Senses of Cinema World Poll 2025: my favourites

Ethan Hawke: Highway 99: A Double Album (US 2025). Ethan Hawke in search of Merle Haggard.

In viewing order.

SENSES OF CINEMA SHORTLIST (TOP TEN NEW FILMS)

L'Histoire de Souleymane (Souleymane's Story, Boris Lojkine, 2024)

Juror #2 (Clint Eastwood, 2024)

Straume (Flow, Gints Zilbalodis, 2024) 

A Real Pain (Jesse Eisenberg, 2024)

Ainda Estou Aqui (I'm Still Here, Walter Salles, 2024)

One to One: John & Yoko (Kevin McDonald & Sam Rice-Edwards, 2024)

Shahed (The Witness, Nader Saeivar, 2024)

Highway 99 A Double Album (Ethan Hawke, 2025)

Nouvelle Vague (Richard Linklater, 2025)

Dva prokurora (Two Prosecutors, Sergei Loznitsa, 2025)

Antti Alanen, film historian, teacher, critic, blogger, advisor.

IN EXTENSO

I NEW

L'Histoire de Souleymane (Souleymane's Story, Boris Lojkine, FR 2024) Cinéma Saint André des Arts, Paris 6e

Juror #2 (Clint Eastwood, US 2024) Cinéma Saint André des Arts, Paris 6e

The Room Next Door (Pedro Almodóvar, ES 2024) Cinéma Saint André des Arts, Paris 6e

A Complete Unknown (James Mangold, US 2024) MK2 Bastille Côté Beaumarchais, Paris 11e

The Brutalist (Brady Corbet, US/GB/HU 2024) MK2 Bastille Côté Beaumarchais, Paris 11e

Straume (Flow, Gints Zilbalodis, LV/BE/FR 2024) Luminor Hôtel de Ville, Paris 4e

Conclave (Edward Berger, US/GB 2024) Cinéma Saint André des Arts, Paris 6e

A Real Pain (Jesse Eisenberg, US/PL 2024) UGC Ciné Cité Les Halles, Paris 1er

Ainda Estou Aqui (I'm Still Here, Walter Salles, BR/FR 2024) MK2 Bastille Côté Fg Saint-Antoine, Paris 11e

Lumière, l'aventure continue! (120 Lumière views curated by Thierry Frémaux, FR 2024) UGC Ciné Cité Les Halles, Paris 1er

One to One: John & Yoko (Kevin McDonald & Sam Rice-Edwards, 2024) Gilda, Helsinki

Levoton Tuhkimo / My Name Is Dingo (Mari Rantasila, FI 2024) Kinopalatsi, Helsinki

The Helsinki Effect (Arthur Franck, FI 2025) Kinopalatsi, Helsinki

Drømmer / Dreams (Dag Johan Haugerud, NO 2024) Iso Teltta, Midnight Sun Film Festival, Sodankylä

Dominique Sanda morning discussion. Koulu, Midnight Sun Film Festival, Sodankylä

Shahed (The Witness, Nader Saeivar, DE/AT 2024) Punainen Teltta, Midnight Sun Film Festival, Sodankylä

Molly Haskell: Katherine Hepburn: A Woman of the Years - discussion with Imogen Sara Smith * Auditorium DAMSLab, Bologna

The American Revolution (Ken Burns, Sarah Botstein, David Schmidt, US 2025) Telluride * in person: Ken Burns

Highway 99 a Double Album (Ethan Hawke, US 2025) Telluride * in person: Ethan Hawke

Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere (Scott Cooper, US 2025) Telluride * in person: Scott Cooper, Jeremy Allen White, Jeremy Strong, Bruce Springsteen, Jon Landau

Man on the Run (Morgan Neville, US 2025) Telluride * in person: Morgan Neville

Jay Kelly (Noah Baumbach, IT/GB/US 2025) Telluride * in person: Noah Baumbach, Laura Dern, Adam Sandler

O Agente Secreto / The Secret Agent (BR/FR/NL/DE 2025) Telluride * in person: Kleber Mendonça Filho, Wagner Moura

Cover-Up (Laura Poitras & Mark Obenhaus, US 2025) Telluride * in person: Laura Poitras, Mark Obenhaus, Seymour Hersh

Yek tasadof-e sadeh / It Was Just an Accident (Jafar Panahi, IR/FR/

LU 2025) Telluride * in person: Jafar Panahi

Affeksjonsverdi / Sentimental Value (Joachim Trier, NO/DE/DK/SE/

FR/TK/GB 2025) Love & Anarchy Helsinki Film Festival

Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk / Dae rudak fi yadayk w-amshi (Sepideh Farsi PS/FR/IR 2025)

Allly baqi mink / All That's Left of You (Cherien Dabis, DE/CY/PS/JO/

GR/QA/QA/SA 2025) Love & Anarchy Helsinki Film Festival

Nouvelle Vague (Richard Linklater, US/FR 2025)  Love & Anarchy Helsinki Film Festival

Dva prokurora (Two Prosecutors, Sergei Loznitsa, FR/DE/NL/LV/RO/

LT 2025)  Love & Anarchy Helsinki Film Festival

Avaz-e bughalamum / Une langue universelle / Universal Language (Matthew Rankin, CA 2024) Love & Anarchy Helsinki Film Festival

The End (Joshua Oppenheimer, DK/SE/IE/DE/IT/GB 2024) Love & Anarchy Helsinki Film Festival

Kjærlighet / Love (Dag Johan Haugerud, NO 2024) Love & Anarchy Helsinki Film Festival

Vi dör i natt / We Die Tonight (Richard Holm, SE 2025) Night Visions, Kinopalatsi, Helsinki

Wake Up Dead Man (Rian Johnson, US 2025) Netflix

A House of Dynamite (Kathryn Bigelow, US 2025) Netflix

One Battle After Another (Paul Thomas Anderson, US 2025) Kinopalatsi, Helsinki

Avatar: Fire and Ash (James Cameron, US 2025) Tennispalatsi, Helsinki

II OLD

Édouard et Caroline (Edward and Caroline, FR 1951) * brilliant Gaumont DCP * La Cinémathèque française, Paris 12e

Seven Days in May (John Frankenheimer, US 1964) * 35 mm * La Cinémathèque française, Paris 12e

Un condamné à mort s'est échappé (A Man Escaped, FR 1956) DCP * ELKE * 2018 Gaumont digital restoration * Kino Regina, Film and Psyche Symposium, Helsinki 

Colorado Territory (Raoul Walsh, US 1949) 35 mm * La Cinémathèque française, Paris 12e

The Naked Spur (Anthony Mann, US 1952) 35 mm * La Cinémathèque française, Paris 12e

3:10 to Yuma (Delmer Daves, US 1957) DCP * 2013 Sony 4K restoration * La Cinémathèque française, Paris 12e

Yellow Sky (William A. Wellman, US 1948) DCP * La Cinémathèque française, Paris 12e

Laurel & Hardy: Year Two: The Newly Restored 1928 Silents * 2-blu-ray * Flicker Alley 2024

The Filth and the Fury (Julien Temple, GB 2000) Punainen Teltta, Midnight Sun Film Festival, Sodankylä - in person: Julien Temple

Les Sièges de l'Alcazar (Luc Moullet, FR 1989) Koulu, Midnight Sun Film Festival, Sodankylä - Olaf Möller masterclass

Ghazl el-banat / The Razor's Edge (Jocelyne Saab, LB/FR 1985) Cinema Jolly, Bologna * 2025 resturation Association Jocelyne Saab

Nyonin aishu / A Woman's Sorrows (Mikio Naruse, JP 1937) good 35 mm print * National Film Archive of Japan * Cinema Jolly, Bologna

La finestra sul Luna Park / The Window to Luna Park (Luigi Comencini, IT/FR 1957) in person: Francesca Comencini, Paola Comencini * DCP * 2025 restoration Cineteca di Bologna & Surf Film * Modernissimo, Bologna

Gehenu lamai / Girls (Sumitra Peries, LK 1978) * 2024 restoration Film Heritage Foundation * Cinema Jolly, Bologna

The Racket (Lewis Milestone, US 1928) 2016 restoration Academy Film Archive * Cinema Jolly, Bologna

Safar / The Journey (Bahram Beyzaie, IR 1972) 2024 restoration MK2 Films / Kanoon * Cinema Jolly, Bologna

Incompreso / Misunderstood (Luigi Comencini, IT 1966) in person: Cristina Comencini

O regreso de Amilcar Cabral / The Return of Amílcar Cabral (Sana Na N'Hada, GW/CH 1976) 2025 restoration The Film Foundation's World Cinema Project / Cineteca di Bologna * in person: Sana Na N'Hada * Cinema Jolly, Bologna

Mortu Nega / Those Whom Death Refused (Flora Gomes, GW 1988) 2025 restoration The Film Foundation's World Cinema Project / Cineteca di Bologna * in person: Sana Na N'Hada * Cinema Jolly, Bologna

La ragazza di Bube / Bebo's Girl (Luigi Comencini, IT/FR 1963) 2022 restoration Cinecittà / Cristaldifilm * Cinema Modernissimo, Bologna 

Of Mice and Men (Lewis Milestone, US 1939) 35 mm sepiatone print from UCLA Film & Television Library * Cinema Jolly, Bologna 

Voltati Eugenio / Eugenio (Luigi Comencini,m IT/FR 1980) Cinema Modernissimo, Bologna

A Walk in the Sun (Lewis Milestone, US 1945) 117 min version * 2010 restoration UCLA / BFI / Schawn Belston / The Film Foundation * Cinema Jolly, Bologna

Riḥ es-sed / Man of Ashes (Nouri Bouzid, TN 1986) 2025 restoration Cineteca di Bologna / Cinétéléfilms * Cinema Jolly, Bologna

Summertime (David Lean, GB/IT/US 1955) 35 mm * 2003 restoration Academy Film Archive / BFI * Cinema Jolly, Bologna

The Biograph Project - more restorations of D. W. Griffith films from 1908 / Film Preservation Society * Pordenone - overwhelmingly the most powerful experience in my heritage film viewing - I failed to engage enough brain power to blog about them during the festival or even right after, but I'm getting there.

