Amarga Navidad / Bitter Christmas

 

Pedro Almodóvar: Amarga Navidad / Bitter Christmas (ES 2026). Leonardo Sbaraglia (Raúl) and Quim Gutiérrez (Santi).

Pedro Almodóvar: Amarga Navidad / Bitter Christmas (ES 2026). Vexierbild (picture puzzle): Leonardo Sbaraglia (Raúl) / Bárbara Lennie (Elsa). Poster art design by Juan Gatti.

Autofiktio / Autofiktion.

    Un film de Almodóvar. 

    ES 2026. El Deseo S.A. P: Agustín Almodóvar. EX: Esther García.

    D+SC: Pedro Almodóvar. DP: Pau Esteve Birba - colour - Panavision anamorphic 2.39:1 - source format: Arriraw 4.6K - master format: digital intermediate 4K - release format: DCP. PD: Antxon Gómez. AD: Isabel Peinado. Cost: Paco Delgado. Makeup: Ana López-Puigcerver. Hair: Manolo García. SFX: César Abades / Reyes Abades Efectos Especiales. VFX: Tucho Lorenzo. Poster art: Juan Gatti. Graphic design: Gabriel del Boca, Manuel Romero, Juan Sánchez, Pablo Santa María / Studio Gatti. Art and design objects listing: see below. M: Alberto Iglesias. Soundtrack listing: see below. CH: Blanca Li. S: Sergio Bürmann. ED: Teresa Font.

    C: Bárbara Lennie (Elsa), Leonardo Sbaraglia (Raúl), Aitana Sánchez-Gijón (Mónica), Victoria Luengo (Patricia), Patrick Criado (Bonifacio), Milena Smit (Natalia), Quim Gutiérrez (Santi).

    With the collaboration of: Rossy de Palma (Gabriela), Carmen Machi (Doctor), Gloria Muñoz (Elsa's mother) and Amaia Romero.

    Loc: Madrid (including Aranjuez and La Mari Queen where Beau dances as a stripper), Lanzarote (Canary Islands).

    112 min

    Spanish premiere: 19 March 2026

    Festival premiere: 19 May 2026 - Cannes

    Finnish premiere: 28 Aug 2026 - Cinemanse - Finnish / Swedish subtitles by Sari Selander / Micaela Palmberg.

    Viewed at Finnkino Kinopalatsi 10, 29 Aug 2026

Official synopsis from the press notes: "Bitter Christmas tells two alternating stories, one starring Elsa, an advertising director, in 2004, during a long weekend in December. The second takes place in 2026 and stars Raúl, a screenwriter and director who is writing a script that we soon discover is the story of Elsa, her boyfriend Bonifacio, and her friends Patricia and Natalia. Mixed with fiction, Elsa is, in a way, Raúl's alter ego, who resorts to autofiction as a solution to a long period of creative drought. He looks inside himself, and he can't help but also look at the people who make up his most intimate universe: his partner and his assistant."

    "The film narrates the close relationship between reality and fiction, between inspiration and life, raising the debate about the limits of autofiction."

IMDb capsule: "In 2004, an ad director faces a turbulent Christmas weekend. In 2026, a filmmaker turns her story into a screenplay, blurring the lines between reality, fiction, and the people closest to him."

AA: The Finnish title differs from the original Amarga Navidad which means Bitter Christmas. The Finnish Autofiktio [Autofiction] is more indicative of the movie's essence, its elusive character as multiple metafiction. It is a mobile hall of mirrors, also relevant in the context of a recent exciting account of modern and contemporary narrative prose: Edwin Frank's Stranger Than Fiction.

Pedro Almodóvar's original title derives from a song made famous by Chavela Vargas (1919-2012), a Mexican singer-songwriter-actress famous for her "rough voice of tenderness" in the genre of the ranchera. The sequence where Elsa (Bárbara Lennie) and Patricia (Victoria Luenge) sit on a sofa listening to a stunning late recording of Vargas singing "La llorona" ["The Weeping Woman"], themselves turning into weeping women, is an emotional high water mark, one of the most unforgettable scenes of its kind in the history of the cinema, evoking Fyodor Chalyapin's "Dvenadtsat razboinikov" ["The Twelve Brigands"] (lyr. Nikolai Nekrasov, comp. Nikolai Manykin-Nevstruev) in Vasili Shukshin's Strange People. In both movies, the singer seems to interpret what the characters could not begin to articulate.

