Oslo architecture and the magic of the forest. In Love, the most memorable visual motif is the ferry. A main character is a geologist, and we get a discourse on Oslo geology. The rock solid foundation of the city and the Atlantic seafront are the key elements of the vision.

Éric Rohmer was asked the question why people talk so much in his movies, and his answer was simply that the people whom he knows love to talk, so what would be more natural than to have a lot of dialogue. Haugerud's films are based on the same conviction. When people start to talk they reveal more of themselves than they may realize, and in dialogue they may get insights which might otherwise have remained unexplored.

Love is the best and most profound movie in Haugerud's trilogy. Sex was about the fluidity of orientation: even if you are heterosexual does not mean that you cannot feel the other way. Dreams was about the awakening of young sexuality, still groping in the darkness. It was also about the zone of transgression and the professional limits of abstinence of the grown-up. 

Love is about the life of unattached grown-ups in the world of Tinder and Grindr. It also discusses the professional's duty of avoiding transgression, this time with a patient. The urologist Marianne's life as a child of divorce may explain her unwillingness to become attached. She hesitates to have a relationship with a father of small children. She acts out of character and has a one night stand with a casual acquaintance. Her colleague, the gay nurse Tor has been a swinger all his life, but he starts a serious non-sexual affair with a patient, Bjørn, whose cancerous prostate has been operated.

Through Tor, Marianne learns about male trouble related to the prostate: it is essential in penetrative gay sex. To lose it is a double loss. Through Bjørn we learn about gay history. Just when Bjørn came out in 1988, news about AIDS became widespread. Now, just as he has lost his prostate, there are news about a new HIV vaccine.

A touch of humor emerges from the reactions of Marianne's best friend Heidi, who in the beginning seems like a spirit of liberation in her introduction to Oslo as a city of love. She acts as the matchmaker between Marianne and the geologist Ole Harald and is shocked to learn that Marianne distances herself from him and instead enjoys a one night stand with Snekkeren, the carpenter.

It is about free love and committed love. Love is serious business, and most serious when children are involved.

The End (2024)

Joshua Oppenheimer: The End (DK/SE/IE/DE/IT/GB 2024). The world has ended. Mother (Tilda Swinton) and Father (Michael Shannon) mount a masquerade in their underground lair.

AA: Joshua Oppenheimer's The End is about the age of denial. We know that there is no future in the way we live now, yet go on living like before.

Denmark, Sweden, Ireland, Germany, Italy, United Kingdom, United States 2024

Director: Joshua Oppenheimer

Cinematographer: Mikhail Krichman – 2.35:1

Starring: Tilda Swinton, George MacKay, Moses Ingram, Bronagh Gallagher

Costume design: Frauke Firl. Tilda Swinton had access to the entire Chanel archive.

Art credits: The End belongs to films where an extensive list of art is displayed and credited. The credit list flashes by so fast that it is impossible to read. Included are:

– C. W. Eckersberg (1783-1853): Studie af skyer over Øresund / Study of Clouds over the Sound (1826). Oil on canvas. 322 x 441 mm. Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen.

– Vilhelm Hammershøi: Kvinde set fra ryggen / Woman Seen from the Back (1888). Oil on canvas. 635 x 555 mm. Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen.

– American luminist landscape painters Albert Bierstadt and Martin Johnson Heade. "We chose American luminist paintings, to serve as windows onto a lost nature that never really existed. But the key to American luminism is that you don’t see the brushstrokes." (Oppenheimer).

– The French Impressionists Monet, Morisot and Renoir.

Composers: Marius De Vries, Josh Schmidt

Lyrics: Joshua Oppenheimer, turning prose poems into songs in collaboration with the composer Josh Schmidt

148 min

    Languages: English, French

    Distributor: Danish Film Institute, Making Movies, Scandinavian Film Distribution, subtitles: partly English

    World premiere: 31 Aug 2024 Telluride.

    Love & Anarchy 38th Helsinki International Film Festival (HIFF)

    Viewed at Savoy-teatteri, Thu 25.9.2025 at 17.45–20.13 

Telluride Film Festival 2024: Jason Silverman: "In Joshua Oppenheimer’s post-apocalyptic story, a wealthy family, living underground in a palatial bunker, goes through its daily motions. Mother (Tilda Swinton), Father (Michael Shannon) and their 20-year-old son (George MacKay)—who has never seen the outside world—read, redecorate the rooms, swim laps and keep up appearances, even with no one looking. They’ve survived the destruction of the civilized world—a crime in which Father played a key role—and have been able to avoid contemplating the damage they’ve done. And then, a stranger arrives. How can they express their feelings, hidden underground? They sing. What? Oppenheimer (whose films ACT OF KILLING and LOOK OF SILENCE revolutionized the documentary form) has created a Golden Age musical for an unthinkable era, a time not so different from ours. Modest and extravagant, a miniature and a megalith, THE END is a considered masterpiece. –JS (Ireland-Germany-Italy-Sweden-Denmark-UK, 2024, 148m) In person: Joshua Oppenheimer, Signe Byrge Sørensen, George MacKay, Moses Ingram, Michael Shannon"

Otto Kylmälä (HIFF 2025): "Tilda Swinton dazzles in Joshua Oppenheimer’s satirical anti-musical, which follows a family that has fled the post-apocalyptic world into a luxury bunker."

"25 years after the environment collapsed, a mother, father and son are living in isolation in a luxury bunker in the bowels of a salt mine, clinging to hope and the remains of a normal life by repetitive routines. All things run their course until a young woman enters the family’s closed world."

"Instead of feeling claustrophobic, the bunker home is adorned with valuable paintings and elegant decorative objects. The impressionist masterpieces, however, are not windows to the outside world, but distorted snapshots, like the worldview of the people who have been living underground for decades. To stay sane, the inhabitants of the bunker have been recycling the same stories and lies, but the arrival of the woman reveals the tensions simmering beneath the surface, and the family’s seemingly harmonious life gradually begins to unravel."

"Having drawn on genres and styles in his award-winning documentaries The Act of Killing (R&A 2013) and The Look of Silence (R&A 2014), Oppenheimer now uses the musical to create satirical layers to his post-apocalyptic survival story. The escapist genre is an ingenious way to depict people trying to keep up appearances and live on the edge of a devastated world as if nothing has happened. The world burns and “all is well.“" Otto Kylmälä (translated by Moritz Müller)

"Tilda Swinton säväyttää Joshua Oppenheimerin satiirisessa antimusikaalissa, joka seuraa post-apokalyptista maailmaa luksusbunkkeriin karannutta perhettä."