Cirano di Bergerac (Augusto Genina, IT 1922) 2023 restoration Lobster Films * Pordenone

Japanese Paper Films * 2025 restoration Toy Film Museum, Kyoto * Pordenone

Krylya kholopa / The Wings of a Serf (Yuri Tarich, SU 1926) 35 mm print from Pacific Film Archive * Pordenone

Shoulder Arms (Charles Chaplin, US 1918) 2025 restoration MoMA * Pordenone

The Scarlet Drop (John Ford, US 1918) 2024 digital transfer Cineteca Nacional de Chile, Santiago / Cinemateca del Pacífico * Pordenone

L'ombra (Mario Almirante, IT 1923) 2023 restoration Museo Nazionale del Cinema in Turin & Cinémathèque Royale de Belgique * Pordenone

Die weisse Hölle vom Piz Palü / The White Hell of Piz Palü (Arnold Fanck & G. W. Pabst, DE 1929) 1997 restoration Bundesarchiv Filmarchiv / Stiftung Deutsche Kinemathek / Taurus-Film

Don Quichotte (version française) (G. W. Pabst, FR/GB 1933)

Paracelsus (G. W. Pabst, DE 1943) 2015 Kino Lorber blu-ray

Kill List (Ben Wheatley, GB/DE/SE/AU 2011) 2025 restoration * Night Visions, Helsinki * in person: Ben Wheatley, Andy Starke

NB 1. I Include familiar classics which I have seen before but only in home viewing. Seeing a film like Yellow Sky, The Naked Spur, 3:10 to Yuma or Colorado Territory on a big screen in the cinema changes everything. Previously I had merely viewed them. Now I saw.

NB 2. The 1908 D. W. Griffith films outbalanced everything for me at Le Giornate del Cinema Muto in 2024 and 2025. I could not focus properly on anything else and failed to blog about what I saw. Many of the 1908 DWGs were bad or mediocre yet with an irresistible energy of passion and invention which is rare in the history of the cinema. Comparable with Lumière vues, neorealism and Nouvelle Vague: the joy of insight and creation captured so well by Thierry Frémaux and Richard Linklater in their beautiful tributes.

EXHIBITIONS OF THE YEAR

L'Art "dégénéré" , Musée Picasso, Paris

Alfred Dreyfus. Truth and Justice. Musée d'art et d'histoire du Judaïsme, Paris

Louvre couture: objets d'art, objets de mode. Le Louvre, Paris

David Hockney 25. Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris

Wes Anderson. La Cinémathèque française, Paris

Gallen-Kallela, Klimt & Wien. Ateneum, Helsinki

BOOK OF THE YEAR

Sarah Wynn-Williams: Careless People - on Meta

OTHER BOOKS OF THE YEAR ON THE FATE OF THE INTERNET:

Tim Berners-Lee: This Is for Everyone - by the father of the World Wide Web

Jimmy Wales: The Seven Rules of Trust - by the father of Wikipedia

Cory Doctorow: Enshittification

OTHER BOOKS OF THE YEAR

Phillips P. O'Brien: War and Power - a new vision of war, based on Ukraine

Tim Weiner: The Mission: The CIA in the 21st Century

ONLINE COLUMNS OF THE YEAR

Paul Krugman Substack - on the U.S.A.

Phillips P. O'Brien Substack - on Ukraine

Syke-elokuva: Kipinöitä yössä

Laura Joutsi: Syke-elokuva: Kipinöitä yössä (FI 2025). Matti Ristinen (Ilmari Nortamo), Helmi-Leena Nummela (Jannica) Ronkainen), Johannes Holopainen (Eero Mustonen).

Syke: kipinöitä yössä / Syke: gnistor i natten.

    FI 2025. PC: Yellow Film & TV Oy. Distributor: Nelonen Media. P: Anni Pänkäälä, Essi Tuukkanen EX: Lasse Koskinen, Marko Talli.

    D: Laura Joutsi. SC: Paula Korva, Anne Prokofjeff. The Syke concept: Petja Peltomaa. Script supervisor / dramaturge: Daniela Hakulinen. DP: Heikki Färm. PD: Kristiina Saha. Cost: Ninni Lahtinen. Makeup: Mari Vaalasranta. Catalogue music: Epidemic Sound ; Universal Production Music. Original song for the movie: "Uudestaan syntynyt" by and perf. Laura Närhi. S: Antti Onkila. ED: Teemu Pöllänen.

    C: 

Helmi-Leena Nummela / Jannica Ronkainen

Johannes Holopainen / Eero Mustonen

Matti Ristinen / Ilmari Nortamo

Karim Rapatti / Miko Rask

Valtteri Lehtinen / Leevi Koskinen

Lena Meriläinen / Lenita Pakkala

Leena Pöysti / Johanna Alanko

Iida-Maria Heinonen / Sonja Salmi

Sebastian Rejman / Jesse Adlercreutz

Janne Saarinen / Niklas "Nikke" Uotila

Elssa Antikainen / Milla

Matleena Kuusniemi / Linnea Hiekka

Heikki Simolin / Tapani Kuorisalmi

Maaria Kuukorento / Oili

Pekka Kauhanen / Aki Lahtinen

Jaana Jokisalo / Saara

Viljami Loponen / Luka Nortamo

Joa Dahlman / Oliver

Vieno Kinnunen / Luna Pakkala

Vilja Aavikko / Armi Joki

Juha Uutela / Kuosmanen

Jukka Hakamaa / Jussi

Jesper Jumisko silmävammapotilas

Hulda & Kyösti / the dog Kyösti

    90 min

    Premiere: 14 Nov 2025 - distributor: Nelonen Media.

ELONET: "Laura Joutsin ohjaama Syke: Kipinöitä yössä (2025) on kolmas suositun Syke-tv-sarjan pohjalta tehty pitkä elokuva. Käsikirjoitus on Paula Korvan ja Anne Prokofjeffin, kun taas kaksi ensimmäistä Syke-elokuvaa käsikirjoitti tv-sarjan luoja ja pääkäsikirjoittaja Petja Peltomaa. On uudenvuodenaatto, ja sairaalassa odotetaan juhlaillan tuovan muassaan ruuhkaa. Hoitaja Jannican (Helmi-Leena Nummela) ex-poikaystävä Miko (Karim Rapatti) tulee yllättäen pienen vamman takia käymään ensiavussa, ja juuri sinkkuuttaan surrut Jannica sopii miehen kanssa illaksi treffit. Takakireä keikkalääkäri Eero (Johannes Holopainen) ärsyttää Jannicaa perusteellisuudellaan. Erilaisia huolenaiheita ja kiperiä tilanteita on niin potilailla kuin sairaalan henkilökunnallakin, ennen kuin vuosi vaihtuu ja raketit paukkuvat."

Syke is a popular Finnish medical drama series. The series creator is Petja Peltomaa. A who's who of Finnish actor has appeared in it. The first season was in 2014, and in the autumn 2025 the 21th season was launched. In 2014-2017 the series was telecast at Yle TV2, since 2018 in Ruutu+ streaming channel and since 2019 tekecast in Nelonen / Liv.

AA: A hospital drama, a television spinoff, a multi-character study. 

Syke in English is Pulse. Kipinöitä yössä means Sparks in the Night.

New Year's Eve at the emergency room. Besides the regular traffic, extra pressure is anticipated due to the fireworks, liberal consumption of alcohol, and online challenges among teenagers.

I have found things to like in the previous Syke spinoffs. They share the insight celebrated by Marshall McLuhan in Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man (1964): the tactile quality of the TV image in medical drama. Dealing with matters of life and death and sickness and health in a constant state of emergency. The excitement is the same as in war and crime films, but instead of killing people, the mission is saving people.

The previous spinoffs were written by the series creator Petja Peltomaa, but not this one. New Year's Eve is a great subject for medical drama, but unfortunately this film feels like made on autopilot.

I liked the story of Linnea Hiekka (Matleena Kuusniemi) whose condition the medical professionals have a hard time tracking down. After several false hypotheses, including hypochondria and alcoholism, a rare disease is diagnozed.

A new temporary physician, Eero Mustonen (Johannes Holopainen) is in charge. The experienced nurse Jannica Ronkainen (Helmi-Leena Nummela) is worried because Mustonen's fussy and overdone perfectionism causes the queues to grow alarmingly on a busy day. Jannica takes matters in her own hands and solves cases pragmatically. This does not go down well with Mustonen.

But a mutual respect grows after both have offered false hypotheses in the case of Linnea Hiekka and Ronkainen has performed a decisive move. Then by the seafront Tapani Kuorisalmi (Heikki Simolin) falls and has a serious head injury. An emergency drilling is necessary. Jannica has a drill in her first aid kit. Eero refuses to conduct a drilling in these circumstances, but Jannica performs the surgical emergency operation and saves Tapani's life.

Eero's secret is revealed: he has studied to become a neurosurgeon but has committed a false diagnosis leading to the patient's death. Since then he has been over-careful.

The conflict between doctors and nurses was discussed in the previous Syke movie Särkynyt sydän. Because of the appalling income gap between doctors and nurses, half of Finland's hospital staff considers leaving the profession. Kipinöitä yössä elaborates on this theme. I have a personal interest in these stories because my mother was a head nurse when I was born.

The generation gap is another theme. The ambulance doctor Ilmari Nortamo (Matti Ristinen) is worried about his teenager son's goings-on in the restless Sylvester night and tries to multi-task as a father and a doctor. Communication is difficult.

Jannica multi-tasks in medicine and dating. Her ex, the football star Miko Rask (Karim Ripatti) is back and woos Jannica with gifts and an offer of a ride in an extended limousine.

Meanwhile, the highly strung Eero finds himself repeatedly in a conflict zone with Jannica. Sparks fly, but not in a good way, yet we know how it is in these stories in which there is such hate at first sight. Finally the risk is about transgressing workplace codes of conduct.

Johannes Holopainen has been an appealing jeune premier. In this movie I see him for the first time as a grown-up man. He has presence and weight for greater things.

I have been impressed by the particularly warm audience commitment to the Syke movie screenings I have visited. Also this screening was sold out. 

My blog remarks on the previous entry:

Syke-elokuva: Särkynyt sydän (FI 2023)

Avatar: Fire and Ash in 2-D and 3-D

James Cameron: Avatar. Fire and Ash (US 2025). Above: Oona Chaplin (Varang), Middle: Zoe Saldaña (Neytiri), Sigourney Weaver (Kiri), Jack Champion (Spider), Below: Britain Dalton (Lo'ak), Sam Worthington (Jake), Stephen Lang (Quaritch).

Avatar : de feu et de cendres / Avatar: fuoco e cenere / Avatar: fuego y ceniza / Avatars: uguns un pelni / Įsikūnijimas: ugnis ir pelenai / Аватар: пламя и пепел.