Autofiction draws from deep sources. One of them is Nordic, in the cinema most famously an obsession of Ingmar Bergman's in a cycle of autofictions of his own, inspired by August Strindberg. Fellini and Bergman are evoked in Almodóvar's film. Fellini called himself "a sincere liar" who draws from his life to tell stories. Bergman's approach in autofiction can be compared with Goethe's Dichtung und Wahrheit aus meinem Leben (in German, Dichtung means both "poetry" and "fiction"). You mine your life and transform it into poetry. Strindberg and Bergman were brutally honest and self-critical about the artist-vampire sucking the life blood of people nearest to him and transforming it into drama. This is also the great theme of Almodóvar in Amarga Navidad.

Visually, Bitter Christmas is sumptuous, a feast of colourism in a glorious scope frame. The cinematography, the interior design and the costume design are of the highest order. Presumably from his own art collection, Almodóvar highlights a painting from Asher Liftin's window series which brings new insight into the movie's reflection on reality and illusion. It is a window of illusion.

Visually the most stunning scene is the opening image at Lanzarote: an extreme high angle shot showing Elsa and Patricia on the black lava beach. In de luxe settings we follow Trauerarbeit among women - suffering from depression, panic disorder, loss of a child, separation and writer's block. On the other hand there are new emphases: the joy of the presence of a child, and the uninhibited female desire at the Polterabend spectacle of the strip-tease of the gorgeous firefighter Bonifacio (Patrick Criado).

Bitter Christmas is a film in search of its core, and the core is found in the finale. Raúl Rossetti (Leonardo Sbaraglia) is the male half of the protagonist-Doppelgänger. Both he and the imaginary phantom character Elsa fight a writer's block with autofiction. Raúl's indispensable assistant, his right-hand person, Mónica (Aitana Sánchez-Gijón), is also his most honest reader. This time Mónica says that Raúl is going too far with autofiction. It grows into the greatest crisis in their collaboration. The final lesson. The end or perhaps a new beginning.

The lesson is about friendship. A true friend tells you the truth you don't want to hear.

Bitter Christmas is engrossing from the beginning to the end. It is a feast in mise-en-scène and colour design. The composition is a joy to the eye. I love the warm and tender colour play on the women's faces. The movie is a secular passion play with a powerful life-affirming current underneath. It is full of the joy of the cinema.

The concept of "a minor work" is evoked in the protagonists' agonizing around their writers' blocks, and it is in this context that Fellini and Bergman are mentioned. Late in their careers the Italian and the Swede did minor work. Bitter Christmas? If this is minor work, I look forward for more.

...

SOUNDTRACK LISTING (from IMDb):

    "Las simples cosas" – written by Julio César Isella and Armando Tejada Gómez, performed by Amaia Romero

    "La llorona" – written by Luis Martínez Serrano, performed by Chavela Vargas

    "Amarga navidad" – written by José Alfredo Jiménez, performed by Chavela Vargas

    "I've Seen That Face Before (Libertango)" – written by Astor Piazzolla, performed by Grace Jones

    "Run Baby Run" – written by Amanda Lear and Anton Monn, performed by Amanda Lear

...

ART AND DESIGN (from Agnish Ray):

Curated by Pedro Almodóvar with Antxón Gómez and Isabel Peinado in an idiom of Pop Art modernism.

DESIGN

    Bubble Sofa designed by Sacha Lakic in Patricia's house. Part of the Cromática collection curated by Almodóvar for Roche Bobois in 2025.

    The Divided Headboard, a metaphor for the boundary between reality and fiction.

    Design lamps including pieces by Gae Aulenti.

    Superleggera armchair by Gio Ponti.

    Cornaro sofa by Carlo Scarpa.

    A Lámina ceiling light by Antoni Arola for Santa & Cole.

    Angel Wing floor lamp by Alvar Aalto for Artek.

    Cassina sofa by Le Corbusier.

    Pierre Jeanneret and Charlotte Perriand.

    Explorer table and Multileg cabinet by Jaime Hayon for BD Barcelona.

ART

    Sigfrido Martín Begué: Santa Cecilia (1987).

    Miguel Ángel Campano.

    Inka Essenhigh.

    Asher Liftin: Studio Window IV (Hot Winter Sun).

HOMES

    The Madrid residence of the architect Francisco de Asís Cabrero (1962).

    The Lanzarote home La Cabaña designed by Yoann Le Mercier. Complete with the original Honoré armchair, a Blasco linen sofa and Roger Capron ceramic coffee tables. Additions: vases by César Manrique, Lanzarote's most defining architect.

    "It’s part of a wider chromatic shift across Almodóvar's career: while his earlier works celebrated red, apricot and albero tones, his recent creations lean towards more melancholic shades of blue, green and grey." (Agnish Ray)

Source: Agnish Ray: "How do you build a universe fit for a Pedro Almodóvar film?" (Wallpaper, August 2026)

Päivien lumo / Days of Wonder

Karin Pennanen: Päivien lumo / Days of Wonder (FI/DK/NO 2025). Featuring Markku Pennanen (1949-2021).

