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.