"25 vuotta ympäristön romahtamisen jälkeen äiti (Tilda Swinton), isä (Michael Shannon) ja poika (George MacKay) elävät eristyksissä ylellisessä bunkkerissa suolakaivoksen uumenissa pitäen kiinni toivosta ja normaalin elämän rippeistä toistuvien rutiinien avulla. Kaikki rullaa omalla painollaan, kunnes heidän suljettuun maailmaansa saapuu nuori nainen (Moses Ingram)."

"Seurueen bunkkeri ei tunnu klaustrofobiselta, vaan tyylikkäästi sisustetun kodin seiniä koristavat arvotaulut ja elegantit koriste-esineet. Impressionismin mestariteokset eivät kuitenkaan ole ikkunoita ulkomaailmaan, vaan vääristyneitä kuvajaisia, kuten vuosikymmeniä maan alla asuneiden ihmisten maailmankuvakin. Pysyäkseen järjissään bunkkerin asukkaat ovat kierrättäneet samoja tarinoita ja valheita, mutta naisen saapuminen paljastaa pinnan alla kytevät jännitteet, ja perheen näennäisen harmoninen elämä alkaa vähitellen hajota."

"Palkituissa dokumenttielokuvissaan The Act of Killing (R&A 2013) ja The Look of Silence (R&A 2014) tyylittelyä ja genre-elementtejä hyödyntänyt Joshua Oppenheimer käyttää musikaalia luomaan satiirisia tasoja post-apokalyptiseen selviytymistarinaansa. Eskapistinen lajityyppi on nerokas tapa kuvata ihmisiä, jotka yrittävät ylläpitää kulisseja ja elää tuhoutuneen maailman reunalla kuin mitään ei olisi tapahtunut. Maailma palaa ja ”kaikki on hyvin”." Otto Kylmälä

IMDb: "Joshua Oppenheimer described the film as an exploration of whether we as human beings can come to a place where our guilt is too much to recover from our pasts."

Wikipedia definition: "an apocalyptic musical film". 

Wikipedia lists 16 films sharing the title The End.

Opening motto:

The houses are all gone under the sea.

The dancers are all gone under the hill.

– from T. S. Eliot: Four Quartets (1943) [East Coker, 1940]

AA: Joshua Oppenheimer has compared his movie with Oliver Hirschbiegel's Downfall (Der Untergang, DE/AT/IT 2004) about the last days of Hitler. He has also said that we already live in the bunker.

It's the story of the last family on Earth, 25 years after the end of the world. They live in a luxury hideaway in an abandoned saltmine. It resembles a James Bond villain's lair. The walls are lined with the greatest art. They have a cook (Bronagh Gallagher), a butler (Tim McInnerny) and a doctor (Lennie James) who keeps them medicated with sleeping pills and antidepressants. 

There is a swimming pool, a greenhouse and an aquarium. The 20 year old son (George MacKay) was born here and has never been elsewhere. He builds a diorama about the Western Civilization under the Hollywood sign. He has all the time in the world. Guided by the doctor they conduct emergency rehearsals.

We don't know their names, but the mother (Tilda Swinton) is a former Bolshoi ballerina and the father (Michael Shannon) used to be one of the greatest oil tycoons. The grand piano should be tuned. The vintage wine has lost its flavour. The son is ghostwriting his father's memoirs in which he explains away his responsibility in the apocalypse. 

They carry Magnum firearms and do target practice in case an intruder appears. Exactly that happens, when a young Black girl (Moses Ingram) is found lying exhausted in the tunnel. According to the family protocol, she should be expelled, but she does not give up, and is invited to join.

In her presence everything needs an explanation, and repressed traumata come to the fore. They are too much for the cook, who requests a little pill from the doctor and is found dead in the morning. On the other hand, the Son, who has never seen a woman of his own age before, develops tender feelings with the Girl. In the finale there is a celebration. The Mother and the Father are now proud grandparents.

Like Emilia Pérez and Armand, The End belongs to the peculiar "back to the musical" trend in contemporary cinema. It belongs also to an appealing tradition of film directors as songwriters. 

It is stimulating to view The End and even more stimulating to read Oppenheimer's interviews. Immediately after the film I do not know what to think about it. The vision is powerful and Oppenheimer's mission is the greatest. Musical eccentricity does not save it from being boring. It is more stimulating afterwards. Like medicine: not good, but good for us.

In all his films Oppenheimer wants to expose our inherent tendency to lie. Like on the eve of the First World War we are sleepwalkers just when we should wake up. Our tendency to lie now leads to final destruction. Our greatest hope is in children and the young people. But nobody can remain complacent. Unless we fight, we are complicit. This is no time to be divisive. Everybody must be welcome.

E (in person: Anna Eriksson)

Anna Eriksson: E (FI 2025). Shot in the Kalahari desert.

Finland 2025.

Director: Anna Eriksson

Starring: Anna Eriksson, Parco Lee, Johrne Van Huyssteen, Jooseppi Pyykkö, Johannes Haasbroek

Languages: English, Swedish

86 min

    Distributor: Pirkanmaan elokuvakeskus, subtitles: Finnish, English

    Love & Anarchy 38th Helsinki International Film Festival (HIFF)

    In person: Anna Eriksson. Hosted by Pekka Lanerva. With Juha Elomäki, Matti Pyykkö, Vivan Manat, Elia Husten, Marlena Gröngård, Parco Lee, Jooseppi Pyykkö, Elina Pelin, Tuomas Seppänen, Teijo Pellinen, Pietari Kaakkomäki. [spelling unchecked]. Q&A hosted by Mari Mantela.

    Viewed at Kinopalatsi 1, Helsinki, Wed 24.9.2025 at 18.30–19.56

Joonas Nykänen (HIFF 2025): "In the climax of Anna Eriksson’s film trilogy, Finland’s former Prime Minister causes a scandal at the Nobel Gala and vanishes into the desert of reality."

"Anna Eriksson’s latest work of art, E, the climax of her letter trilogy. The electric nightmare peppered with self-aware dark humour brings some much needed nervous vibrations into Finnish cinema, a restlessness reminiscent of von Trier, Lynch, Denis, Bergman and even Żuławski."