A portrait documentary of the life, works and legacy of the artist Markku Pennanen (1949-2021).

    Dagarnas skimmer.

    FI/DK/NO © 2025 Avanton Productions Oy, Good Company Pictures, Mechanix Film AS. Year of theatrical release: 2026. P: Sonja Lindén.

    D+SC: Karin Pennanen. Cin: Pietari Peltola, Ville Tanttu. M: Markku Pennanen. S: Ville Katajala. ED: Markus Leppälä.

    AN: WiredFly: producer Lars Amby, director Katrine Glenhammer, based on the rough cut by Markku Pennanen.

   Featuring: Markku Pennanen, Karin Pennanen, Jukka Pennanen, Agneta Hobin. Martti Suosalo (voice actor of Markku Pennanen in the final segment). Marja-Leena.

    Based on the Markku Pennanen archive.

    Yle arkisto sources / Eva Andberg: Kell’ onni on: Omenapuiden varjossa (1980), Norssi - 100-vuotias Helsingin normaalilyseo (1967), Hermoprässi (1963), Joukkotiedotus 2 (1973), Päivä Helsingin liikenteessä (1974), Lauantai Helsingissä (1966), Yhteinen koulutie (1957), Teatterissa tapahtuu (1965), Romantikon tunnustukset (1968), Jazzia vanhassa talossa (1961), Musiikkiykkönen (1973), Vinkkeli (1974), Levottomat palat 01 (1982), Kulttuuriraportti (1981), Kontakt (1994), Onko ulkoavaruudessa elämää? (1981), Myöhäisuutiset. Uutiset ja sää. (1965), A plus (2000).

    Soundtrack selections include: "Amarcord" (Nino Rota, 1973), "Apache" (Jerry Lordan, 1960), "Clair de lune" (Claude Debussy, 1890).

    Languages: Finnish and Swedish.

    88 min

    Award: Black Nights Film Festival, Tallinn 2025: best international documentary.

    Award: DocPoint, Helsinki 2026: best film in the national competition.

    Award: Tampere Film Festival 2026: special award in the national competition of films over 30 min.

    Theatrical release: 28 Aug 2026 - Pirkanmaan Elokuvakeskus - Swedish subtitles by Monica Ödahl Åminne

    Viewed at Finnkino Kino-Palatsi 9, Helsinki, 29 Aug 2026

Elonet: "A documentary portrait by Karin Pennanen, a personal study of the director's uncle Markku who lived the life of a hermit. After his death, an incredible artistic oeuvre was discovered at his home."

Official: "The director discovers the hidden world of his reclusive artist uncle and sets out to make a film about it - much to her own surprise, this takes place in collaboration with her uncle. A curious interchange ensues, opening a privileged view into a passionate artistic creation and a decidedly singular way of life. Days of Wonder tells about creativity as a way of life, complex family relationships, love and the touch of death. Equally it is a film about a journey towards one's own self and accepting one's choices. Perhaps attainable only via an acceptance of the unfinished in the world and the self."

Karin Pennanen: "I have always been interested in what happens in the margins. My uncle Markku's urge to live a life on his own terms has inspired me. Art and life are inseparable in his case. Instead of ambition, Markku was driven by passion. The process interested him more than the result. This attitude of Markku's stops me on my tracks to reflect the motives of my own work on a deep level. I believe that we all have much to learn from people like Markku. And invisible Markkus exist in every family. My movie also deals with the quintessentially Finnish characteristic of failure to connect. Who is authorized to define what a meaningful life is?" (translations are mine)

AA: At last I catch Karin Pennanen's acclaimed Days of Wonder, which has been garnering awards on both sides of the Baltic Sea since last year. It is a personal study of the director's eccentric uncle, beloved by the children of the family circle as a magician and a storyteller, now discussed by the grown-up Pennanen as a fellow artist.

Days of Wonder belongs to a documentary phenomenon in which the artist-protagonist is a passionate curator of a personal archive which becomes the source of his/her own biopic. Mika Taanila's The Future Is Not What It Used to Be (FI 2002) about Erkki Kurenniemi (1941-2017) comes to mind.

It belongs also to a fascinating phenomenon in which the artist is not interested in exhibiting his/her work. Recently discovered sensations include Hilma af Klint (1862-1944) and Iria Leino (1932-2022).

We live in such an exaggerated period of the attention economy that reclusiveness appears as an appealing act of resistance.