    US 2025. PC: Lightstorm Entertainment. 20th Century Studios presents. P: James Cameron and Jon Landau (1960-2024). EX: Richard Baneham, Rae Sanchini, David Valdes.

    D: James Cameron. SC: James Cameron, Rick Jaffa, Amanda Silver. DP: Russell Carpenter - colour - 1.85:1 and 2.39 - negative format AXS-R7 - source format X-OCN RAW (4K dual-strip 3-D) - released on 4K - in IMAX 3D, Dolby Cinema 3D, RealD 3D, Cinemark XD, 4DX, ScreenX. PD: Dylan Cole, Ben Procter. Cost: Deborah L. Scott. SFX: Wētā FX - Joe Letteri, Daniel Barrett. Lightstorm Visual Effects. - Richard Baneham. Legacy Effects. VFX: Wētā FX - Nicky Muir. Eric Saindon. AN: Wētā FX. Industrial Light and Magic. M: Simon Franglen. Miley Cyrus: "Dream as One" (Miley Cyrus, Andrew Wyatt, Mark Ronson, Simon Franglen). 20th Century Fox fanfare: Alfred Newman (Twentieth Century Pictures fanfare, 1933). S: Brent Burge - DTS - IMAX 6-Track - 12-Track Digital Sound - Auro 11.1 - Dolby Atmos. ED: Stephen Rivkin, Nicolas de Toth, John Refoua, Jason Gaudio, James Cameron. Casting: Margery Simkin.

    C: Sam Worthington (Jake), Zoe Saldaña (Neytiri), Sigourney Weaver (Kiri), Stephen Lang (Quaritch), Oona Chaplin (Varang), Kate Winslet (Ronal), Cliff Curtis (Tonowari). Brendan Cowell (Scoresby), Edie Falco (General Ardmore), Jemaine Clement (Dr. Garvin), CCH Pounder (Mo'at), David Thewlis (Peylak), Britain Dalton (Lo'ak), Jack Champion (Spider), Trinity Jo-Li Bliss (Tuk), Bailey Bass (Tsireya), Jamie Flatters (Neteyam).

    In loving memory of Jon Landau.

    Loc: New Zealand, Los Angeles (CA), Lviv (Ukraine), Yavoriv (Ukraine). Studios: Stone Street Studios (Wellington NZ), Warner Bros. Studios (Burbank CA).

    199 min

    US premiere: 1 Dec 2025 Dolby Cinema.

    US premiere: 19 Dec 2025 wide.

    Finnish premiere: 17 Dec 2025 - released by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Finland.

    Viewed in 2D at Finnkino Tennispalatsi iSENSE auditorium, Helsinki, 27 Dec 2025

AA: Even the previews / trailers are appropriate: Kullervo (the avenger antihero of the Finnish epic Kalevala), Thor (the Nordic thunder god as a Marvel superhero) and The Odyssey according to Christopher Nolan. Mythology reigns in blockbuster cinema.

Mythology has been James Cameron's metier since The Terminator. I am a follower, even of the Avatar series, although I find its digital aesthetics unappealing and the hybrid characters impossible to relate to. Real actors are credited, but they have metamorphosed beyond recognition to humanoids. 

I would compare Cameron's oeuvre with Ramayana, Mahabharata, Homeric epics, die Nibelungen and Kalevala.

Cameron's films are mythological epics for an industrial - architectonic - militarist - imperialist - digital - virtual era. He excels with aliens and robots but has less passion for human beings.

Cameron stages formidable cosmic battles with mythological powers and apocalyptic energies. He creates worlds of magnificent spectacle. He is capable of evoking a sense of wonder.

Since the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks against the United States a serious expansion of the superhero film took place, including the Marvel Cinematic Universe (since 2008) and the DC Extended Universe (since 2013). They are works of escapism and celebrations of superpowers.

At the same time, Cameron launched his Avatar series, an original work. Despite offbeat colours, weird creatures and 3-D aesthetics, they became some of the all-time highest-grossing films. They, too, satisfy expectations of escapism and identification with superpowers. 

But the Avatar films are works of fundamental ecological critique. They criticize our very existence, based on abuse and exploitation of nature. Having destroyed the Earth we are now busy destroying a moon called Pandora.

Portraying this, Cameron the action film veteran indulges in the imagination of disaster and satisfies our appetite for destruction, in full "Nero complex" mode, to refer to André Bazin. Less might be more.

I might try to find the secret of Cameron's success in Arthur Schopenhauer's Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung / The World as Will and Representation (1818). The overwhelming experience of the Avatar movies is willpower in the regular sense. But they also emit "the will" in the Schopenhauerian sense: the essence beyond representation. Despite the movies' clunky features, the irresistible joy and drive and inner essence shines through. Cameron is a superpower in himself.

I have been impressed by the accomplishments in 3-D technology in the previous Avatar movies and Daniel Mendelsohn's view of Cameron's visual look, which he calls "bioluminescence". I saw Avatar: Fire and Ash in 2-D and will make a point of catching it also in 3-D.

I regret that there is no Finnish title for this movie. "Avatar: tuli ja tuhka" would be great and accurate.

My remarks on the previous films:

Avatar (US/GB 2009)

Avatar: The Way of Water (US 2022)

...

P.S. 3 Jan 2025

AVATAR: FIRE AND ASH (3-D)

Avatar: Fire and Ash (US 2025) in IMAX 3-D at Finnkino Itis Helsinki multiplex, the IMAX auditorium, Itäkatu 1-7, 00930 Helsinki, Saturday, 3 Jan 2026.

A week ago I saw James Cameron's Avatar: Fire and Ash at Finnkino Tennispalatsi the iSENSE auditorium, and only when the screening started I realized it was in 2-D.

So I made a pilgrimage today to Itäkeskus, the mighty commercial center of East Helsinki, to check the film in 3-D. When the Helsinki Metro, the world's northernmost metro system, was opened in 1982, the last stop was Itäkeskus, and the metro station M Itäkeskus promptly dubbed "Mitäkeskus" [What Center]. I was happy to spend the Sabbath afternoon in the teeming and agreeable atmosphere of Itis, the largest covered-in shopping mall in the Nordic countries. It seems like a safe and inviting place for children and the young.

It was also a busy afternoon at the 9-screen Finnkino Itis multiplex. Its IMAX auditorium has the largest cinema screen in Finland. The 3-D system is IMAX 3-D.

Equipped with the disposable 3-D glasses I immersed in the spectacle to check this version for 45 minutes. Instant remarks.

Immediately it is clear that Avatar: Fire and Ash is made for 3-D. It is inherent in the concept. The vision is in 3-D. The imagery feels slightly odd in 2-D. Not so much in 3-D. Still odd, but intentionally so.

The unreality. The dream world. The story is about a transition zone in which boundaries are transgressed. In the multi-layer image we see the simultaneous separation and union more impressively.

Daniel Mendelssohn defined Cameron's vision in terms of bioluminescence, and this unique Avatar aesthetics keeps being refined in Fire and Ash. It takes place in the three worlds of the sky, the ground and the ocean of the moon Pandora. 

Digital cinema originated in a promise of being bright and clear, but this movie has been conceived in terms of fire and ash, the haunting luminescence of the deep ocean and the organic thickets of the rain forest. It is more about being fuzzy and hazy and having reflections upon reflections than about bright and clear. The unclear vision is part of the definition. The art of the blur. The multi-plane interfaces.

I deplore the dearth of psychological commitment and the relentless emphasis on warfare. Adrenaline rush is guaranteed. Immersion, too. The suspension of disbelief is sustained.

Technology is just a tool. Essentially the Avatar movies are creations of pure magic and unwavering willpower.

FROM AVATAR: FIRE AND ASH PRODUCTION NOTES

~ PERFECTING THE ART OF PERFORMANCE CAPTURE ~

“The performances have to be authentic, and that is the power of these films. We know these characters are impossible. People don’t really have ears like that. They don’t have eyes this big. They don’t have these long necks and these tails and all the aspects of a Na’vi, but we believe them, and why do we get seduced by the fact that they seem so real as people? It’s because of that ethos, that mantra, that we use every single day to honor the performance above all other things.” –James Cameron

A virtual camera system is used to capture a scene. The actors work in a Volume, either doing dry performance capture on a soundstage or in a massive water tank that can capture underwater performances. They have markers on their body and rigs with two high-definition cameras on their heads to capture 100 percent of their performance in the digital world.

“’Avatar’ movies are not made by computers,” says director/co-writer/producer James Cameron. “’Avatar’ films are made by an incredibly talented team of people – especially our actors – who physically perform every scene. I worked with my cast on ‘The Way of Water’ and ‘Fire and Ash’ for almost 18 months. Every expression, every movement, every emotional beat comes from their real performances. And once we have that captured, our artists work tirelessly to bring those characters – and the entire world – to life.”

In discussing the actor’s role on a virtual camera stage, Sam Worthington says, “You are basically wearing a suit and a mask of dots, and they are captured by hundreds of infrared cameras. So, anything that you do, anything that you say, anything that you feel, anywhere you look, how you are, it’s translated using those dots into the system. Now, whether it’s us or a stunt guy jumping into the water or flying on a creature or crying when their son dies, it is all us, and it is all true. And the more the technology has improved, the more subtle we can do our performances. So even me just standing there breathing and thinking, that is going to translate through the system, and there’s not one thing that is added to my performance.”

The actor-driven nature of performance capture technology is the driving force behind the “Avatar” films, and their success is often attributed to its pioneering use of this technique, which enables the fictional world and its characters to come alive in a literal sense. It is a technique that uses movements and facial expressions to drive the performance of photorealistic computer-generated characters. In each of the “Avatar” films, it has played a crucial role in bringing the Na’vi and other fantastical creatures to life. 

Cameron and his phenomenally talented team use cutting-edge technology to translate the nuanced expressions and physicality of the actors into the digital world of Pandora. By capturing the subtle emotional cues and movements of the performers, the technology allows for photoreal lifelike characters, enhancing the immersive experience for viewers. Every nuance of the actors’ physical and facial performances faithfully drives their CG counterparts, such that every minute detail of their performance is translated faithfully into these fantastical CGI alien characters.

“Everything from the most intimate dramatic moments to our biggest stunts and underwater movement is all done for real,” explains co-producer Jamie Landau. “In the past, there has been a misconception that these films are animated, which they are definitely not. In fact, we were doing performance capture for 18 months.”