"Rhythm, soundscape, shot composition. Models. Unlike anything we’ve seen before in our periphery. Eriksson’s work is on a stellar plane of its own: unique and endlessly fascinating. More distilled emotion than feigned sentimentality, more a stick of dynamite than ordinary sticky art."

"As a film about dunes, it far surpasses the recent overinflated Hollywood spectacles. E is a reminder that much before all that commercial nonsense films like Woman in the Dunes (1964) were made."

"Eriksson’s film is something completely different from the harmless dreams we are used to seeing in Finnish cinema. Merely the fact that it does not attempt to cheaply dilute children’s Hollywood fluff is a delightful promise about the new direction of Finnish film as something other than an echo of American cinema." Joonas Nykänen (translated by Adrian Murtomäki)

"Anna Erikssonin elokuvatrilogian huipennuksessa Suomen ex-pääministeri aiheuttaa skandaalin Nobel-gaalassa ja katoaa todellisuuden autiomaahan."

"Anna Erikssonin tuorein taideteos E, kirjaintrilogian kliimaksi, sähköinen painajainen, jonka pimeä huumori uskaltaa nauraa itselleen, tuo kotimaiseen elokuvaan kaivattua hermostunutta väreilyä, samankaltaista levottomuutta, jota voi löytää von Trieriltä, Lynchiltä, Denisiltä, Bergmanilta tai jopa Żuławskilta."

"Rytmi, äänimaisema, kuvasommittelu. Mallit. Mitään tällaista emme ole vielä periferiassamme aiemmin nähneet. Erikssonin teos on täysin oma tähtensä: omaperäinen ja pohjattoman mielenkiintoinen. Enemmänkin tislattua tunnetta kuin teeskenneltyä tunteilua, enemmänkin TNT:tä kuin tavallista tahnaista taidetta."

"Se on myös dyynielokuvana mielenkiintoisempi kuin tuoreimmat ylipitkät Hollywood-dyynitehostespektaakkelit. E muistuttaa, että paljon ennen tuota kaupallista höttöä tehtiin sellaisiakin elokuvia kuin Dyynien daami (1964)."

"Erikssonin elokuva on jotain muuta kuin sitä harmitonta unta, johon olemme kotimaisessa elokuvassa tottuneet. Jo siinä, ettei se lähde halpahintaisesti laimentamaan lapsille suunnattua Hollywood-hattaraa, on ilahduttava lupaus kotimaisen elokuvan uudesta suunnasta muunakin kuin yhdysvaltalaisen elokuvan kaikuna ja kopiona." Joonas Nykänen

AA: Anna Eriksson's E is a desert movie, and this desert looks different from the others.

Eriksson and her cinematographer husband Matti Pyykkö only show the desert, never the sky.

William K. Everson commented on the two greatest masters of the Western by saying that in William S. Hart's cinema land (often a desert) is the dominant motif and the skyline is high in the frame. With John Ford, the skyline is low, and the action unfolds under a wide open sky.

In E, there is no sky at all. No higher powers. No transcendence.

Eriksson & Pyykkö only shot at dusk. This is no dazzling brilliant Sahara desert like in Lawrence of Arabia or Io capitano.

In modern and modernist cinema, the desert was a prominent landscape-soulscape particularly in Michelangelo Antonioni's movies Il deserto rosso, Zabriskie Point and Profession: Reporter. The last mentioned is also, like E, about a loss of identity and doubles. The void has a multiple meaning. It reflects the emptiness of contemporary life but also a freedom and purity from which something new may emerge.

I was intrigued about the meaning of Eriksson's letter trilogy M - W - E. I was thinking about Agatha Christie's The ABC Murders, filmed by Frank Tashlin as The Alphabet Murders. Those murders are linked to double initials, as were the subsequent real-life Alphabet murders (the Double Initial murders). But I was also thinking about Georges Perec's Oulipo novel Life: A User's Manual with its letter games.

In the Q&A after the screening, Mari Mantela asked Eriksson the question, and the answer was L'Hôpital de la Salpêtrière. Eriksson had been impressed by Asti Hustvedt's book Medical Muses: the Culture of Hysteria in Nineteenth-Century Paris (2011) in which it turns out that the patients were called by a capital letter only.

This gets me to thinking about the trilogy again. M was about a parallel being to Marilyn Monroe, though clearly not her. The protagonist of W was Madame Europa. The main person of E is Eva Vogler, a public figure who has stopped speaking like Elisabet Vogler in Ingmar Bergman's Persona. Bergman was fascinated by the fact that "persona" means "mask". Eriksson is fascinated by another Jungian concept, "the shadow", who can take over, with the consequence that we transform into a shadow of our former self. This takeover is acute in contemporary "social media".

Eva Vogler seems to be a parallel being or parasite for Sanna Marin, in a ludicrous way. I do not know what to think about this. Is this about a woman being a wolf to a woman? It does not make sense. But this is about a parallel reality / unreality, in which the Nobel Peace Prize gala has been transferred from Oslo to Stockholm.

I, the incorrigible sociologist, think that 19th century hysteria such as treated at la Salpêtrière, was a valid reaction to the oppression of women at the time: no political rights, no property rights, education restricted, many professions off limits, husband in charge of everything, with no safe contraception or abortion, rape and harassment unbridled. Men were free to explore, women, who mature earlier, were repressed in their natural desire for happiness.

The opening involves the anasyrma: exposing one's genitals or derrière with the intention of disgrace and outrage. (We only hear about it. The film never leaves the desert.) Anasyrma is an ancient tradition, also in Finnish heritage and culture (here called harakointi), famously in Aleksis Kivi's play The Betrothal, where Herrojen Eeva exposes her yoni to the horrified menfolk. In the cinema the part was played by the formidable Mirjami Kuosmanen, known to her closest by the nickname "Hurjami" [untranslatable, it means "the wild one"].

Anna Eriksson is "Hurjami" reincarnated.

Erik Blomberg: Kihlaus / The Betrothal (FI 1955). Herrojen Eeva (Mirjami Kuosmanen) performs the anasyrma / harakointi to Tailor Eenokki (Heimo Lepistö).

