Tuntematon mestari / One Last Deal

Heikki Nousiainen as the veteran art dealer.

FI 2019. PC: Making Movies Oy. P: Kai Nordberg, Kaarle Aho.
    D: Klaus Härö. SC: Anna Heinämaa. DP: Tuomo Hutri. AD: Kaisa Mäkinen. Cost: Sari Suominen. Makeup: Mari Vaalasranta. M: Matti Bye. S: Kirka Sainio. ED: Benjamin Mercer.
    C: Heikki Nousiainen (Olavi), Pirjo Lonka (Lea), Amos Brotherus (Otto), Stefan Sauk (Albert Johnson), Pertti Sveholm (Patu), Jakob Öhrman (Dick Sundell).
    Loc: Helsinki (largely around Ekbergs Café, Bulevarden 9).
    95 min
    In Finnish and some Swedish.
    Premiere: 4 Jan 2019 - distributor: Oy Nordisk Film Ab.
    Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF): 7 Sep 2019.
    Vimeo link viewed for Jussi Awards, on a 4K tv screen at home, 10 March 2020.

Steve Gravestock (TIFF Toronto International Film Festival, 2019): "An aging art dealer — left behind by the corporatization of his industry and estranged from his family — hopes an undervalued icon will turn his fortunes around, in the latest from veteran Finnish director Klaus Härö."

"Veteran Finnish filmmaker Klaus Härö (Mother of Mine) returns to the Festival with One Last Deal, about an aging art dealer whose last shot at the big time coincides with his last chance to reconnect with his estranged daughter and grandson."

"An expert at complicated emotional dilemmas, Härö specializes in contradictory characters whose pride and obsessions battle with their better angels. But few of Härö’s creations are as divided as Olavi (Heikki Nousiainen, in a great hangdog performance), a work-obsessed dealer left behind by an industry favouring larger corporate conglomerates. There, algorithms have replaced instinct and knowledge about art history, leading the dealers near his dilapidated, overcrowded shop to miss what may be an obscure icon from a major Russian painter."

"Getting the icon will require a lot of research and a little help, which he unexpectedly receives from his grandson, Otto. As Olavi schools the kid in how to navigate a cutthroat industry and research things you just can’t find via Google, he reconnects with his daughter, Lea, and rediscovers the family he’s missed. The big question, however, is whether he’ll sacrifice everything for that one last score."

"Shot using a muted colour scheme, reflecting the look of Olavi’s rundown shop and the masterpieces he trades in, One Last Deal is a beautifully scaled and exquisitely honest tearjerker about the values we forget when we ignore the past — and what we lose when we become consumed by it." Steve Gravestock (TIFF Toronto International Film Festival, 2019)

AA: I saw this impressive film for the first time only now. It premiered last year just when we were at our busiest moving out of Cinema Orion and launching Kino Regina.

Good things are worth waiting for. Klaus Härö knows to value a strong script, and this film is based on another excellent screenplay from Anna Heinämaa, sculptor, author and screenwriter. It is a well made play, obeying the classical storytelling virtues. It gives a lot to think about family affairs and the art market.

With the cinematographer Tuomo Hutri the director brings to the movie a luminous visual approach. The lighting registers eloquently seasons of the year and times of the day from morning till night. This sense emphasizes major themes of the movie. The protagonist's time is running out, and "the wind passes over him, and he is gone" (Psalm 103).

All his life Olavi has neglected his daughter Lea who has had a hard time raising her son Otto. The drive of the movie is comparable with the "last big caper" subgenre of the gangster film. The build-up of suspense is similar, and even the moral quicksand is comparable. The deepest suspense stems from the ethical dilemma.

One Last Deal is also a dramatization of the madness of the art market. An unsigned masterpiece is worth almost nothing. A signature would increase the market value tenfold. The answer to the mystery of the missing signature gives also something to think about art and spirituality.

There is a touch of melodrama in the characterization of the art brokers. It makes the drama stronger but may date this beautiful film a little bit.

The performances are eloquent, and Heikki Nousiainen is again at his best in a movie by Klaus Härö who cast the veteran actor in a career-changing role in Letters to Father Jacob.

Ei mitään hätää (Oikeusjuttu) / It's All Right (The Trial)

Miia Tervo: the short film Ei mitään hätää (It's All Right) is also known as Oikeusjuttu (The Trial) in the compendium film Tottumiskysymys (Force of Habit). Johannes Holopainen as the prosecutor and Lotta Kaihua as the rape victim seeking justice.