Jon Landau explains, “Jim Cameron wrote ‘Avatar’ in 1995. The technology at the time did not exist to tell the story the way we wanted to tell it. When I say that to people, a lot of people think I’m talking about 3D, but it has nothing to do with 3D. It had to do with putting up emotional and engaging characters on the screen that we wanted to do using computer-generated effects. So, the challenge became, how could we create – for a director like Jim Cameron – the same intimacy where he could work with a cast, but create computer-generated characters playing in the world of Pandora? The technology did not exist. We looked at the landscape of what people were doing with what they called motion capture, and it was promising, but it missed one key letter in front of it for us: an e for emotion capture. And we turned that first into performance capture when we started to capture the facial performance at the same time as the body. We then turned that into virtual production, where we put a camera in Jim Cameron’s hands and he could see the character, not the person who was standing in front of him, but their Na’vi or avatar character, and when he would look across the barren stage that we were on, he didn’t see the barren stage. He saw the world of Pandora. It was now a filmmaker’s tool in a very acting-centric process. That did not exist. We needed to create all of the technologies to do that.”

Jon Landau continues, “Whenever we do performance capture, we shoot reference footage of the actors. We’ll sometimes shoot up to 16 cameras at one time. This reference footage is first used by the editors to see the performances. They’ll take a sixteen-quadrant split, where we see all sixteen images, then they will blow up one image to see the subtlety of a performance that an actor gave in order for them to pick the best performances. That reference footage stays behind the scenes throughout the entire process. When we turn over a template to our visionary colleagues at Wētā, we give them reference footage, and once they start working on the animation, they do a picture-in-picture all the time with that reference footage to make sure that their animated character is accurately doing what the actor did on the day.”

“At this point in time, nobody does the visual effects capture finishing work better than Wētā, and that is because of that iterative relationship between the production and the visual effects house with the technology and creative feeding back and forth,” says Sanchini, “And we’ve developed a real shorthand. Sometimes it is hard to explain exactly why a shot isn’t working, why a face doesn’t look natural, or why it’s not moving in the right way, and it took years to develop that shorthand for them all to see the same things, to understand how to address it. And on this film, everyone is on the same page at all times.”

Cameron and the editorial team select the best performances for each moment of a given scene, and then use a virtual camera to create the specific shots. The virtual camera allows Cameron to shoot scenes within the computer-generated world, just as if he were filming on a physical location or soundstage. With this virtual camera, he sees the actors as their 9-foot-tall blue characters in Pandora.

One Battle After Another

Paul Thomas Anderson: One Battle After Another (US 2025).

Une bataille après l'autre / Eine Schlacht nach der anderen / Una batalla tras otra / Una battaglia dopo l'altra.

    US 2025. PC: Ghoulardi Film Company. Warner Bros. presents. In association with Domain Entertainment. P: Paul Thomas Anderson, Sara Murphy, Adam Somner.

    D+SC: Paul Thomas Anderson - inspired by the novel Vineland (1990) by Thomas Pynchon. Cin: Michael Bauman - colour - VistaVision - released on 35 mm regular and horizontal - 70 mm regular and horizontal - D-Cinema - 1.50:1 (VistaVision) - 1.85:1 (regular). PD: Florencia Martin. AD: Andrew Max Cahn. Set dec: Anthony Carlino. Cost: Colleen Atwood. Makeup: Heba Thorisdottir. Hair: Ahou Mofid. SFX: Jeremy Hays. VFX: Crafty Apes / SSVFX. VFX: Laura J. Hill. M: Jonny Greenwood. Soundtrack: "Perfidia" (Alberto Domínguez, 1939). S: Christopher Scarabosio. ED: Andy Jurgensen. Casting: Cassandra Kulukundis.

    Cast from Wikipedia:

Leonardo DiCaprio as "Ghetto" Pat Calhoun / "Rocketman" / Bob Ferguson, a washed-up former member and explosive device expert of a revolutionary group known as the French 75

Sean Penn as Colonel Steven J. Lockjaw, a corrupt military officer who pursues the French 75

Benicio del Toro as Sergio St. Carlos, Willa's Karatedo teacher and a leader of the undocumented community in Baktan Cross

Regina Hall as Deandra / "Lady Champagne", a French 75 member

Teyana Taylor as Perfidia Beverly Hills, a French 75 member, Willa's mother and Pat's partner

Chase Infiniti as Willa Ferguson / Charlene Calhoun, Bob and Perfidia's daughter

Wood Harris as Laredo, a French 75 member

Alana Haim as "Mae West", a French 75 member

Paul Grimstad as Howard Sommerville / "Billy Goat" / "Gringo Coyote", a French 75 member

Shayna McHayle as "Junglepussy", a French 75 member

Tony Goldwyn as Virgil Throckmorton, a member of the Christmas Adventurers Club, a secret, wealthy cabal of white supremacists

John Hoogenakker as Tim Smith, a member of the Christmas Adventurers Club

Starletta DuPois as Grandma Minnie, Perfidia's mother

Eric Schweig as Avanti, a bounty hunter

D. W. Moffett as Bill Desmond, a member of the Christmas Adventurers Club

Kevin Tighe as Roy More, a member of the Christmas Adventurers Club

Jim Downey as Sandy Irvine, a member of the Christmas Adventurers Club

James Raterman as Colonel Danvers, Lockjaw's second-in-command

Dijon Duenas as "Talleyrand", a French 75 member

Dan Chariton as Comrade Josh, a French 75 member

Jon Beavers as 1776 James, a white nationalist gang member

Tisha Sloan as Willa's teacher

Jena Malone as the voice of the French 75 greeting code

    Filming dates: 21 Jan - 30 July 2024.

    Loc: Eureka (CA), Sacramento (CA), San Juan Bautista (CA), Stockton (CA), El Paso (TX). 

    162 min

    Premiere: 8 Sep 2025 Hollywood.

    Finnish premiere: 26 Sep 2025 - released by Warner Bros. Finland with Finnish / Swedish subtitles by Timo Porri / Hannele Vahtera.

    Viewed at Kinopalatsi 7, Helsinki, 26 Dec 2025.

IMDb storyline: "When their evil enemy resurfaces after 16 years, a group of ex-revolutionaries reunite to rescue the daughter of one of their own."

IMDb tagline: "Some search for battle, others are born into it..."

Greeting code: "What is time?"

Countersign: "Time does not exist, yet it controls us anyway".

AA: One Battle After Another reigns supreme on the year's best film lists. I hasten to see it before the year ends.

It is the saga of the desperate battle of survival of a revolutionary terrorist organization. When children are involved, things get complicated in ways we have seen also in Running on Empty (1988) and The Company You Keep (2012).

Unlike them, One Battle After Another is not a sober political thriller but a work of the cinema of the absurd. It offers no discourse about the rebels' political agenda or motivation. 

The plot is largely an excuse for an action car chase movie. It is great, there is too much of it, and it has been seen before. 

Besides violence, the movie is powered by sex. There are sex addicts both among the terrorists and the law enforcement authorities. There is little joy of sex. Sex is an obsession and a curse.

Anderson puts his ingredients in a blender and creates a mad current of energy that carries the preposterous tale.

The crazy spectacle is a framework for inflammatory conflicts in the society. The terrorist network is called French 75, and at the other extreme is Christmas Adventurers Club, a white supremacist organization run by men from the elite. Perhaps this is the world as seen by MAGA, threatened by "radical left lunatics". And MAGA seen by those lunatics. There is little room for sanity.

In the final analysis, One Battle After Another is about "race" war. Its incarnation is the "interracial" Willa Ferguson / Charlene Calhoun (Chase Infiniti), whose mother is the terrorist Perfidia (Teyana Taylor) and biological father Colonel Steven J. Lockjaw (Sean Penn). [I use the unscientific word "race" in want of a better alternative.]

The star magnet of the enterprise is Leonardo Di Caprio, who keeps expanding his scope with roles like this. Sean Penn excels as Colonel Lockjaw, the Inspector Javert of the saga. Jonny Greenwood creates a haunting and original score. Michael Bauman shot this in VistaVision - a format that had not been used for an entire feature film since the 1960s. I hope to be able to see One Battle After Another again for the VistaVision experience.

There is an epidemic of failing to give films Finnish titles. In the dialogue the relevant line, "one battle after another" / "yksi taistelu toisensa jälkeen", was subtitled in Finnish. Why not use it as the Finnish title of this remarkable movie?

A House of Dynamite

Kathryn Bigelow: A House of Dynamite (US 2025).

US 2025. Distributor: Netflix. PC: First Light Pictures (Kathryn Bigelow) / Kingsgate Films (Greg Shapiro) / Prologue Entertainment (Noah Oppenheim).

    D: Kathryn Bigelow. SC: Noah Oppenheim. Cin: Barry Ackroyd - source format: Arriraw 4.6 K - master format: 4K - release formats: DCP, video UHD. PD: Jeremy Hindle. AD: Chris Shriver. Set dec: David Schlesinger. Cost: Sarah Edwards. Makeup: Jackie Risotto. Hair: Kerrie Smith. SFX: Devin Maggio. VFX: Distillery VFX - Eyeline Studios (virtual production). VFX: Tamriko Barda. Lidar scanning: NOAR Technologies. M: Volker Bertelmann. S: Paul N. J. Ottosson. ED: Kirk Baxter. Casting: Susanne Scheel.

    Cast according to Wikipedia:

Idris Elba as the President of the United States

Rebecca Ferguson as Captain Olivia Walker, the duty officer in charge of the White House Situation Room during the crisis

Gabriel Basso as Deputy National Security Advisor Jake Baerington

Jared Harris as Secretary of Defense Reid Baker

Tracy Letts as General Anthony Brady, Combatant Commander of United States Strategic Command (STRATCOM)

Anthony Ramos as Major Daniel Gonzalez, commander of Fort Greely, Alaska

Moses Ingram as Cathy Rogers, a FEMA official with the Office of National Continuity Programs

Jonah Hauer-King as Lieutenant Commander Robert Reeves, the Presidential Military Aide

Greta Lee as Ana Park, the National Intelligence Officer for North Korea

Jason Clarke as Admiral Mark Miller, Director of the White House Situation Room

Malachi Beasley as SCPO William Davis, Walker's colleague in the Situation Room

Brian Tee as SAIC Ken Cho, the head of the United States Secret Service Presidential Protection Detail

Brittany O'Grady as Lily Baerington, Jake's pregnant wife and a Senatorial aide on Capitol Hill

Gbenga Akinnagbe as Major General Steven Kyle, Director of Global Operations (J-3), STRATCOM

Willa Fitzgerald as Abby Jansing, a CNN representative at the White House Press Briefing Room

Renée Elise Goldsberry as the First Lady of the United States

Kyle Allen as Captain Jon Zimmer, a B-2 bomber pilot

Kaitlyn Dever as Caroline Baker, Baker's daughter

Francesca Carpanini as Staff Sergeant Ali Jones, a soldier at Fort Greely

Abubakr Ali as Lieutenant Dan Buck, a soldier at Fort Greely

Angel Reese as herself in a cameo appearance

    Loc: Kenya, Iceland.