Gallen-Kallela, Klimt & Wien (2025 exhibition at Ateneum)

Gustav Klimt: Amalie Zuckerkandl (1917/1918). 128 x 128 cm. Öl auf Leinwand. 1988 Widmung Vita & Gustav Künstler. Österreichische Galerie Belvedere, Wien. Photo: Johannes Stoll / Belvedere, Vienna. The feminist journalist and salonnière Amalie Zuckerkandl was a Christian who converted to Judaism to marry the surgeon and urologist, Dr. Otto Zuckerkandl. The marriage ended in 1919. Under the Nuremberg Racial Laws she was murdered, together with her daughter Hermine Müller-Hofmann, in 1942 in the Bełžec concentration camp.

Gallen-Kallela, Klimt & Wien (2025). The handsome Ateneum Art Museum exhibition catalogue has been published in three language editions (Finnish, Swedish, English). See publication details below.

EXHIBITION: GALLEN-KALLELA, KLIMT & WIEN

Ateneum Art Museum, Helsinki, 26 Sep 2025-1 Feb 2026.

Kaivokatu 2, 00100 Helsinki.

Partners: Belvedere (Vienna) and Klimt Foundation (Vienna)

Anna-Maria von Bonsdorff, Museum Director

Anu Utriainen, Curator

Dr. Arnika Groenewald-Schmidt (Belvedere), Advisor 

See exhibition credits below.

    Visited at the press conference, 24 Sep 2025.

Amalie Zuckerkandl's sister Berta was a Viennese art critic who covered the Viennese Secession scene, also registering the Finn Axel Gallen as belonging to that scene. 

"At the time, in the early bloom of the Secession and the glorious Gustav Mahler epoch, so-called parties would be held at our home or at Karl Moll's whenever foreign artists, who had been streaming to Vienna since the establishment of the Secession, were around."

"In Klimt's studio or Kolo Moser's workshop, where the differences were strongly felt, where the shared ideas began timidly and gently to germinate. The great commonality of modern art that, while rooted in national sensitivity, reveals its noblest blossoms in the transnational realm. Axel Gallen's robust freshness had a powerful effect on Klimt. For his part, Gallen took strength from the architectural rigour and the art of combining stylization with nature that characterized Klimt but also ennobled Kolo Moser's work to such a marked degree. And that was expressed most strongly in Josef Hoffmann's nature." (Berta Zuckerkandl, Neues Wiener Journal, 22 March 1931, quoted by Arnika Groenewald-Schmidt)

Insights such are these are of the essence in a new magnificent exhibition at Ateneum Art Museum, the Finnish National Gallery. The Wiener Secession is well-known, and Gustav Klimt (1862-1918) a household name, but this is the first time in the Nordic countries that a major exhibition of the Wiener Secession is mounted. 

Curated by Anu Utriainen (Ateneum) and Dr. Arnika Groenewald-Schmidt (Belvedere, Vienna), the ambition is high and wide. Art was a major factor in a transformation in the entire way of life. The Secession wanted to cover all arts in a harmonic vision of total art. It was not a style but covered a wealth of styles. Besides traditional arts such as painting, the Secession embraced photography, prints, architecture and design, including costume design. It could be private and sensual, but also monumental. In landscapes, transcendence was reflected. In portraying the past, a mythical dimension was prominent. 

In Klimt's work, the main subject is the woman, endlessly inspiring as the force of life, often nude, sensual and erotic. Male gaze indeed, but a gaze of admiration and adoration. I don't find in it a gaze of objectification, instead it is a loving gaze. In costume design and portraits, we register a liberation of women. Gustav Klimt's life partner was Emilie Flöge (1874-1952), couturière, fashion designer, boutique owner and businesswoman. Fashion and art were inseparable. While the Secession was not a particular style, it was about style in general. I am reminded of a Jean Cocteau quote that was evoked in obituaries of Giorgio Armani (1934-2025): "Style is a simple way of saying complex things".

There is such a wealth in the treasure collection of the exhibition that it is a good idea to catch one's breath in the café in the third floor exhibition area and examine the stylish exhibition catalogue.

A revelation and a discovery is on display for the first time: a large-size Gustav Klimt portfolio of 50 de luxe prints (collotypes, heliographs) with gold finishing that belongs to the Finnish National Library. The copy is unique because it is complete and in perfect condition. Curated and overseen by Klimt himself as his final work, it is an overview to his most beloved works. On an everyman scale, you can buy a pack of Gustav Klimt playing cards with roughly the same impact in miniature. Klimt's work always has a graphic dimension which means that they are scalable.

...

OFFICIAL INTRODUCTION

Towards a New, Freer Conception of Art

Der Zeit ihre Kunst. Der Kunst ihre Freiheit.
 

To every age its art, to every art its freedom.
 

(Ludwig Hevesi)
 

The young artists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries wanted to make a radical break away from what they considered to be outdated art ideals and move towards a new, freer conception of art. The most famous example of such a departure is the Vienna Secession, which was founded in 1897 under the direction of Gustav Klimt. 

The Gallen-Kallela, Klimt & Wien exhibition will present artists with whom Akseli Gallen-Kallela collaborated and in whose exhibitions he participated. At the beginning of the 20th century, Vienna was a pulsating hub of new ideas, styles and international influences, attracting artists from various fields all over Europe. The efforts of these artists to reform art and the world of art are highlighted in the exhibition, which will feature both modern art and design. 

The main goal of the Secessionists was the equality of all art forms. Visual art, architecture, crafts, design and fashion were to represent a changed and modern world. The Secessionists were united by the development of a new identity and way of life, as well as an interest in large public works of art and the depiction of beauty. Secessionism was an expansive but not unified art movement. Rather, it incorporated a broad array of styles and a striving for both stylisation and simplification. 

The exhibition will feature works, for example, by the following artists and designers: Emilie Flöge, Akseli Gallen-Kallela, Ferdinand Hodler, Josef Hoffmann, Gustav Klimt, Broncia Koller-Pinell, Max Kurzweil, Elena Luksch-Makowsky, Koloman Moser, Edvard Munch, and Egon Schiele. 

The Gallen-Kallela, Klimt & Wien exhibition will be realised in collaboration with the Belvedere art museum in Vienna. The exhibition is curated by the chief curator at the Ateneum, Anu Utriainen in cooperation with Arnika Groenewald-Schmidt, PhD (Belvedere). There will be an exhibition catalogue published in Finnish, Swedish and English. 

...