Tampere Film Festival (TFF) wrapped up on International Women's Day. Finland's Prime Minister Sanna Marin, from Tampere, gave a speech at the International Women's Day event in the United Nations in New York City. Only three years ago she was with us at the TFF where the popular documentary film Taking the Floor (Hannes Vartiainen, Pekka Veikkolainen, 2017), starring her, was screened in the opening gala. Watching her matter-of-fact deadpan as the chair of the Tampere City Council, bringing to a finish a 110-year-old debate of a tram line, it was easy to predict that we might be hearing more about her. This year TFF programmed the remarkable feminist short film anthology One-Off Incident, two selections from which were also screened in the competition series: Play Rape by Anna Paavilainen and The Trial by Miia Tervo.

...

At Tampere Film Festival I saw for the third time Miia Tervo's Ei mitään hätää / It's All Right (so called in the short film anthology Yksittäistapaus / One-Off Incident), also known as Oikeusjuttu / The Trial in the compendium film Tottumiskysymys / Force of Habit. It was my film of the year 2019 in the annual polls in which I participated. Each time it feels stronger. It's All Right was the only film which made me cry in this year's National Competition in Tampere.

There are Kafkaesque dimensions in this account of a trial which is based on Miia Tervo's multi-year research on rape cases. Instead of justice, there is an absurd, nightmarish travesty. A brutal, violent crime has taken place, but the case is about to disappear into the labyrinthine maze of the judicial system. The process is so prolonged and humiliating that in effect it is the victim who is being punished.

The titles are of course ironic. "It's All Right" (not). "One-Off Incident" (not). Maybe even the title "The Trial" should be put into quotation marks. Let's also register the wordplay and the double meaning in the English title "It's All Right".

The films of the One-Off Incident project are not Lehrstücke, but there is a Brechtian dimension. It's All Right is based less on identification than on the distancing effect. The horrible case stirs up outrage. Even more significantly it makes us think.

Miia Tervo avoids straightforward advocacy. Instead, she employs comedy, even farce, in the tragedy. In his first case, the rookie prosecutor makes one blunder after another, fumbling with his briefcase, letting documents fall on the floor, and soiling them with his takeaway lunch, but as interpreted by Johannes Holopainen, the prosecutor never loses dignity. The victim, played by Lotta Kaihua, suffers an ordeal in which basic conditions are not respected such as separate entrances and a functioning microphone.

The visual concept of the film is stark. Shot on location at the Helsinki Court House in Salmisaari, the modernist architecture by Väinö Vähäkallio is put to efficient use, including special elements such as the security check: the transillumination for smuggled weapons in the main lobby, with its associations to modern air travel from which all glory was stripped after 11 September 2001. We are transferred to a special zone like in high surrealism ("when Hutter crossed the bridge, the phantoms emerged to receive him"). Unconsciously we may even be reminded of the anterooms of the gas chambers of Auschwitz.

In the vision of Miia Tervo and her DP Päivi Kettunen the Helsinki Court House appears as a hall of mirrors which evokes the glass and mirror artworks of Gerhard Richter. The multiple reflections convey a sense of deep alienation in this hall of injustice.

More than that, these reflections are also a visual expression of the movie's deep drive. The film itself is a telescope which leads us to observe a wider reality: sexual violence in society at large, rampant and largely unpunished, for reasons that this film helps us understand. It also illuminates the history of sexual violence dating back to classical Antiquity and all periods of slavery, serfdom and subordination in which most people were fair game for sexual abuse. "Might is right" was the primitive human condition before the introduction of justice.

It's All Right reminds us that the primitive condition never disappeared and asks big questions about the letter of the law and the spirit of justice. Miia Tervo's film makes us think – that we must change the world.

Having heard of this film a Californian friend sent me a link to an article by Angelina Chapin in Huffpost (24 Feb 2020) reflecting the Weinstein trial: " The Weinstein Verdict Is a Complicated Win For Survivors. This verdict is empowering but won’t fix a broken system. "

Gerhard Richter: “Kartenhaus (5 Scheiben),” “House of Cards (5 Panes),” (2020), a new glass sculpture at Met Breuer, 945 Madison Avenue, Manhattan, New York. "Gerhard Richter: Painting After All", through July 5, 2020. Credit: Charlie Rubin for The New York Times, 5 March 2020.