    112 min

    Festival premiere: 2 Sep 2025 Venice

    Limited theatrical release: 10 Oct 2025

    No theatrical release in Finland.

    Streaming debut: 24 Oct 2025 Netflix

    Viewed with Finnish subtitles on Netflix at home in Helsinki, 25 Dec 2025. Streaming incomplete: Netflix interrupts the streaming abruptly after the beginning of the end credits.

Official tagline

"When a single, unattributed missile is launched at the United States, a race begins to determine who is responsible and how to respond."

Director’s Statement

"I grew up in an era when hiding under your school desk was considered the go-to protocol for surviving an atomic bomb. It seems absurd now — and it was — but at the time, the threat felt so immediate that such measures were taken seriously. Today, the danger has only escalated. Multiple nations possess enough nuclear weapons to end civilisation within minutes. And yet, there’s a kind of collective numbness — a quiet normalisation of the unthinkable. How can we call this “defense” when the inevitable outcome is total destruction?"

"I wanted to make a film that confronts this paradox — to explore the madness of a world that lives under the constant shadow of annihilation, yet rarely speaks of it."

AA: I identify with Kathryn Bigelow's Cold War experience. During my first year at school I learned my first words in Russian: Novaya Zemlya. My teacher was born during the Russian Empire and knew to pronounce the name correctly. In October 1961 at Novaya Zemlya, the most physically powerful device ever deployed on Earth, a thermonuclear aerial bomb, later called the Tsar Bomba, was detonated. It was the most powerful of more than 60 nuclear tests there in 1961-1962. In Finnish Lapland, in Utsjoki and Inari, reindeer herders still blame high cesium counts from nuclear tests for their high cancer mortality. In 1963, the Treaty Banning Nuclear Weapon Tests in the Atmosphere, Outer Space and Under Water was signed. In 1989-1991 the Cold War ended and the nuclear threat as well. But in recent years nuclear rearmament is back.

"Inclination is flattening" is both a technical expression for a rogue nuclear missile's trajectory and a metaphor for the global nuclear horror in general.

Kathryn Bigelow has adopted a cool, objective, understated and antidramatic approach to her movie about the end of the world.

There are only twenty minutes to impact. The minutes are stretched to two hours within a threefold storyline in which the events are repeated from multiple perspectives. I INCLINATION IS FLATTENING takes place at the White House Situation Room. II HITTING A BULLET WITH A BULLET takes us to Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska. III A HOUSE FILLED WITH DYNAMITE focuses on the President at a basketball event and the First Lady who is in Kenya. AFTERMATH is set outside the Raven Rock Mountain Complex, "the underground Pentagon".

The general sense of this is of committed professionals at the top of their game facing an overwhelming situation. All details are in place, but the big picture is inadequate. The world ends in incomprehension and helplessness.

I have no competence in judging the plausibility of the story, but I am thinking about classics of contemporary political history such as Steve Coll's Ghost Wars and The Achilles Trap and Tim Weiner's The Mission. So much high quality professional effort, and such a failure in grasping the big picture. The danger can grow with the degradation of the internet and the rise of chat robots characterized by the Oxford Dictionary's words of the year "brain rot" and "rage bait".

The nuclear apocalypse movie became a trend with On the Beach, Fail Safe, Dr. Strangelove and The Bedford Incident. Post-apocalyptic movies became a trend, too, from The Planet of the Apes to The End. Kathryn Bigelow's own Strange Days came close to the territory.

The ending of A House of Dynamite is elliptic in the extreme. In her statement, Bigelow addresses our "collective numbness — a quiet normalisation of the unthinkable". We live in an age of a simultaneous information flood and a denial of the big picture: about climate disaster, a dystopian turn in information technology, baby killers rampant in the Holy Land - and the risk of a nuclear apocalypse. 

To me, A House of Dynamite is not Kathryn Bigelow's best film, but it is a startling vision about an age of denial and postponing decision until it is too late.

The Netflix experience was marred by an abrupt stop to the viewing when the end credits had barely started. After a trial run of two movies similarly disrupted I have no desire to continue with Netflix. 

Wake Up Dead Man

 

Rian Johnson: Wake Up Dead Man (US 2025). Standing: Josh Brolin (Monsignor Jefferson Wicks), Daniel Craig (Benoit Blanc) and Josh O'Connor (Jud Duplenticy). 

Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery.

    US 2025. Netflix. PC: T-Street Productions ; Ram Bergman Productions. P: Ram Bergman, Rian Johnson.

    D+SC: Rian Johnson. Cin: Steve Yedlin – colour – 1,85:1 – 4K master format – Super 35 some shots – released on DCP and UHD video. Aerial DP: Jeremy Braben. PD: Rick Heinrichs. AD: Dean Clegg. Set dec: Kathryn Pyle. Cost: Jenny Eagan. Makeup: John Blake. SFX: Sarah Pearce. VFX: Scanline VFX ; PFX ; Digikore VFX ; Rows of Numbers. Lidar services: We Shoot Lasers. VFX supervisor: Giles Harding. End credit paintings of main characters in costume: Isabella Watling. M: Nathan Johnson. S: Matthew Wood - Dolby Digital * Dolby Atmos. ED: Bob Ducsay.

    Soundtrack: G. F. Händel: "Thine Be the Glory". Tom Waits: "Come On Up to the House" (Tom Waits, Kathleen Brennan).

    CAST from Wikipedia:

Daniel Craig as Benoit Blanc, a private detective

Josh O'Connor as Jud Duplenticy, a young priest and former boxer who reformed after killing a man in a match

Glenn Close as Martha Delacroix, a devout church lady and Wicks' right-hand woman

Josh Brolin as Monsignor Jefferson Wicks, a charismatic and domineering priest who serves as the congregation's central figure

Mila Kunis as Geraldine Scott, a local police chief

Jeremy Renner as Dr. Nat Sharp, a town doctor

Kerry Washington as Vera Draven, Esq., a tightly wound lawyer

Andrew Scott as Lee Ross, a formerly best-selling author fallen on hard times

Cailee Spaeny as Simone Vivane, a disabled former concert cellist

Daryl McCormack as Cy Draven, Vera's adoptive son, an aspiring politician

Thomas Haden Church as Samson Holt, a circumspect groundskeeper and Martha's lover

Jeffrey Wright as Langstrom, a bishop who assigns Duplenticy to Wicks' church

Annie Hamilton as Grace Wicks, Jefferson's mother, branded the "harlot whore" by Jefferson and the community

James Faulkner as Reverend Prentice Wicks, Jefferson's grandfather

Bridget Everett as Louise, a construction company employee

Noah Segan as Nikolai, a bar owner

Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a baseball announcer

    Loc: Holy Innocents Church (High Beech, Epping Forest, Essex, England, UK). – Butler's Retreat (Epping Forest). – Cold Spring (New York, USA).

    Filming dates 10 June – 17 Aug 2024.

    Festival premiere: 6 Sep 2025 Toronto.

    US theatrical premiere: 26 Nov 2025, released by Netflix

    Finnish theatrical premiere: none.

    Netflix: 12 Dec 2025.

    Viewed at home on Netflix with Finnish subtitles, 24 Dec 2025.

The title has two sources: the traditional American prison song "Ain't No More Cane on the Brazos" and "Wake Up Dead Man" (the final track on the U2 album Pop, 1997).

AA: Rian Johnson's Wake Up Dead Man would deserve to be seen on the largest cinema screen, but in Finland there is not even a token cinema release. For the first time I view a film on Netflix. The experience is cheapened by a forced cut: having barely started, the end credits are interrupted. End credits are essential especially in a huge production like this where the roll of honour is a true celebration to the art and craft on display. One can sense love and commitment to every detail. Fittingly for the subject. God is in the detail.

I loved Knives Out (US 2019), the first movie in the series starring Daniel Craig as the private detective Benoit Blanc. I missed the second movie, Glass Onion (US 2022) because it was not theatrically released in my country.

Wake Up Dead Man is a lavish spectacle boasting a magnificent cast of characters, expanding and elaborating a classic Agatha Christie mystery formula in which everyone has a motive for murder.

As shot by Steve Yedlin, this movie shares with the first Knives Out movie a grandiose sense of space, in this case a sacred one. The vision is impressive both in awesome aerial shots and fascinating and haunting details. These films are feasts to the eye. The distinction of Wake Up Dead Man is its Gothic approach.

It is an excellent piece of entertainment and more. The members of the parish of the charismatic Monsignor (Josh Brolin) are lost souls who find solace in his compelling circle of faith. The actors convey the solitude and anguish of their characters with sensitivity and passion. I do not find a weak link in the cast. Josh O'Connor excels as the counterforce to the authoritarian Monsignor, but I would like to sing the praise of all in the cast.

The power of the faith is so overwhelming that key questions remain ignored. External motions of religion are followed, but have they anything to do with Jesus Christ? Love thy neighbour as yourself and God above all: this is the Law and the Prophets. But there is no love in this building.

"Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves".

The Knives Out series obeys the classic concept of storytelling of plot and story (sujet and fabula). The plot is about the detective's search to find out who's guilty, and the story is about understanding the bigger history, the revelation of what it is all about. When we reach the end we also comprehend the beginning. It is a narrative practice open to endless variations and developments.

Again we also have a locked room mystery, and there is a witty meta-narrative about the police and the detective independently studying a classic of the genre, John Dickson Carr (also known as Carter Dickson), and especially his novel The Hollow Man (called The Three Coffins in the USA). I am also a fan, and in the 1960s I read all his novels which had been translated into Finnish. But The Hollow Man I never read; it was published in Finland only in 1981 as Kolme ruumisarkkua.

The dialogue is juicy and witty, and one can sense how much the cast has relished the great ensemble work. 

There is something terribly wrong in the the social contract. Wake Up Dead Man displays an awareness of the volatile condition of society, a quiet desperation, the lure of authoritarianism, the danger of the internet - but also an innate goodness, courage and dignity, facing one's weaknesses and failures. Feeling that lure of desperation but never succumbing to it.