The exhibition’s production group

PROJECT LEADER Maikki Lavikkala 

CURATOR Anu Utriainen 

ADVISOR Arnika Groenewald-Schmidt (Belvedere) 

COORDINATION Anna Pirkkalainen 

EXHIBITION DESIGN Osmo Leppälä 

GRAPHIC DESIGN Osmo Leppälä • Tuija Kuusela • Suvi Wirman  

PUBLIC PROGRAMMES Karoliina Arola • Elina Battarbee • Satu Itkonen • Heidi Mikkola • Erica Othman   

COMMUNICATIONS AND MARKETING Reetta Haarajoki • Anna Kari • Saara Myllymäki • Suvi Rusanen • Jaana Rosenlew • Emma Valjakka  

MUSEUM TECHNICIANS Anssi Ahlgrén • Alina Arkonkoski • Mikko Hallikainen • Timo Hiltunen • Hannu Ikola • Mika Immonen • Kari-Petteri Kakko • Martti Kervinen • Kaisa Kivinen • Raimo Lehtomaa • Reine Lukinmaa • Mikko Martikainen • Jussi Pakkala • Isa Päivinen • Sami Rautio • Jürgen Sachau • Jyrki Vahteristo • Mikko Viinikainen • Topi Vähäsarja  

LIGHTING Timo Nurminen • Johanna Naalisvaara  

CONSERVATION Kirsi Hiltunen • Pia Hurri • Liisa Kantanen • Seppo Laakkonen • Linda Linden • Ilona Osara • Jenna Parkkila-Mäki • Minna Rajaniemi • Henrietta Savonius • Kaisu Voutilainen • Riitta Vuori  

PHOTOGRAPHY Ainur Nasretdin • Jenni Nurminen • Hannu Pakarinen • Aleks Talve

...

GALLEN-KALLELA, KLIMT & WIEN CATALOGUE

Gallen-Kallela, Klimt & Wien exhibition at Ateneum 26.9.2025–1.2.2026.

Early 20th-century Vienna was a vibrant and highly international centre for the arts and sciences that brought artists from a variety of disciplines together with other influential cultural figures. What they shared was a commitment to artistic reform and to embracing all forms of art as equal. It was in Vienna that Akseli Gallen-Kallela made the acquaintance of Gustav Klimt, a founder member of the Vienna Secession, a movement that represented a modern approach to art.

The Secessionists were engaged in the pursuit of what they called the Gesamtkunstwerk, a ‘total work of art’ integrating different art forms, from painting and architecture to design, music and literature, to create an aesthetic and harmonious whole. Akseli Gallen-Kallela, too, shared this aim. Highly regarded by the Secessionists, he was invited to show his works at the group’s exhibitions in Vienna in 1901 and 1904.

The articles in this Ateneum exhibition catalogue illustrate Gallen-Kallela’s role within the wider European art scene and position him in the context of this international movement that challenged not only the artistic conventions of the day but the way people lived their lives. Expert contributors explore the work of the movement’s central figures, shedding light on the influence they came to exert on modern Finnish artists and designers.

Publisher: Finnish National Gallery / Ateneum Art Museum, 2025.

Editors: Hanne Selkokari (editor) & Lene Wahlsten (photo editor).

Graphic design: Tuija Kuusela.

Writers: Anu Utriainen, Teppo Jokinen, Sandra Tretter, Peter Weinhäupl, Arnika Groenewald-Schmidt, Marja Lahelma, Leena Svinhufvud, Alexander Klee & Hanne Selkokari.

ISBN 978-952-7371-84-8

Size 21 x 26 cm, 180 pages.

Hardcover.

Three editions: Finnish, Swedish and English.

Sirât

Óliver Laxe: Sirât (ES/FR 2025). Stefania Gadda (Stef), Joshua Liam Henderson (Josh), Richard Bellamy (Bigui), Sergi López (Luis).

Spain, France 2025. PC: 4 A 4 Productions / El Deseo / Filmes da Ermida / Movistar Plus+ / Uri Films. P: Agustín Almodóvar, Pedro Almodóvar, Domingo Corral, Xavi Font, Óliver Laxe, Oriol Maymó, Mani Mortazavi, César Pardiñas, Andrea Queralt

Director: Óliver Laxe

Cinematographer: Mauro Herce - Super 16 mm

Music: Kangding Ray

Starring: Sergi López, Bruno Núñez, Richard Bellamy, Stefania Gadda

    115 min

    Loc: Morocco (Errachidia, Erfoud), Teruel (Rambla de Barrachina), Zaragoza. 

    Languages: Spanish, English, French, Arabic

    The Spanish submission for the Best International Feature Film at the 98th Academy Awards.

    Distributor: Cinema Mondo, Subtitles: Finnish, Swedish

    Love & Anarchy 38th Helsinki International Film Festival (HIFF)

    Love & Anarchy Gala: Sirât, hosted by Pekka Lanerva and Inari Ylinen.

Viewed at Bio Rex Lasipalatsi, Helsinki, Tue 23.9.2025 at 18.15–20.10 

Mika Siltala (HIFF 2025): "In this mind-blowing film, a father, looking for his daughter with his son at a desert rave, are drawn into a perilous journey steeped in apocalyptic undertones."

"Large numbers of weather-beaten loudspeakers are piled on top of each other in the Moroccan dessert. The towers of loudspeakers look Lilliputian compared to the surrounding canyon. Kangding Ray’s music blasts out into the air. These canyons speak the language of subwoofers."

"Suddenly the canyon is filled with people. These raves are not about showing off, but rather a lifestyle. A father (Sergi López) with his young son in tow, arrive there looking for his lost daughter. They show a photo of the lost girl Mar to everyone they pass, and hear about a new rave farther out in the desert. This is the beginning of a mind-blowing journey beyond all expectations."

"In May, Sirât won the Jury Prize and the Cannes Soundtrack Award at the Cannes Film Festival. It has already become a hit in the director’s home country Spain, and the reviews around the world have been overwhelmingly positive. Director Óliver Laxe produced the film together with Pedro Almodóvar and Agustín Almodóvar. In addition to the Love & Anarchy Gala, Sirât will be screened in a special screening at the Toronto International Film Festival and in the New York Film Festival’s main selection. Is this the next The Substance?" Mika Siltala (translated by Charlotte Elo)

"Aavikkoreiveiltä tytärtään poikansa kanssa etsivä isä vedetään mukaan vaaralliselle matkalle maailmanlopun tunnelmiin vievässä, tajunnanräjäyttävässä elokuvassa."