Tampere Film Festival 2020: National Competition 9

Tommi Seitajoki: Explosionen av en badring / The Explosion of a Swimming Ring with Alma Pöysti and Elmer Bäck as a married couple and Elwa Höglund as their little daughter with a flamingo swimming ring.

National Competition 9
Tampere International Film Festival (TFF)
Plevna 5, Tampere, 6 March 2020.
In Swedish.
Q&A with Tommi Seitajoki, Sevgi Eker, Heli Huovinen, Niina Suominen, Teemu Nikki, Minna Rainio and Mark Roberts. Present in the screening was also Virke Lehtinen.

EXPLOSIONEN AV EN BADRING
THE EXPLOSION OF A SWIMMING RING

Tommi Seitajoki | Finland 2019 | Fiction | 11 min

TFF: "The dissolution of a family in 10 minutes."

"Perheen hajoaminen 10 minuutissa." TFF

AA: A marriage inferno in spa paradise, Alma Pöysti and Elmer Bäck giving us the full Ibsen - Strindberg treatment.

Pilvi Takala: If Your Heart Wants It (Remix). Slush 2018 at Messukeskus Helsinki.

IF YOUR HEART WANTS IT (REMIX)

Pilvi Takala | Finland 2020 | Experimental, Documentary | 16 min

TFF: "Taking place annually in Helsinki, SLUSH is a three-day super event that aims to invigorate the tech-startup community by bringing together entrepreneurs with venture capitalists in a party-like environment. If your heart wants it is grounded in research Takala conducted at SLUSH 2018. Together with an interdisciplinary team and camera crew, they fabricated a startup in order to gain entry."

"Vuosittain Helsingissä järjestettävä SLUSH on kolmipäiväinen supertapahtuma, joka pyrkii elävöittämään teknologia-alan startup-yhteisöä saattamalla yrittäjät ja sijoittajat yhteen juhlien kaltaisessa ympäristössä. If your heart wants it perustuu tutkimukseen, jonka Takala toteutti SLUSHissa 2018." TFF

AA: After a marriage tragedy in a spa paradise, a contemporary satire at the start-up paradise Slush at Messukeskus Helsinki. An image of our times. Perhaps slightly one-sided?

Sevgi Eker: 49 Years from the House on the Left. A journey into darkness.

49 YEARS FROM THE HOUSE ON THE LEFT

Sevgi Eker | Finland, Turkey 2019 | Fiction | 8 min

TFF: "An uninvited return."

"Kutsumaton paluu." TFF

AA: The return of the repressed. Experimental, shot in Turkey, a journey into darkness.

Heli Huovinen: Kuobžâ já mun / The Bear and I. A totem animal of fear and awe.

KUOBŽÂ JÁ MUN
THE BEAR AND I

Heli Huovinen | Finland 2019 | Animation | 3 min

TFF: "The bear has always been significant to Inari Sámi people. It’s both, most honoured and feared of all animals. This dreamy story paints a picture of a relationship between a girl and a bear, together with poetry, drawing and traditional Inari Sámi vocal music."

"Karhu on aina ollut tärkeä inarinsaamelaisille. Se on sekä kunnioitetuin että pelätyin kaikista eläimistä. Unenomainen tarina maalaa kuvan tytön ja karhun välisestä suhteesta käyttäen runoutta, piirroksia ja perinteistä inarinsaamelaista laulumusiikkia." TFF

AA: A dreamlike animated vision, charcoal, watercolour, reduced, identifying with the totem animal of the bear in Inari Sami imagery.

Virke Lehtinen: La Pierre du mariage.

LA PIERRE DU MARIAGE
THE STONE OF MARRIAGE
MORSIUSKIVI

Virke Lehtinen | Finland, France 2019 | Fiction | 10 min

TFF: "An unlucky adventurer had crossed nine thousand times a dangerous river of eighteen meters high rapids. A woman teaches him, that in the rapids water is not dangerous but the stones. This encounter changes his life."

"Epäonninen seikkailija oli ylittänyt yhdeksän tuhatta kertaa vaarallisen joen, jossa on 18 metrin kosket. Nyt nainen opettaa hänelle, että vesi ei ole vaarallinen, mutta kivet saattavat olla petolliset. Kohtaaminen muuttaa miehen elämän." TFF

AA: The New Wave veteran Virke Lehtinen at large in a suspenseful drama about finding gold buried in the rapids of a wild river. A drama told via vigorous action.

Niina Suominen: Mikä aika on? / What Time Is?

MIKÄ AIKA ON?
WHAT TIME IS?