NB. I am also thinking about the first novel in the locked room mystery lineage, Israel Zangwill's The Big Bow Mystery (1895) filmed by Don Siegel as The Verdict (US 1946). Even details of what happened in the locked room are similar in Wake Up Dead Man.

John Dickson Carr: The Hollow Man (1936), in Finnish Kolme ruumisarkkua (1981).

Aalto ELO Film School 2025 Autumn Show III Screening (in person: the film-makers)

Saareke / The Isle.

Välityö. Type: Documentary. Genre: Documentary. 2025. Finland. 20 min 00 sec. Shot on digital. Released on DCP. Color. Sound 5.1. Aspect ratio: 16:9. 25 fps. Language: English. Subtitled in Finnish.

PRODUCER: Harri Connell

DIRECTOR: Harri Connell.

CINEMATOGRAPHY: Eemeli Nättinen.

DRAMATURGE: Sohvi Manninen.

SOUND: Kaspian Gröndahl

EDITING: Oona Pennanen.

CAST:

1. Tuomas Ihamuotila

2. Felix Kalha

3. Mark von Bonsdorff 

Teachers: Anna Heiskanen, Jonathan Harvey, Oskar Franzen, Pietari Koskinen.

ONE LINER IN ENGLISH: "Keep the spark alive."

ONE LINER IN FINNISH: "Älä sammuta kipinää."

SYNOPSIS IN ENGLISH: "Three friends leave behind their everyday destractions isolate themselves on an island for two nights. As they arrive, they try to occupy themselves with what they find on the island. What differences can be seen between life surrounded by nature and everyday life at home?"

SYNOPSIS IN FINNISH: "Kolme kaverusta jättävät arjen ärsykkeet ja asettuvat kahdeksi yöksi saarelle. Saarella vastassa odottaa joutenolo ja luonto, joka seisauttaa kolmikon äärelleen. Mitä eroja ja samankaltaisuuksia oman arjen ja saarella oleskelun välille syntyy?"

    AA: Digital detox as an extreme experience. More than that: an attempt at survival without the easy conveniences of urban life. Among the topics debated: camping on an island as the ultimate alienation from nature. Because it is a luxury that one can afford for a change. An interesting essay on essential issues. Image-driven, the sense of nature engrossing, original, unique. A play on light and darkness. A solid sense of composition. The key visual subject is light - full moon - lighting a fire.

Totuuksia / The Real Thing.

2026. Finland. 13 min 10 sec. Shot on digital. Released on DCP. Color / Black & White. 5.1 Dolby Surround. Language: Finnish. Premiere: 27.11.2025.

PRODUCERS: Aamu Milonoff, Myrsky Virmavirta.

DIRECTOR: Annika Palojärvi.

SCRIPT: Rusul Al Nassar, Julia Matinniemi.

CINEMATOGRAPHY: Nadia Farghaly.

GAFFER: Noa Korhonen.

SET DESIGN: Hanna Erämaja.

COSTUME DESIGN: Satu Muurinen.

MUAH DESIGNER: Sara Pettersson.

COMPOSER: Kasimir Kemppainen.

SOUND: Laura Torkkola.

EDITING: Julia Matinniemi.

CAST:

1. Aamu Milonoff (PETRA)

2. Jasir Osman (MIKKO)

3. Meri Luukkanen (AINO)

4. Ville Vuorikoski (JESSE)

5. Petteri Lassila (PAULI)

6. Antti Virmavirta (JUONTAJA)

Teachers: Anna Heiskanen, Jussi Rantamäki, Raija Talvio, Pietari Koskinen, Harri Ylönen, Jonathan Harvey, Meiju Väisänen.

ONE LINER IN ENGLISH: "Time for a short break, dear viewers."

ONE LINER IN FINNISH: "Otetaan pieni hengähdystauko, rakkaat katsojat."

SYNOPSIS IN ENGLISH: "Petra and Mikko meet on the set of the reality series Fortress of Love. Once the show airs, their romance begins to look a bit different. Is this the real thing?"

SYNOPSIS IN FINNISH: "Petra ja Mikko löytävät toisensa Rakkauden Linnake -realityohjelman kuvauksissa, mutta televisiosta katsottuna rakkaustarina alkaa näyttäytyä uudessa valossa. Paljastuvatko totuudet tv-kameroiden edessä vai takana?"

    AA: A satire on reality television. The test situations are merely goofy at first, including cutting fruit and opening a jar. Matchmaking seems quite possible, but then a test question in Sophie's Choice territory shatters everything. 

Small Talk / Small Talk.

Välityö. Type: Fiction. Genre: Drama. 2025. Finland. 8 min 00 sec. Shot on digital. Released in 2K DCP. Color. Sound: 5.1. Aspect ratio: 4:3. 24 fps. Language: Finnish. Subtitled in English. 

PRODUCER: Harri Connell

DIRECTOR: Aaro Lindberg.

CINEMATOGRAPHY: Eemeli Nättinen.

PRODUCTION DESIGN: Felix Järvenpää.

COSTUME DESIGN: Salla Oinas.

SOUND: Kaspian Gröndahl.

EDITING: Aaro Lindberg.

CAST

1. Niklas von Lüders – Ripa

2. Juho Keränen – Mara

3. Liisa Vääriskoski – Ystävä

4. Elli Melasniemi – Tarjoilija 

Teachers: Anna Heiskanen, Jonathan Harvey, Oskar Franzén, Pietari Koskinen.

ONE LINER IN ENGLISH: "You can never know."

ONE LINER IN FINNISH: "Et voi koskaan tietää."

SYNOPSIS IN ENGLISH: "A random encounter with an old friend leads to a conversation that no one actually wanted to have."

SYNOPSIS IN FINNISH: "Satunnainen kohtaaminen vanhan tuttavan kanssa johtaa keskusteluun, jota kukaan ei oikeastaan halunnut käydä."

    AA: One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez is the book being read as the film begins. Two old acquaintances have not met in years. They engage in small talk. The dramaturgy is not unlike the previous film The Real Thing. Unexpectedly among the small talk topics a bomb is detonated, a piece of devastating news that reduces the listener speechless. And that is just for starters. Technically low definition, like a home video.

Etäisyyksiä / Interspace.

Välityö. Type: Animation. Genre: Drama. 2026. Finland. 15 min 15 sec. Shot in digital. Released on DCP. Color. Sound 5.1. Aspect ratio 16:9. 24 fps. Language: Finnish. Subtitled in English. Premiere.

DIRECTOR: Jesse Lähilehto.

SCRIPT: Jesse Lähilehto.

PRODUCER: Linnea Salonen.

CINEMATOGRAPHY: Iina Lallo & Aleksis Riehakainen.

SOUND: Ville Visti.

EDITING: Jesse Lähilehto.

SET DESIGN: Felix Järvenpää.

COSTUME & CHARACTER DESIGN: Tuuni Jacobs.

ANIMATION: Tuuni Jacobs & Jesse Lähilehto.

CAST

1. Linnea Leino (Pupu)

2. Aapo Salonen (Orava)

3. Eric Barco (Kettu)

4. Irpo Niemenmaa (Juhlija)

Teachers: Miia Haavisto, Jussi Rantamäki, Rauno Ronkainen, Harri Ylönen, Sofia Pantouvaki, 

Pietari Koskinen.

ONE LINER IN ENGLISH: "A rabbit searches for answers to an unexplainable event."

ONE LINER IN FINNISH: "Pupu etsii selitystä selittämättömälle ilmiölle."

SYNOPSIS IN ENGLISH: "On a dark autumn night, a rabbit and a squirrel set out to recreate an unexplainable phenomenon the rabbit had experienced at a house party. While making their way to a distant field, the rabbit recounts the events of the party shadowed by uncertainty, awe, and a longing for connection."

SYNOPSIS IN FINNISH: "Hämäränä syysiltana pupu ja orava pyrkivät toistamaan pupun kotibileissä kokeman merkillisen ilmiön. Matkatessa etäiselle pellolle pupu muistelee juhlien epävarmuudella ja yhteyden kaipuulla värjättyjä tapahtumia."

    AA: A weird animation about a rabbit and a squirrel who try to make sense of a fox who hosts a house party. Signals are being transmitted into outer space. The cosmic and the terrestrial appear as equally uncanny.

Kanssani aina / Forever With Me.

2025. Finland. 17 min 30 sec. Shot in digital. Released on DCP. Sound: 5.1 Surround. Aspect ratio: 1.50:1. Premiere: 5.12.2025.

DIRECTOR: Noa Korhonen, Myrsky Virmavirta.

PRODUCERS: Noa Korhonen, Myrsky Virmavirta.

CINEMATOGRAPHY: Eemeli Nättinen.

SOUND: Kaspian Gröndahl.

EDITING: Aaro Lindberg.

COMPOSER: Kaspian Gröndahl.

CAST

1. Noa Korhonen

2. Marjatta Korhonen

3. Saku Vauhkonen

4. Lilja Vauhkonen

Teachers: Anna Heiskanen, Jonathan Harvey, Pietari Koskinen, Oskar Franzén.

ONE LINER IN ENGLISH: "It's hard for me to think that you won't be here much longer."

ONE LINER IN FINNISH: "Se on mulle vaikea ajatus, että sä et kohta enää ole täällä."

SYNOPSIS IN ENGLISH: "Forever With Me is a documentary short film set over one weekend at Grandma’s in Suonenjoki, Finland. Between conversations about the past and the future — about memory, preservation, life and death — everyday gestures fill the days: mowing the lawn, frying pancakes, watering flowers at the grave, just as always before. The film explores themes of loss and the fear of forgetting, but above all, the quiet joys of the days that still remain."

SYNOPSIS IN FINNISH: "Dokumentaarinen lyhytelokuva kertoo yhdestä viikonlopusta mummolassa Suonenjoella. Menneisyyden ja tulevaisuuden, muistamisen ja säilyttämisen, elämän ja kuoleman äärellä käydyt keskustelut rytmittyvät arkisten askareiden ympärille. Nurmikko leikataan, letut paistetaan, hautakukat kastellaan – niin kuin aina ennenkin. Kanssani Aina kertoo menetyksestä ja sen pelosta, mutta ennen kaikkea jäljellä olevien yhteisten päivien iloista."

    AA: A personal history movie, a family movie, about connections across generations, about traditions that still exist but are bound to vanish with the grandparents. The hard truth is faced openly: when you are here no more. The happy truth, too: the privilege to have known someone through all one's life. And forever. A profoundly human and moving documentary. The sense of nature is all-encompassing, it is the very element of life. Shot in low definition, with a soft image.

