Taivaan lahja / A Gift from Heaven

Markku Pölönen: Taivaan lahja / A Gift from Heaven (FI 1987). A meteor has fallen from the sky. My screenshot from YouTube.

FI 1987. PC: Enokuva. D+SC: Markku Pölönen. DP: Heikki Oksanen – 16 mm. ED: Jukka Nykänen. M: Vesa Mäkinen. S: Markku Honkanen. CAST: Ilkka Heiskanen, Erkki Nuutinen, Auvo Vihro, Riitta Juntunen, Simo Jääskeläinen, Juha Muje, Kaarlo Pellinen, Saara Väänänen, Veikko Väänänen. 35 min. A Suomen Elokuvakontakti print viewed in Cinema Orion, Helsinki, 15 Oct 2008. – A beautiful colour in the print. – The world of Markku Pölönen already recognizable. Rural madness: serial suicides by hanging, a meteor falls from the sky, young boys witness female nudity. – Brilliant dialogue, engaging music.

Kuningasjätkä / A Summer by the River

Markku Pölönen: Kuningasjätkä (FI 1998). Simo Kontio (Topi).

Sommaren vid älven. A-027824 / G / FI / 1998 / Pölönen, Markku / drama / comedy. © Fennada-Filmi. P: Kari Sara. D+SC: Markku Pölönen. DP: Kari Sohlberg. ”Yö kerran unhoa annoit” performed by Olavi Virta. CAST: Pertti Koivula, Simo Kontio, Esko Nikkari, Anu Palevaara, Peter Franzen, Sulevi Peltola, Vesa Mäkelä, Heikki Kujanpää. 85’. 1,85. DIST: Fennada-Filmi. Viewed in Helsinki, VET, Tuesday 3 February 1998. *** In the mid-1950s in Eastern Finland the logrollers drive a large raft of logs along the river. The recently widowed Tenho joins them with his ten year old son. He becomes everyone’s laughing stock. The comedy of the hopelessly clumsy logroller’s turning into the King of the River is in homage to the Buster Keaton formula, which is a good act to follow. The humour is completely original, though. I still prefer Onnen maa (The Land of Happiness), but this is a first rate entertainment film, certain to become the blockbuster of the year in Finland in competition with Titanic.