We are so used to thinking that art belongs to an exhibition that we forget that there has been since times immemorial a contrary practice. Cave paintings were often created in the deepest reaches where they were almost impossible to access. They were not meant to be seen but to exist, since they had magical powers. The same thinking extends to voodoo dolls and such indigenous cultures in which image taboos and bans are obeyed. With the image it is possible to control the depicted.

Markku Pennanen certainly did not subscribe to image magic. His art was solely for self-expression, and besides images he was talented in music and storytelling. He was a great raconteur and an engaging conversationalist. Because of his eccentricism he stayed outside regular family life. He liked women and was charming with them but did not pursue relationships.

Apparently Markku was exceptionally intelligent, Mensa class, but the blessing became a curse. He was bullied and sidelined. He was a high school drop-out, Sibelius Academy drop-out and Art Academy drop-out. He became a successful investor, but in the infamous 2000 Sonera crash he lost everything and survived as a newspaper deliveryman.

Public life disappointed and betrayed Markku, but he pursued private art worlds and created outsider art. His life was his art, archived in sound diaries, home movies, paintings, drawings and collages, now co-curated by Karin Pennanen. Markku was interested in animation and collages, and his rough edits have been brought to finish for this movie by WiredFly (produced by Lars Amby and directed by Katrine Glenhammer).

The movie ends in its most haunting sequence. Home movie footage of a lit tennis court in the evening brings back a lost childhood memory when Markku was three. Like in a trance he rises to a bird's-eye view with access to another reality, another home.

Eero Nelimarkka (2026 Ateneum exhibition)

 

Eero Nelimarkka. The Ateneum exhibition catalogue

Eero Nelimarkka: Vanhus ja portaat [An Old Lady at the Staircase], n.d. Oil on canvas, 67,5 x 66 cm. Nelimarkka-Rahasto sr., Nelimarkka-museo. My scan from the exhibition catalogue.

Eero Nelimarkka: Maisema Seinäjoelta [A Landscape at Seinäjoki], 1962. Oil on canvas, 149,5 x 230,5 cm. Nelimarkka-Rahasto sr., Nelimarkka-museo. My scan from the exhibition catalogue.

In Finnish art, Eero Nelimarkka is a household name, even bordering on the over-familiar, because he was in huge demand and able to create on a conveyor belt paintings of his beloved Pohjanmaa / Österbotten / Ostrobothnia landscapes. It was even joked that he must have had a wallpaper roll of Ostrobothnian oils from which he could sell pieces on demand. 

Myself, with an Ostrobothnian background, am moved by those landscapes, and today's exhibition has a room (3.9) full of them. I particularly prefer the "scope" / "double carré" format, at best with a low skyline, the plains unfolding under a magnificent sky. An inevitable point of comparison are the Westerns such as John Ford's landscapes / soulscapes. Nelimarkka's landscapes are eerie, because there are no people, although they are always cultivated with fields and barns.

Helene Schjerfbeck was an inspiration for Nelimarkka, not least in the commitment to self-portraits, and according to the exhibition information, Nelimarkka painted probably more self-portraits than any other Finnish painter (room 3.12). There is usually an expression of grim determination and a sideways glance, sometimes plain agony. Nelimarkka was a self-made man who rose to the top from conditions of grinding poverty. Hardship marked him. In a country which during his lifetime endured four wars, the Great Depression and the tough post-WWII reconstruction, people could identify with him.

Religion was a profound aspect in Nelimarkka's life. He painted explicitly religious works such as altarpieces, but a dimension of transcendence is ubiquitous in his entire oeuvre. It can be felt in the immense skies of his landscapes and the suffering in his auto-portraits.

His interiors have been singled out as special by critics such as Marja-Terttu Kivirinta, and today they are the big discovery for me. Nelimarkka's interiors can be can be compared with Vermeer, Schjerfbeck (The Door), Hammershøi and Hopper. The views are ordinary, but there is a presence of something extraordinary. The stairways, the doors and the windows seem to lead to the beyond.

Like Caspar David Friedrich, Nelimarkka often portrays people in Rückenfigur, with their back turned to us. Nelimarkka's group portraits are severe and solemn, but I imagine a smile lurking behind the serious pose. A loving glow radiates from the portraits of his wife Saima. His portraits of babies are sensitive and tender. His nudes are warm and sensual, self-confident women happy about their beauty as God intended, not objects of male gaze.

Nelimarkka was a well-travelled man whose favourite city was Paris. The avid visitor of Le Louvre found his direction in the mighty continuity of world art. Awareness of contemporary and international trends did not tempt him to follow them. Instead Paris encouraged him to find a world of his own and portray it in a way of his own.