    Heard in the finale: hymn 971 of the Virsikirja, the official hymnal, hymn book of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland, "Maan korvessa kulkevi lapsosen tie" / "Suojelusenkeli" ["The Guardian Angel"], lyr. Immi Hellén 1884, comp. P. J. Hannikainen 1907.

    The final shot is the poster image of the Aalto ELO Film School Autumn 2025 show.

Aalto ELO Film School 2025 Autumn Show II Screening (in person: the film-makers)

Connection / Connection.

Virtual reality course. Type: Fiction. Genre: Sci-fi tragedy. 2025. Finland. 4 min 4 sec. Shot on Prores 4444XQ. Released on DCP. Black & White. Sound. Aspect ratio 4:3. 25 fps. No dialogue. No subtitles . 

DIRECTOR  Eemeli Nättinen

SCRIPT  Aino Kaurismäki Anikó Kuikka, Eemeli Nättinen, Moritz Scherzer

CINEMATOGRAPHY  Eemeli Nättinen, Moritz Scherzer

SET DESIGN Aino Kaurismäki, Anikó Kuikka

COSTUME DESIGN  Aino Kaurismäki, Anikó Kuikka

SOUND  Aino Kaurismäki Anikó Kuikka, Moritz Scherzer

EDITING  Aino Kaurismäki Anikó Kuikka, Eemeli Nättinen, Moritz Scherzer

CAST

1. Viivi Tarvainen / X

2. Valo Rinne / Robot puppeteer

Teachers:  Kaisa Mäkinen, Rauno Ronkainen

ONE LINER IN ENGLISH 

A lonely person in space is building a radio tower, hoping to find contact.

ONE LINER IN FINNISH 

Yksinäinen ihminen avaruudessa rakentaa radiotornia toivoen löytävänsä yhteyden.

SYNOPSIS IN ENGLISH  On a desolate junk planet, the protagonist X and their robot companion share a joyful life despite the bleak surrounding world. But when a blinking light appears in the distance, obsession to get in contact with the source consumes X. In the end, X loses everything chasing an idea, only realising what truly mattered when it was gone.

SYNOPSIS IN FINNISH  Autioilla romuplaneetalla päähenkilö X ja hänen robottikumppaninsa elävät iloista elämää synkästä maailmasta huolimatta. Mutta kun kaukaisuudessa välähtää valo, yhteyden saamisesta siihen tulee X:n pakkomielle. Lopulta X menettää kaiken jahdatessaan pelkkää ajatusta – ja ymmärtää vasta silloin, mikä todella oli tärkeää.

    AA: In black & white Academy, a retro-dystopian mini saga about the pursuit of cosmic connection. The satiric approach reminds me of Devo.

Forbidden / Forbidden.

Type: Fiction. Genre: Scifi/Fantasy. 2025. Finland. 2 min 42 sec. Color. Stereo. Aspect ratio 16:9. 25 fps. No dialogue. No subtitles. 

DIRECTOR  Sonia Gran / Iina Mesiniemi / Lotta Lemetti / Aura

SCRIPT Sonia Gran / Iina Mesiniemi / Lotta Lemetti / Aura

CINEMATOGRAPHY  Iina Mesiniemi

SET DESIGN Sonia Gran ja Lotta Lemetti

VIRTUAL DESIGN Aura

COSTUME DESIGN Sonia Gran ja Iina Mesiniemi

SOUND Iina Mesiniemi / Kaspian Gröndahl

EDITING Iina Mesiniemi

MAIN CAST

1. Janina Vuorimaa (Kolmio-alien)

Teachers: Kaisa Mäkinen, Rauno Ronkainen, Tanja Bastamow ja Antti Ahokoivu

ONE LINER IN ENGLISH

A perfect sphere, A forbidden sphere.

ONE LINER IN FINNISH

Täydellinen pallo, kielletty pallo.

SYNOPSIS IN ENGLISH

There is a small triangle world where a little triangle person lives. They are on their daily walk on their planet when they come across something they have never seen before. A perfect sphere. He must have it.

SYNOPSIS IN FINNISH

On olemassa pieni kolmio planeetta missä asuu pieni kolmio ihminen. Hän on päivittäisellä kävelyllään

planeetallaan kunnes he törmäävät asiaan jota he eivät ole koskaan ennen nähneet. Täydellinen pallo. Hänen pitää saada se.

    AA: Another minimalistic space odyssey: an encounter with a ball in a triangle world.

Dyynari / Space Döner.

Virtual production. Type: Fiction. Genre: Comedy / Fantasy. 2025. FINLAND. 2 Min 59 Sec. Shot on Arri Amira 3.2K. Released on DCP. Color. Sound: Stereo 48000 hZ. Aspect ratio 16:9. 25 fps. No dialogue. No subtitles.

PRODUCER: Felix Järvenpää, Estella Niemi, Olli Niskanen, Iida Nurminen & Valo Rinne

DIRECTOR: Felix Järvenpää, Estella Niemi, Olli Niskanen, Iida Nurminen & Valo Rinne

SCRIPT: Felix Järvenpää, Estella Niemi, Olli Niskanen, Iida Nurminen & Valo Rinne

CINEMATOGRAPHY: Estella Niemi

GAFFER: Valo Rinne

SET DESIGN: Felix Järvenpää, Olli Niskanen, Iida Nurminen & Valo Rinne

COSTUME DESIGN: Estella Niemi

COMPOSER: Felix Järvenpää

MUSIC: Felix Järvenpää

SOUND:  Felix Järvenpää, Estella Niemi, Olli Niskanen, Iida Nurminen & Valo Rinne

EDITING:  Felix Järvenpää, Estella Niemi, Olli Niskanen, Iida Nurminen & Valo Rinne

MAIN CAST

1. Sonia Gran + Alien

Teachers: Antti Ahokoivu, Tanja Bastamov, Kaisa Mäkinen

ONE LINER IN ENGLISH: Space döner saves the day!

ONE LINER IN FINNISH: Dyynari pelastaa päivän!

SYNOPSIS IN ENGLISH: Another gruelling day at the space office is suddenly interrupted by a fire alarm. Finally some free time for the alien worker!

SYNOPSIS IN FINNISH: Kyllästyttävä työpäivä saa yllättävän käänteen palohälytyksen syttyessä — Vihdoin omaa aikaa alienille! 

    AA: More retro dystopian minimalism in a tale involving a cd player and a hot dog automat. The vintage pop hit on the soundtrack, Harpo's Moviestar (comp,, lyr. Harpo [Jan Harpo Torsten Svensson], SE 1975) contributes a poignant dimension about reality and illusion.

Kultakäsi / Golden Hand.

Fiction. Folk Horror. 2025. Finland. 2 min 55 s. Shot on digital. Released in digital. Color. Sound: 5.1. Aspect ratio: 1.44. 25 fps. No dialogue. No subtitles.

PRODUCER: Ida Lindgren

DIRECTOR:  Josu Koivisto

SCRIPT:  Josu Koivisto, Ida Lindgren, Vitaly Petuhov, Mirva Toivonen

CINEMATOGRAPHY: Vitaly Petuhov, Ida Lindgren

SET DESIGN:  Josu Koivisto, Mirva Toivonen

COSTUME DESIGN:  Josu Koivisto, Ida Lindgren

SOUND:  Sandra Tervonen

EDITING:  Vitaly Petuhov

MAIN CAST

1. Kristiina Halkola as Olga

2. Viljami Penttilä as The Devil

Teachers: Jonathan Harvey, Meri Proud, Anu Maja

ONE LINER IN ENGLISH: A visit from the Devil to a farmhouse causes supernatural events.

ONE LINER IN FINNISH: Paholaisen vierailu maalaistalolla saa aikaan yliluonnollisia tapahtumia.

SYNOPSIS IN ENGLISH:  On a stormy day in a farmhouse, the housemaid Olga awaits the approaching figure of the Devil. The wind howls ominously as he arrives at the door, where he hands Olga a black bag as a token of the barter. Golden Hand is a folk tale about darkness, the glitter of gold, and the blind greediness of man.

SYNOPSIS IN FINNISH:  Myrskyisenä päivänä maalaistalossa talon piika, Olga, odottaa Paholaisen lähestyvää hahmoa. Tuuli ulvoo pahaenteisesti tämän saapuessa ovelle, missä hän ojentaa Olgalle mustan laukun vaihtokaupan merkiksi. Kultakäsi on kansansatu pimeydestä, kullan kimalluksesta ja ihmisen sokeasta ahneudesta.

    AA: From space fantasies to revived folklore and fairy-tales. The ancient theme of the pact with the Devil and the lure of gold reminds us of Herodotus, Shakespeare, Faust, Midas, Rumpeltstiltskin, Le Peau de chagrin... and Goldfinger. Effectively staged and enacted in less than three minutes.

Tanssijatar / Dancer.

Type: Fiction. Genre: Fantasy. 2025. Finland. 5 min 16 sec. Shot on digital. Released in digital. Color. Sound: 5.1. Aspect ratio: 1.66. 25 fps. No dialogue. No subtitles. 

PRODUCER:  Veeti Hautanen

DIRECTOR:  Irina Jaako

SCRIPT:  Irina Jaako, Lotta Pirhonen, Rane Rytkönen, Veeti Hautanen

CINEMATOGRAPHY:  Rane Rytkönen, Veeti Hautanen

SET DESIGN: Irina Jaako, Lotta Pirhonen

COSTUME DESIGN: Irina Jaako

COMPOSER: Tiia Horppu

SOUND:  Tiia Horppu

EDITING:  Vilma Hannén

MAIN CAST

1. Milla Tissari (tanssijatar)

Teachers:  Jonathan Harvey, Meri Proud (Cinematography). Anu Maja (Set design)

ONE LINER IN ENGLISH: The Dancer walks on stage.

ONE LINER IN FINNISH: Tanssijatar astuu lavalle.

SYNOPSIS IN ENGLISH: The Dancer wakes up and feels a call to walk up-stage.

SYNOPSIS IN FINNISH: Tassijatar herää ja tuntee kutsun astua lavalle.

    AA: A fairy-tale mode continues in the Dancer, with affinities with H. C. Andersen's The Red Shoes. A suggestive mood, evoking the enchantment and magic of the dance theatre.

The Temple of Lemminkäinen / The Temple of Lemminkäinen.