"Rankasti kuluneen oloisia kaiuttimia kootaan jättitorneiksi Marokon erämaassa. Tornit näyttävät mitättömiltä valtavassa kanjonissa. Kangding Rayn musiikki räjähtää ilmoille. Nämä kanjonit ymmärtävät subwoofereiden kieltä."

"Äkkiä kanjoni on täynnä. Näissä reiveissä ei ole kysymys muotinäytöksestä, vaan elämäntavasta. Paikalle saapuu kadonnutta tytärtään etsivä isä (Sergi López) pienen poikansa kanssa. He näyttävät kadonneen Marin kuvaa kaikille vastaantulijoille ja kuulevat uusista reiveistä yhä kauempana aavikolla. Alkaa tajunnanräjäyttävä matka yli kaikkien odotusten."

"Sirât palkittiin toukokuussa Cannesin elokuvajuhlilla tuomariston palkinnolla sekä soundtrackistaan. Ohjaajan kotimaassa Espanjassa se on jo noussut hitiksi, ja arviot ympäri maailman ovat olleet ylistäviä. Ohjaaja Óliver Laxe on tuottanut elokuvan yhdessä Pedro Almodóvarin ja Agustín Almodóvarin kanssa. R&A-gaalan lisäksi Sirât nähdään Toronton elokuvajuhlien erikoisnäytöksessä ja New Yorkin elokuvafestivaalin pääsarjassa. Onko tässä uusi The Substance?" Mika Siltala

AA: Óliver Laxe's Sirât is a film about the last trance rave at the end of the world.

We are on the road to nowhere, dancing ourselves to the end of love, slaves to the rhythm, lost in music.

A road movie with an offbeat cast and a stark sense of the primordial landscape.

It is about a father's (Sergi López) quest of his lost daughter. He never finds her. Instead, he loses even his son and dog.

During the journey, World War Three breaks out. The site of the last rave turns out to be a minefield. The sequence is relevant to the Ottawa Treaty (the mine ban convention).

We follow a small group (self-described freaks, even wearing Tod Browning imagery) driving through the desert and precarious mountain roads. There are also engrossing crowd sequences of the first giant rave in Burning Man style, the convoy of the evacuees and the final flight on a train roof.

I pause to think about Sorcerer, but the poetic vision of Sirât is original. It is formidable but never cynical. A sense of dignity and humanity shines through.

In die Sonne schauen / Sound of Falling

Mascha Schilinski: In die Sonne schauen / Sound of Falling (DE 2025).

Putoamisen ääni / Sound of Falling (title in Sweden).

Germany 2025

Director: Mascha Schilinski

Starring: Luise Heyer, Lena Urzendowsky, Claudia Geisler-Bading, Lea Drinda, Susanne Wuest

    Languages: German

    Distributor: Cinemanse, MK2 Films, subtitles: English

    155 min

    Love & Anarchy 38th Helsinki International Film Festival (HIFF)

    Groundbreaker Gala screening hosted by Ouri Rehn and Inari Ylinen

    Viewed at Bio Rex Lasipalatsi, Helsinki, Mon 22.9.2025 at 18.00–20.35

Inari Ylinen (HIFF 2025): "This epic that instantly placed Mascha Schilinski among the top tier of arthouse cinema entwines the fates of four generations of women and girls on the same German farm."

"R&A’s Groundbreaker Gala film is the critically acclaimed Sound of Falling, which catapulted director Mascha Schilinski into the spotlight following its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival. The film won the Jury Prize at the festival, firmly establishing the German filmmaker’s place among the stars of European art cinema—with only her second feature-length film."

"Sound of Falling is a century-spanning epic that follows the lives of young women and girls across generations on the same German farm. Covering nearly a century of German history, the film only allows historical upheavals to echo faintly into the closed-off world of the farm. The interwoven stories gradually reveal their connections to the viewer."

"The pale-haired Alma lives at the dawn of the 20th century; teenager Erika appears in the 1940s, under the shadow of the Second World War. Rebellious young Angelika comes of age in a divided Germany during the 1980s, while Lenka lives in the present day. Cruel fates, horrors witnessed through keyholes by children’s eyes, and dust-covered photographs tell the story of characters trying to find their place in a society where women’s roles are tightly confined."

"A haunting and breathtaking film, Sound of Falling leaves the audience stunned—and lingers in the mind long after the theatre lights come up." Inari Ylinen

"Mascha Schilinskin arthouse-elokuvan ykköskaartiin kertaheitolla nostanut eepos kietoo yhteen neljä sukupolvea naisten ja tyttöjen kohtaloita samalla saksalaisella maatilalla."

"R&A:n Läpimurtogaalan elokuvana nähdään kriitikoiden maasta taivaisiin ylistämä Sound of Falling, joka nosti ohjaaja Mascha Schilinskin nimen kaikkien huulille ensi-illassaan Cannesin elokuvajuhlilla. Se voitti festivaalilla tuomariston palkinnon vakiinnuttaen saksalaisen Schilinskin aseman eurooppalaisen taide-elokuvan tähtikaartissa vasta hänen toisella pitkällä elokuvallaan."

"Sound of Falling on eeppiset mittasuhteet saava, vuosia ja sukupolvia halkova kertomus nuorten naisten ja tyttöjen elämästä samalla saksalaisella maatilalla. Saksan historiaa sivutaan vuosisadan ajalta, mutta historialliset mullistukset kaikuvat vain etäisesti maatilan suljettuun maailmaan. Yhteen kietoutuvien tarinoiden väliset yhteydet avautuvat katsojalle hiljalleen."

"Vaalea Alma elää uuden vuosisadan alkuvuosia, teini-ikäinen Erika kohdataan toisen maailmansodan varjostamalla 40-luvulla. Kapinallinen nuori Angelika viettää nuoruuttaan 80-luvun jaetussa maassa ja Lenka nykypäivässämme. Julmat kohtalot, avaimenrei’istä lapsen silmin todistetut kauhut ja pölyttyneet valokuvat kertovat tarinaa hahmoista, jotka pyrkivät löytämään paikkansa yhteiskunnassa, jossa naisille määrätyt roolit ovat tiukasti rajatut."