Nainen joka katosi / The Girl Who Disappeared

Simo Halinen: Nainen joka katosi / The Girl Who Disappeared 1–4 (FI 2026). Top: Saga Sarkola as Maura. Below: Johannes Holopainen (Aaro), Pekka Strang (Erkka), Oona Airola (Linda).

L'Écho du silence / La noia desapareguda [Catalan title].

    FI © Reelmedia 2024. Year of Polar+/Canal+ release 2025. Year of Finnish release 2026. MTV original series. P: Pauliina Teirikari. EX: Johanna Enäsuo, Marko Röhr, Janne Vakio (MTV Finland), Marjukka Laurila (MTV Finland)

    D+SC+original story: Simo Halinen - based on his novel (2022). Chat dialogue: Jemina Juuti. DP: Päivi Kettunen. Underwater cinematography: Teemu Liakka. Post: James Post. PD: Otto Lume. Cost: Anna Vilppunen. Makeup: Minna Pilvinen. VFX: Sami Haartemo. Graphic design: Tuukka Tujula, Sami Haartemo. M: Timo Hietala. S: Zacharias Kullman. ED: Joona Louhivuori. Casting: Vera Melleri.

    C: Saga Sarkola (Maura), Johannes Holopainen (Aaro), Pekka Strang (Erkka), Oona Airola (Linda), Senja Poikonen (Ronja).

    Tuomas Rinta-Panttila (Makkonen), Konsta Laakso (Otso), Leea Klemola (Aaro's mother), Linda Hämäläinen (Malla), Stefan Karlsson (theatre actor), Markus Ilkka Uolevi (theatre actor), Kimmo Rasila (theatre actor), Miska Kaukonen (therapist), Mika Kujala (psychologist), Mari Lehtonen (hospital ward manager), Kati Uhlgren (patient in rehabilitation), Janne Mattila (police officer), Jonne Karttula (police officer), Gabriela Rodriguez (police officer), Jukka Pietilä (cantor).

    The dog: Bono, a white shepherd dog.

    Loc: Turku, Helsinki, Ruissalo, Raisio, Vepsä, Pohjankulma, Munstenpellonkatu, Ruoholahti.

    Four episodes of 41 min. Total duration 164 min

    Released by Polar+-/Canal+ in April 2025 in France and Poland.

    Released at MTV Katsomo+ streaming service 20 Aug 2026.

    Vimeo link viewed at home, 23 Aug 2026.

MTV Katsomo official promotion: "MTV's taut new series The Girl Who Disappeared weaves together a story about a crime from the past from three different viewpoints. Based on an eponymous novel by Simo Halinen, the four-part series stars Saga Sarkola, Johannes Holopainen, Oona Airola and Pekka Strang. The series has been written and directed by Simo Halinen."

"The Girl Who Disappeared is a thriller series about a sinister crime whose shadow falls upon four people. In the summer night, Aaro meets the sympathetic and enigmatic Maura with whom he falls in love, leading to a passionate relationship of a kind that Aaro had never even dared to dream about. Suddenly Maura disappears, and Aaro finds out that nothing Maura told about herself is true - did the woman even exist? As an insurance lawyer Aaro is able to track Maura down. It turns out that a crime in the past has left a permanent mark on Maura."

""The Girl Who Disappeared unfolds in a style of which I have always been very fond. It is not a straightforward thriller but a fabric growing denser from episode to episode, demanding attention from the viewer. It is driven by subtle performances. A long time I had wanted to work with Saga, Johannes, Pekka and Oona. The fact that I succeeded to engage them all made the shooting process in Turku exceptionally rewarding, which I hope is also reflected in the end result", Halinen says." (my translation)

Simo Halinen: Nainen joka katosi / The Girl Who Disappeared (FI 2026). Episode 1: Katoaminen saarella / [Disappearance on an Island]. Saga Sarkola as Maura.

Jakso 1: Katoaminen saarella / [Disappearance on an Island].

    "Aaro meets Maura on a summer night in Helsinki. A relationship is ignited, and Maura tempts Aaro to a boat trip. During the trip, Maura's behaviour turns strange, and in the morning Aaro discovers that Maura has disappeared."

Simo Halinen: Nainen joka katosi / The Girl Who Disappeared (FI 2026). Episode 2: Isän tyttö / [Daddy's Girl]. Oona Airola as Linda. Pekka Strang as Erkka.

Jakso 2: Isän tyttö / [Daddy's Girl]

    "Erkka receives a message insisting him to leave Linda and Ronja (Senja Poikonen) alone. He learns from Linda that Ronja's real mother is Maura. Erkka has a premonition and demands an explanation. Is he Ronja's father?"