Type: Fiction. Genre: Action. Finland. 4 min 21 sec. Released in ProRes. Color. Stereo. No dialogue. No subtitles. CREDITS: Antris Bonsdorff, Erik Vartiainen, Krista Moisio, Paco Bouazza, Katri Vasama, Petri Kärkkäinen, Sandra Enkvist, Valo Rinne.

    AA: An irreverent spoof mix of martial arts action cinema, Finnish forest mythology and references to Kalevala (Lemminkäinen).

Tuuli kantaa laulujoutsenen sisarta / The Wind Carries the Sister of the Whooper Swan.

Type: Fiction. Genre: Martial arts. 2025. Finland. 9 min 33 sec. Color. Stereo. Aspect ratio 16:9. 24 fps. Languages: Finnish, Swedish. Subtitled in English. 

PRODUCER  Mikael Rutkiewicz

DIRECTOR  David Bošnjak

CINEMATOGRAPHY  Moritz Scherzer, Philip Leierer

SOUND Mariia Solodiankina 

EDITING  David Bošnjak

CAST:

1. Katri Järvelä

2. Philip Leierer

3. Gabriele Goria

4. David Bošnjak

5. Mikael Rutkiewicz

ONE LINER IN ENGLISH: "Shut up asshole!"

ONE LINER IN FINNISH: "Turpa kiinni perseenreikä!"

    AA: The martial arts connection continued. Kung fu fighters in a spoof action clownerie, recorded in low definition.

Pelko / Fear.

Type: Fiction. Genre: psychological thriller. 2025. Finland. 20 min. Shot in digital. Released on DCP. Color / Black & White. 5.1. Aspect ratio 2.39:1. 24 fps. Language: Finnish. Subtitled in English. Premiere status: 20.2.2026.

PRODUCER  Iiris Sjöblad ja Anna Heiskanen

DIRECTOR Kristiina Airas

SCRIPT Sanni Kämäräinen

CINEMATOGRAPHY  Tomi Rislakki

SET DESIGN  Siwei Gao

COSTUME DESIGN  Meri Craig

MAKE UP ARTIST  Maija Petäjä

COMPOSER  Heikki Turppo

SOUND  Tyko Sairanen

EDITING  Aaro Lindberg

MAIN CAST

1. Milla Tissari + Elli

2. Johanna Kuuva + Therapist and Entity

Teachers: Kaisa Mäkinen, Rauno Ronkainen, Anu Hukka, Sofia Pantouvaki, Raija Talvio, Harri Ylönen, Patrick Boulanger

ONE LINER IN ENGLISH: Joskus täytyy mennä taaksepäin että voi siirtyä eteenpäin.

ONE LINER IN FINNISH:  Sometimes you need to go backwards to move forward.

SYNOPSIS IN ENGLISH:  Fear tells the story of 30-year-old Elli, who has had an accident in real life due to her addiction. She has driven drunk and lost consciousness. In the film, we do not see the accident, but the film begins directly from Elli’s dream, where the flashes of ambulance sirens mix with the water on the sandy beach, where Elli is shipwrecked. Elli finds a door on the sandy beach, through which she embarks on a dream journey that takes her through her life in the depths of fear. The film asks: Is it possible for Elli to face herself and her fears? Through various doors and imaginary rooms, Elli fights with herself as she encounters her own shadows in the form of a faceless hooded Entity and a Therapist, who try to lead her to face her fears. Elli fights back until there is no escape. Facing herself is the only option.

SYNOPSIS IN FINNISH:  Pelko kertoo tarinan 30-vuotiaasta Ellistä, joka on joutunut tosielämässä onnettomuuteen addiktionsa takia. Hän on ajanut humaltuneena kolarin ja menettänyt tajuntansa. Elokuvassa emme näe kolaria vaan elokuva alkaa suoraan Ellin unesta, jossa ambulanssin sireenien valojen välähdykset sekoittuvat hiekkarannan veteen, jonne Elli on haaksirikkoutunut. Elli löytää hiekkarannalta oven, jonka kautta hän lähtee uneensa matkalle, joka käy läpi hänen elämäänsä pelkojen syövereissä. Elokuva kysyy: Onko Ellin mahdollista kohdata itseään ja pelkojaan? Erilaisten ovien ja mielikuvitushuoneiden kautta Elli käy taistelua itsensä kanssa kohdatessaan omia varjojaan kasvottoman huppupäisen Entiteetin ja Terapeutin muodossa, jotka yrittävät johdattaa häntä kohtaamaan pelkonsa. Elli kamppailee vastaan kunnes pakotietä ei enää ole. Itsensä kohtaaminen on ainoa vaihtoehto.

    AA: A nightmare quest of Elli. As a substance addict, she has landed into a near lethal accident. In the labyrinth of her own mind she conducts a fight for her sanity, trying to make sense of the broken mirrors inside. Kristiina Airas creates a compelling dream world with original and haunting nightmare visions. The movie grows into a cosmic battle of wills between Elli (Milla Tissari) and the nightmare creatures Therapist and Entity (both interpreted by Johanna Kuuva). My favourite in the Aalto ELO Film School 2025 Autumn Show.

Keho on sieluni koti / Body Is the Home of My Soul.

Type: Animation. Genre: Experimental. 2025. Finland. 4 min 40 sec. Released in mp4. Color. Sound: 2 channels (stereo). Aspect ratio. 16:9. 24 fps. No dialogue. No subtitles. 

Producer: Tuulia Jalava.

Animation: Tuulia Jalava.

Cinematography: Tuulia Jalava (the production is a digital animation).

Sound post-production thanks: ELM Productions.

Music: Ambient Light (Liborio Conti), Infinite Wonder (Kevin MacLeod), Planeteer Reaction (Bryan Teoh), Noisescape (Liborio Conti).

Kiitos: Kari Kankaanpää, Kaisa Mäkinen, Tanja Bastamow, Kimmo Jalava, Annika Miettinen, Sonia Gran, Susanna Mikkola, Magdaleena Jakkila .

Teacher:  Kaisa Mäkinen

ONE LINER IN ENGLISH: "Experimental exploration of gender with the medium of space in digital animation."

ONE LINER IN FINNISH: "Kokeellinen digitaalinen animaatio sukupuolesta missä välineenä toimii tila."

SYNOPSIS IN ENGLISH: "Experimental animation transports the audience through the artist's own personal journey through understanding their own gender. The medium is spaces that tell about the pain, escape and acceptance. The spaces transform and change throughout the film, speaking about the growth from child to adult."

    "The animation starts at childhood, with carefree and naive feelings. The door opens and the outside comes pouring in covering everything in its wake. This pressure from outside leads to change. The new room is cold and hard. Again a door opens. This time it leads to something that is colorful, softer. But again the room starts to change creating a different pressure. The pressure of the change leads to movement. After a small dark box the last room of the animation is revealed."

SYNOPSIS IN FINNISH: "Kokeellinen animaatio kuljettaa katsojan läpi animaation tekijän henkilökohtaisen sukupuolen ymmärtämisen matkan. Välineenä tässä matkassa toimivat tilat, joilla kerrotaan tuskan, pakenemisen ja hyväksynnän vaiheista. Tilat muuttuvat ja vaihtuvat matkan aikana, kertoen kasvua lapsesta aikuiseksi."

    "Animaatio alkaa lapsuudesta, huolettomuudesta ja vapaudesta olla. Ovi aukeaa ja ulkomaailma hyökkää sisälle peittäen kaiken alleen. Tämä ulkomaailman paine johtaa muutokseen, siirtymään. Uusi huone on kylmä, kolkko ja kova. Jälleen ovi aukeaa. Tällä kertaa kohti jotain mikä on värikäs, pehmeämpi ja kutsuva. Tämänkin huoneen tunnelma kuitenkin alkaa muuttua. Muutos johtaa siirtymään. Pienen pimeän laatikon jälkeen laskeudutaan animaation viimeiseen huoneeseen, kohti hyväksyntää."

    AA: Tuulia Jalava creates an imaginary space which reminds virtual reality or installation art, complete with a replica of Venus de Milo. It grows into an experimental research lab to study the experience of gender.

Myyräuni / Mole Dream.

Välityö. Type: Fiction. Genre: Experimental. 2026. Finland. 14 min 32 sek. Shot on MP4. Released on DCP. Color. Stereo. Aspect ratio 4:3. 25 fps. Language: Finnish. Subtitled in English. 

PRODUCER:  Jimi Rosling.

DIRECTOR:  Julia Matinniemi & Jimi Rosling.

SCRIPT:  Jimi Rosling

CINEMATOGRAPHY:  Valo Rinne.

COMPOSER: Julia Matinniemi & Sampo Wiik

SOUND:  Julia Matinniemi.

EDITING: Julia Matinniemi.

CAST

1. Jasmin Gummerus, kertoja (narrator)

Teachers: Timo Lehti, Harri Ylönen, Rauno Ronkainen.

ONE LINER IN ENGLISH:  "An experimental lo-fi odyssey about an inspector of leather chairs who must prove their creativity to the agency that oversees dreams in order to have a chance at experiencing their mole dream again."

ONE LINER IN FINNISH: "Kokeellinen lo-fi-odysseia nahkatuolien tarkastajasta, jonka täytyy todistaa luovuutensa unia valvovalle virastolle saadakseen luvan myyräunen näkemiseen."

SYNOPSIS IN ENGLISH: "An anonymous inspector of leather chairs tells the story of a mole dream they had years ago — a dream they long to experience again. Standing in their way, however, is the agency that oversees dreams, which refuses to grant them permission until they have proven their creativity. After being promoted to the agency’s creative department, the leather chair inspector obsessively spends their working hours filling out new dream permit applications and eventually receives a special permit to revisit the mole dream. They resign from their job and escape into the forest to experience the mole dream one last time."

SYNOPSIS IN FINNISH: "Anonyymi nahkatuolien tarkastaja kertoo tarinan vuosia sitten näkemästään myyräunesta, jonka hän haluaa nähdä uudelleen. Esteenä on kuitenkin unia valvova virasto, joka ei myönnä tarkastajalle lupaa unen näkemiseen, ennen kuin hän on todistanut virastolle luovuutensa. Saatuaan ylennyksen viraston luovalle osastolle nahkatuolien tarkastaja käyttää työaikansa pakkomielteisesti uusien unilupahakemusten täyttämiseen ja saa lopulta erikoisluvan myyräunen näkemiseen. Hän irtisanoutuu työstään ja pakenee metsään kokeakseen myyräunen viimeisen kerran."

    AA:  In search of an obsolete mole dream, a mystery quest realized in ultra low definition. A spoof of a spoof.