"Pysäyttävä elokuva salpaa hengen ja jää kummittelemaan mieleen pitkäksi aikaa elokuvasalin valojen sytyttyä." Inari Ylinen

AA: Mascha Schilinski's Sound of Falling is a high profile saga of a farming family in four generations. It unfolds in jumbled timelines covering a hundred years and many transformations in the history of Germany, but history is ignored in this tale that is essentially a large scale chamber play like Ingmar Bergman's Fanny and Alexander.

The production is perfect, the cast is excellent, the attention to detail exemplary. This is an epoch movie that is a movie about many epochs. The mise-en-scène often aspires to the condition of the tableau like in early cinema. The colour world is special and ambitious, sometimes like in sepia toning, sometimes emphasizing brown hues. A distant thunder is a recurrent sound motif. Peeking through cracks and keyholes is a constant visual motif. That's how children observe the world of the grown-ups.

We enter the German Empire, the Third Reich, East Germany and contemporary Germany, but the elliptic and intimist way of storytelling makes it hard to tell them from one another. The film focuses on timeless subjects such as growing up, being a woman, and questions of life and death. The protagonists are women, and the question of death intrigues them since early childhood. I would have welcomed an even more pronounced feminist approach, particularly as the story takes places in Germany who has its own traditions both in patriarchy and women's liberation.

Although a lot happens in the movie, it still feel prolonged. There is a needless ritardando approach at times, without a matching intensity. But this is a general malaise in much of contemporary cinema: cinema of duration needs more energy than montage cinema, not less.

Avaz-e bughalamum / Une langue universelle / Universal Language

Matthew Rankin: /آواز بوقلمون/ Avaz-e bughalamum / Une langue universelle / Universal Language (CA 2024).

/آواز بوقلمون/ [Literal translation: "The Song of a Turkey"]

Canada 2024

Director: Matthew Rankin

Starring: Matthew Rankin, Pirouz Nemati, Amir Amiri

Soundtrack: "These Eyes" perf. The Guess Who.

    89 min

    Loc: Québec, Manitoba.

    Languages: mainly Persian, also in French

    American distributor: Oscilloscope Laboratories.

    Distributor: Njuta Films, subtitles: Finnish by Antti Böök

    Please note the film does not have English dialogue or subtitles!

    Love & Anarchy 38th Helsinki International Film Festival (HIFF)

    Viewed at Bio Rex Lasipalatsi, Helsinki, Mon 22.9.2025 at 16.00–17.29 

Tommi Kumén (HIFF 2025) "This absurd dramedy from an alternate-reality Farsi-speaking Canada nods to the masters of Iranian cinema and great surrealists, while cooking up its own thick and flavorful stew."

"When you say Winnipeg, Canada, most people think of ice hockey or nothing much. But visionary director Matthew Rankin’s Winnipeg is a parallel universe of brutalist architecture and a city soundscape in French and Farsi – where a turkey steals a child’s glasses in a city so melancholic it needs a shop specialised in paper tissues."

"The mesmerisingly absurd Universal Language consists of three interwoven stories. Children try to pry out a frozen banknote to help a schoolmate in need. A city tour guide presents a block of flats where ordinary people, but no celebrities, have lived. A civil servant quits his job in a Québécois government office and moves back to Winnipeg to care for his mother suffering from dementia."

"Rankin’s film is a nod to both masters of Iranian film as well as the great Surrealists, but his mix is his own, just like his debut feature film The Twentieth Century (R&A 2020). This spectacular film, shot on 16 mm film, takes no second place to its role models when it comes to visual storytelling and portrayal of the significance of human life."

"But how was it again? Is Winnipeg in Alberta or Manitoba?" Tommi Kumén (translated by Charlotte Elo)

"Absurdi draamakomedia farsinkielisen Kanadan vaihtoehtotodellisuudesta nyökkäilee iranilaisen elokuvan mestareille ja suurille surrealisteille, mutta keittelee ihan omanlaistaan sakeaa soppaa."

"Monille tulee kanadalaisesta Winnipegin kaupungista mieleen joko jääkiekko tai ei paljon mitään. Visionäärisen ohjaajan Matthew Rankinin Winnipeg on brutalistisen arkkitehtuurin komistama (ranskan- ja) farsinkielinen rinnakkaistodellisuus, jossa kalkkuna varastaa lapsen silmälasit ja jossa on niin melankolista, että tarvitaan paperinenäliinoihin erikoistunut liike."

"Lumoavan absurdissa Universal Languagessa on kolme risteävää tarinaa. Lapset yrittävät irrottaa maahan jäätyneen setelin auttaakseen pinteessä olevaa luokkatoveriaan. Opas esittelee turisteille muun muassa kerrostaloa, jossa ei ole asunut tunnettuja ihmisiä, mutta kylläkin ihan kunnollisia ei-tunnettuja tyyppejä. Virkamies eroaa työstään Quebecin hallinnossa muuttaakseen takaisin Winnipegiin muistisairaan äitinsä luo."

"Rankin nyökkäilee niin iranilaisen elokuvan mestareille kuin suurille surrealisteillekin, mutta keittelee silti ihan omanlaistaan sakeaa soppaa, kuten jo The Twentieth Century -esikoispitkässään (R&A 2020). Silmiähivelevästi 16-milliselle filmille kuvattu elokuva ei häviä esikuvilleen visuaalisessa kerronnassa eikä myöskään ihmiselon humaanin merkityksellisyyden kuvauksessa."

"Mutta onko Winnipeg siis Albertassa vai Manitobassa?" Tommi Kumén

Storyline from IMDb: "Somewhere between Tehran and Winnipeg. Negin and Nazgol find a sum of money frozen in the winter ice and try to get it out. Massoud leads a group of increasingly-confused tourists through the monuments and historic sites of Winnipeg. Matthew quits his job at the Québec government and embarks upon a mysterious journey to visit his mother. Time, geography and personal identities crossfade, interweave and collide into a surreal comedy of disorientation."

AA: It is very rare to be able to compare a movie with Jacques Tati, but Matthew Rankin's Universal Language is such an achievement. Rankin sees the most familiar and ordinary from a different and unique viewpoint - finely crafted both in big issues and the tiniest detail.