Simo Halinen: Nainen joka katosi / The Girl Who Disappeared (FI 2026). Episode 3: Kuka on Erik Halme? / [Who Is Erik Halme?]. Pekka Strang as Erkka. 

Jakso 3: Kuka on Erik Halme? / [Who Is Erik Halme?]

    "Erkka threatens to tell Linda that he is Ronja's father. Maura remembers the events of the past differently and accuses Erkka of rape. Finally Maura realizes that the only one who can help her is Aaro."

Simo Halinen: Nainen joka katosi / The Girl Who Disappeared (FI 2026). Episode 4: Mauran demonit / [Maura's Demons]. Johannes Holopainen as Aaro.

Jakso 4: Mauran demonit / [Maura's Demons]

    "Maura receives a phone call from Ronja who seems frightened. Erkka has moved in with them, and Ronja feels uncomfortable about Erkka. Maura realizes that Ronja is in danger. She must save her." (Synopsis translations by me).

AA: Simo Halinen's The Girl Who Disappeared is a haunting contemporary crime series about a dangerous love affair between Aaro (Johannes Holopainen), an insurance lawyer, and Maura (Saga Sarkola), a mystery woman. Their paths cross in summertime Helsinki, and a passionate relationship emerges. 

A shared background in dysfunctional families may be an unconscious denominator which brings them together. Much is unresolved and unexplored in their lives. Both are awkward in relationships. Theirs is not a casual affair.

When Maura disappears and Aaro starts making inquiries, the authorities merely state that Aaro has been dumped. But Aaro senses that this would be out of character. He is not naive, but he is deeply disturbed when he discovers that nothing Maura had told him was true. Nothing, that is, of the external facts, starting with a real name and occupation. But the passion is real and all-important.

Gradually Aaro begins to discover the shocking truth about Maura. Her life has been broken by sexual abuse and blackmail as a teenager, and she has become a teenage mother, her daughter Ronja officially adopted by her big sister Linda. Maura's personality has been severely disturbed, and she entertains suicidal thoughts. In the final settling of accounts with the predator, bloody manslaughter cannot be avoided.

The Girl Who Disappeared is a moody thriller about broken lives. The voice of life-affirmation is quiet but irrepressible. The silent resolve of Johannes Holopainen as Aaro is convincing. Saga Sarkola conveys the psychological complexity of Maura memorably.

The novel on which the tv series is based has two first person narrators: M (man) and N (nainen = woman). The tv series is not a double narrative, but it is non-linear and follows separate stories in jumbled timelines.

The Girl Who Disappeared, a psychological thriller, is character-driven, and the cast is great. Saga Sarkola (Maura), Johannes Holopainen (Aaro), Pekka Strang (Erkka) and Oona Airola (Linda) carry the main roles. The story is also landscape-driven. Essential locations are found in summertime nature. Water and the sea offer powerful imagery with timeless poetic dimensions.

The Girl Who Disappeared belongs to films with Vertigo affinities. These include some imagery and some main themes such as woman as an illusion and a history of sexual abuse. Unlike Hitchcock, Halonen does not pursue the transcendental and the metaphysical. His story is firmly set in reality. The issues are about commitments and responsibility, unflinching in matters of fatal consequences such as rape, teenage pregnancy and murder.

I have always followed Simo Halinen with interest, including the most recent movies Kerron sinulle kaiken / Open Up to Me (2013, its lead actress Leea Klemola striking also in The Girl Who Disappeared) and Kääntöpiste / East of Sweden (2018). I was converted by his first feature films Minerva (1997, which I included in my annual list of favourite films) and Cyclomania (2001, one of my favourite Helsinki movies), and even before them I had registered his name in student works such as Variksenpelätti ([Scarecrow], 1989).

The Girl Who Disappeared is a new experiment in non-linear narrative. As in William Faulkner's Requiem for a Nun, "The past is never dead. It's not even past". We keep returning to key situations from new angles and added pieces of information which change the meaning of what we thought we knew, but: "How little we know", as Lauren Bacall sang in To Have and Have Not. 

Halonen avoids melodrama and romantic splendour. He favours understatement and subtlety. Since this is a suspense thriller, I would have welcomed more intensity. Maura and Aaro are sleepwalkers in their own lives. Their chance meeting is a wake-up call. A great love story is supposed to be electrifying. I would not mind seeing more sparks fly.

Simo Halinen: Nainen joka katosi (2022). Novel published by CrimeTime / Docendo / WSOY. Hard cover. 208 pages. Suomen dekkariseuran Vuoden esikoisdekkari -palkinto / Annual award for the best debut in the detective novel, in February 2023. Book cover design: Jussi Karjalainen.

The Invite (2026)

Olivia Wilde: The Invite (US 2026). Olivia Wilde (Angela), Seth Rogen (Joe), Penélope Cruz (Piña), Edward Norton (Hawk).

L'Invitation / La invitación / O Convite / Meghívás / Kutse / Ielūgums / Kvietimas / Ha'Hazmana / Приглашение.

    US © 2026 Invite Productions, Inc. PC: Invite Productions, Inc., Annapurna Pictures, FilmNation Entertainment, Permut Presentations. P: David Permut, Ben Browning, Megan Ellison.

    D: Olivia Wilde. SC: Will McCormack, Rashida Jones – based on the movie Sentimental / The People Upstairs (ES 2020) written and directed by Cesc Gay based on his play Els veïns de dalt / Los vecinos de arriba (ES 2015). DP: Adam Newport-Berra – Panavision XL2 cameras – negative format: 35 mm – colour – 1.85:1 – source format: Super 35 – master format: digital intermediate 4K – release format: DCP. PD: Jade Healy. Cost: Arianne Phillips. Makeup: Jorjee Douglass. Hair. Christopher Fulton. M: Devonté Hynes. M supervisor: George Drakoulias. Soundtrack: see below. *** S: Niv Adiri - Dolby Digital. ED: Yorgos Mavropsaridis, Ant Boys [Anthony Boys]. 

    C: Seth Rogen (Joe), Olivia Wilde (Angela), Penélope Cruz (Piña), Edward Norton (Hawk).

    Consultant: Esther Perel. “She was much more than a consultant on this film, she was an oracle” (Olivia Wilde).

    Loc: San Francisco, California. 21 April – 21 May, 2025.

    Motto: "One should always be in love. That is the reason one should never marry." (Lord Illingworth in A Woman of No Importance [1893], Act III, by Oscar Wilde). *

    Dedication: "For Diane" [Diane Keaton, 1946–2025]. **

    108 min

    Languages: English, Spanish

    Genres: comedy, drama

    Festival premiere: 24 Jan 2026 Sundance Film Festival, San Francisco International Film Festival

    US premiere: 26 June 2026 (limited), 10 July 2026 (wide) – distributed by A24.

    Finnish premiere: 14 Aug 2026 – distributed by SF Film Finland Oy – Finnish / Swedish subtitles: Frej Grönholm / Jonas Fåhraeus.

    Viewed at Finnkino Tennispalatsi 13, Helsinki, 14 Aug 2026

PREVIOUS FILM ADAPTATIONS

Sentimental (ES 2020), D: Cesc Gay.

Vicini da casa (IT 2022), D: Paolo Costella.

Die Nachbarn von oben (DE 2023), D: Sabine Boss.

Et plus si affinités (FR 2024), D: Olivier Ducray & Wilfried Méance.

Neprilichnye gosti / Neprilitshnyje gosti / Неприличные гости (RU 2024), D: Goga Mamadzhanyan.

V dobrém i zlém (CZ 2025), D: Marta Ferencova.

Witjip saramdeul / 윗집 사람들 (KO 2025), D: Ha Jung-woo.

Official premise: "Joe (Seth Rogen) and Angela's (Olivia Wilde) marriage is on thin ice. When they invite their enigmatic upstairs neighbors (Edward Norton & Penélope Cruz) for a dinner party, the night spirals into unexpected places. Have they reignited the spark or lit the match that burns it all down?"

AA: The Invite is an offbeat, hilarious, controversial and taboo-breaking contemporary comedy about sex and marriage.

It feels completely original, although it is based on a Spanish play written in 2015 and already adapted for seven films in seven different countries before.

The director Olivia Wilde, the screenwriters Will McCormack and Rashida Jones and the actors have customized and interiorized Cesc Gay's play to the American idiom and set it in tolerant San Francisco.

The movie is character-driven, and there are four characters that matter. Angela (Olivia Wilde) and Joe (Seth Rogen) live in an apartment inherited by Angela. They are married with a 12-year-old daughter who is away at a sleepover. 

The couple upstairs consists of Piña, a therapist (Penélope Cruz) and Hawk, a retired firefighter (Edward Norton). They are free spirits and polygamous. Angela and Joe are monogamous. Piña and Hawk are hip. Angela and Joe are square.

Angela has invited Piña and Hawk to apologize for the construction noise she and Joe have caused because of the prolonged renovation of their historic apartment. In fact it has turned into a meticulous restoration project of which Angela is very proud.

To Angela's horror, Joe confronts the couple with a complaint of his own: the loud noise of sex upstairs. Piña and Hawk have sex all the time. As for Angela and Joe, their last time was a year ago.

This is just the start of a discourse which leads to revelations about sex parties, varieties of sex practices and an impromptu attempt at partner-swapping.