In each shot Rankin displays the talent of a visual artist. Not by being flamboyant but by a precise and intriguing way of seeing. He is great with people of all ages, especially children. This is his connection with Wes Anderson. Although they are very different, they share an affection to children's way to see. There is in Finland's main newspaper Helsingin Sanomat a section called "Children's Science Questions" (such as "what is life"?). Those are the best questions.

Because Rankin is unique, I strive to find parallels. I am also thinking about Otar Iosseliani and Boris Barnet because of the sense of humour and the tenderness in the anti-authoritarian worldview. 

Last year we celebrated the centenary of surrealism, and Matthew Rankin is a great contemporary surrealist. His surrealism is totally different from that of David Lynch. His is a cinematic wit that emerges from gentle observation. He has great talent in world-building, and the result is subversive, but not in an obviously shocking manner. In the tradition of the best of comedy, Rankin makes us see comic potential everywhere. 

Nusur aljumhuriati / Republikens örnar / Eagles of the Republic (in person: Tarik Saleh)

Tarik Saleh: Nusur aljumhuriati / نسور الجمهورية/ Republikens örnar / Eagles of the Republic (SE/FR/DK/FI 2025) with Zineb Triki (Suzanne) and Fares Fares (George El-Nabawi aka George Fahmy).

/ نسور الجمهورية/ Behind the Scenes: Eagles of the Republic

Sweden, France, Denmark, Finland 2025

Director: Tarik Saleh

Starring: Fares Fares, Lyna Khoudri, Cherien Dabis, Amr Waked, Zineb Triki

    Languages: predominantly Arabic, some English

    129 min

    Distributor: SF Studios, subtitles: English

    Love & Anarchy 38th Helsinki International Film Festival (HIFF)

    In person: Tarik Saleh, interviewed by Marta Balaga. Also in presence: Jimmy Karlsson and Sherwan Haji.

    Viewed at Bio Rex Lasipalatsi, Sun 21.9.2025 at 18.00–20.09

Inari Ylinen (HIFF 2025): "The final instalment of the Cairo trilogy is a sharp political thriller about a vain film star, offering a pointed commentary on the state of democracy in Egypt. The film will be followed by a fascinating Behind the Scenes discussion with director Tarik Saleh."

"Acclaimed Swedish-Egyptian director Tarik Saleh will visit the Love & Anarchy Festival with his latest film, which premiered in competition at Cannes. Eagles of the Republic concludes Saleh’s series of political thrillers, the Cairo Trilogy, whose earlier parts The Nile Hilton Incident and Boy from Heaven will also be screened at this year’s festival. After the screening of Eagles of the Republic, Saleh will take part in a fascinating Behind the Scenes discussion, where Variety journalist Marta Balaga will interview him about the stages of making the film."

"The star of the Cairo Trilogy, Fares Fares, naturally takes the lead role in Eagles of the Republic as George Fahmy—a charming but vain film star who unwillingly becomes entangled in Egypt’s political scheming. Those in power have chosen George to play the lead in a propaganda film about President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, ironically titled “The Will of the People”—and it soon becomes clear that refusing the role is not an option. The situation becomes even more complicated when the star grows close to the wife of the general overseeing the film’s production."

"Blending intense suspense, biting humour, sharp social critique, and breathtaking action, Saleh brings his trilogy to a powerful conclusion. His depiction of the state’s propaganda machinery resonates strongly with the present day—even beyond the context of Egyptian society." Inari Ylinen

"Kairo-trilogian huipentava poliittinen trilleri turhamaisesta filmitähdestä on täpäkkä kannanotto Egyptin demokratian tilaan. Elokuvan jälkeen järjestetään kiehtova Behind the Scenes -keskustelu ohjaaja Tarik Salehin kanssa."

"Ruotsalais-egyptiläinen menestysohjaaja Tarik Saleh saapuu R&A-vieraaksi Cannesin kilpasarjassa ensi-iltansa saaneen uutuutensa kanssa. Eagles of the Republic huipentaa Salehin poliittisten jännärien Kairo-trilogian, jonka aiemmat osat The Nile Hilton Incident ja Salaliitto Kairossa nähdään myös tänä vuonna festivaaliohjelmistossa. Eagles of the Republic -näytöksen jälkeen Saleh esiintyy kiehtovassa Behind the Scenes -keskustelussa, jossa Variety-lehden toimittaja Marta Balaga haastattelee häntä elokuvan tekemisen vaiheista."

"Kairo-trilogian tähti Fares Fares esiintyy itseoikeutetusti Eagles of the Republicin pääosassa charmanttina mutta turhamaisena filmitähtenä nimeltä George Fahmy, joka sotkeutuu vastentahtoisesti Egyptin poliittiseen juonitteluun. Vallanpitäjät kaavailevat Georgelle pääosaa presidentti Abdel Fattah el-Sisistä kertovassa propagandaelokuvassa, joka kulkee ironisesti nimellä ”Kansan tahto” – ja nopeasti käy ilmi, ettei hänelle anneta vaihtoehtoa kieltäytyä roolista. Soppa syvenee, kun tähti alkaa lähentyä elokuvatuotantoa valvovan kenraalin vaimon kanssa."

"Piinaavaa jännitystä, purevaa huumoria, terävää yhteiskuntakritiikkiä ja päätähuimaavaa toimintaa yhdistellen Saleh vie trilogiansa menestyksekkääseen päätökseen. Valtion propagandakoneiston kuvaus resonoi vahvasti nykyajassa myös egyptiläisen yhteiskunnan kontekstin ulkopuolella." Inari Ylinen

AA: Tarik Saleh's Eagles of the Republic is a larger-than-life satire about the struggle between liberation and authoritarian militarism in contemporary Egypt, as seen from the viewpoint of the protagonist, the biggest film star of the country, George Fahmy (Fares Fares). The ambitions and the points of comparisons are the greatest: Chaplin (The Great Dictator), Lubitsch (To Be Or Not To Be) - not forgetting Sacha Baron Cohen (The Dictator). Like in all of them, it is about playing the part. Like in Shakespeare, the world is a stage. Sex makes the world go round as much as violence.

Eagles of the Republic is different from the previous film of Tarik Saleh's Cairo trilogy, Conspiracy in Cairo, also known as Boy from Heaven. That film was a taut political thriller. Eagles of the Republic is  a lavish spectacle, loose and sprawling, unafraid of bad taste. I like the ambition, the cast is appealing, and I learn a lot about Egypt and its magnificent film production.