The Invite offers an interesting contribution to the subject of "male gaze". Voyeurism / exhibitionism is among the taboos discussed. It turns out that Angela has a habit of walking nude past a window and does not mind that Hawk is watching. Whereas Piña has noticed in the elevator Joe's inability to prevent his eyes from wandering towards her admirable breasts.

The second taboo is polygamy and sex parties. The catalogue of consent grows into a humoristic feature.

The third taboo is the difficulty of a woman to climax in a heterosexual relationship. Joe is irritated by Piña's "spectacular orgasms", but Angela is genuinely intrigued by her uninhibited cries at night.

The biggest taboo is bed death in marriage. In this, the film-makers have been inspired by Esther Perel,  “much more than a consultant on this film, she was an oracle”.

The Invite is a great comedy and great therapy. Recommended for couples. Sex death is difficult / impossible to discuss. The Invite an invitation to break the barrier. Sex can be reinvented at every stage of life.

It is a comedy of embarrassment in every way: Joe's awkward adventures with his folded mountain bike, Angela's unpreparedness to host a dinner party. More profoundly, it is a comedy of a multiple culture clash.

All this is but a surface. Beyond the slapstick and the farce, The Invite is a tender and humane essay on relationships. Gradually we learn key background facts such as Hawk's trauma: his wife has died of cancer, and Piña helped him recover. We also get references to the status of artists and people working in the field of culture today: "nobody in America can afford anything".

The cast is great. I single out Edward Norton because of his unique way of navigating offensive situations and always ending up in a place of dignity. His sense of humour is of the most refined kind.

The movie has been shot on 35 mm film by Adam Newport-Berra on Panavision XL2 cameras. A subtle, vivid and vibrant colour world has been maintained in the digital transfer.

The Invite is the first film directed by Olivia Wilde I have seen. I look forward to revisiting it and seeing also her previous films Booksmart and Don't Worry Darling.

 

* "The film opens with a quote from Oscar Wilde. While sharing a last name, Olivia Wilde is not related to the Irish author. A dual citizen of the United States and Ireland, Olivia Wilde derived her professional surname from Oscar Wilde while in high school to honor the writers in her family, many of whom used pen names." (IMDb)

** "Before the end credits roll, a message reading "To Diane" is shown. This is for Diane Keaton, who played director Olivia Wilde's mother in Love the Coopers (2015). At the Los Angeles premiere of this film, Wilde elaborated on the choice, saying she "really wanted to show this movie to Diane. I don't think that there is an Invite without Diane Keaton because she's in so many of the films that inspired this film. She is the first actress I recognized to kind of represent a totally unique and complex woman; she didn't fit any archetype, she was singular in her vulnerability, her complexity, her creativity. She's unlike anyone else and she was very encouraging to me personally, and I just wanted this to be for her."" (IMDb: The Invite (2026)).

*** SOUNDTRACK (IMDb)

I'm Confessin' (That I Love You)

Written by Al Neiburg, Doc Daugherty, and Ellis Reynolds

Performed by Fabienne Delsol

Courtesy of Damaged Goods Records

By exclusive agreement with Heyday Media Group

High School Hero

Written by Ole Høyer (as Norman Dane)

Courtesy of APM Music

Coppélia: Act I - Valse

Written by Léo Delibes

Performed by Symfonický orchester Slovenského rozhlasu (as Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra), Andrew Mogrelia

Courtesy of Naxos of America, Inc.

Suite for Cello

Written by Gaspar Cassado (as Gaspar Cassadó)

Palladio: I. Allegretto

Written by Karl Jenkins

By Your Side (2000 from album Lovers Rock, on the cover of the single as "Sade By Your Side", music video D: Sophie Muller)

Written by Sade (as Helen Adu), Paul Denman, Andrew Hale, and Stuart Matthewman

Performed by Sade

Courtesy of Sony Music Entertainment (UK) Ltd.

By arrangement with Sony Music Entertainment

Our House – Demo (original song 1970, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young album Déjà Vu)

Written by Graham Nash (as Graham William Nash)

Performed by Graham Nash and Joni Mitchell

Courtesy of Iconic Artists Group

...

PLUS

Georges Bizet: "L'amour est un oiseau rebelle", the habanera from Carmen (1875), adapted from the habanera "El arreglito ou la Promesse de mariage" by Sebastián Iradier (1863), first believed by Bizet to be a folk song, mistake later corrected by him in the libretto.

The Economist 8 Nov 2025 cover story "The relationship recession". The internet age: less relationships than ever, less marriages than ever, less sex than ever, a collapse of sperm quality in the computer age (perhaps due to radiation), a global crash in birthrates.