Niina Suominen | Finland 2020 | Experimental, Animation | 8 min

TFF: "The essence of our time under the magnifying glass.The goal was to create a visually interesting, intense, kaleidoscopically abundant work set together with the pioneering electric composition of Jukka Ruohomäki (b. 1947).The work was mainly produced on film.The work gives us a chance to reflect on the transient nature of time and the relationship of the viewer to the era of conflict we live in."

"Aikamme olemus luupin alla. Teoksen lähtökohta oli visuaalisesti kiinnostavan ja intensiivisen, kaleidoskooppimaisen runsaan kokonaisuuden luominen ja rytmittäminen yhteen säveltäjä Jukka Ruohomäen (s.1947) saman nimisen ääniteoksen kanssa. Sävellyksen äänimateriaali on toteutettu vuonna 1970 Erkki Kurenniemen suunnittelemalla DIMI-syntesoijalla. Teoksen filmimateriaali (16 mm) on ohjaajan itsensä kuvaamaa ja kehittämää, lukuun ottamatta sotakuvia, jotka ovat found footage -materiaalia. Mikä aika on? asettaa ajan kokemuksen pohdinnan keskiöön. Teoksen ihmishahmot ovat kiintopisteitä ajan kulumisen ja loppumisen pohdinnoille. Sotakuvat toimivat universaaleina symboleina, jotka heijastavat ihmisluonnossa kaikkina aikakausina ilmenevää väkivaltaa. Teoksen kautta on mahdollista pohtia ajan katoavaista olemusta sekä katsojan suhdetta konfliktien täyteiseen aikaan, jota elämme. Teos on toteutettu pääosin filmille." TFF

AA: A whirlwind compendium of the history of the experimental film, to the sound of an early electronic music computer, the DIMI.

Teemu Nikki: All Inclusive. A power bracelet makes all wishes come true. Even birds obey Kalervo (Lauri Maijala).

ALL INCLUSIVE

Teemu Nikki | Finland 2019 | Fiction | 15 min

TFF: "Kalervo has felt powerless all his life, unable to fight back, until Annukka—a woman who loves him—gives Kalervo a life altering gift. Like with many of director Nikki’s works, All Inclusive can be interpreted in many ways, but at the core it’s a film about power, love and change. If you could right the wrongs in your life, would you, and would you stop there?"

"Kalervo on aina tuntenut itsensä voimattomaksi, kykenemättömäksi vastarintaan, kunnes Annukka – nainen, joka rakastaa häntä – antaa mullistavan lahjan. Kuten monet ohjaaja Nikin töistä, All Inclusive voidaan tulkita monella tapaa, mutta pohjimmiltaan kyse on vallasta, rakkaudesta ja muutoksesta. Jos voisit korjata elämäsi vääryydet, tekisitkö sen – ja lopettaisitko siihen?" TFF

AA: Teemu Nikki's twisted world: views of dark satire, magical realism and deranged outrage, inventive, stylish and constantly surprising. This film belongs to a special current of the fantastique which also includes The Monkey's Paw by W. W. Jacobs. "Beware of what you wish because your wishes might come true".

Minna Rainio, Mark Roberts: To Teach a Bird to Fly. After All Inclusive, another film where people can make birds listen to them.

TO TEACH A BIRD TO FLY

Minna Rainio, Mark Roberts | Finland 2020 | Documentary, Fiction | 24 min

TFF: "To Teach a Bird to Fly is an experimental docufiction film that explores bird extinction and climate change through a fictionalized story told from the perspective of the future. The film follows the Waldrapp project in Germany, where a young woman helps breed and hand-raise the birds. She teaches them to migrate by following a light aircraft across the Alps to their wintering grounds in Tuscany."

"To Teach a Bird To Fly on kokeellinen dokufiktio, joka tarkastelee lintujen sukupuuttoa ja ilmastonmuutosta tulevaisuuden näkökulmasta kerrotun fiktiivisen tarinan kautta. Elokuva seuraa saksalaista Waldrapp-projektia, jossa nuori nainen auttaa lintuja lisääntymään ja kasvattaa niitä. Hän opettaa linnut muuttamaan seuraamalla yleisilmailukonetta Alppien yli Toscanan talvehtimisalueille." TFF

AA: A docufiction about the ibis being rescued from the verge of extinction by humans who even need to teach them to migrate with the help of microlight air vehicles. Shot in Austria, Germany and Italy.

Tampere Film Festival 2020: National Competition 10

Risto-Pekka Blom: Kanarialintu / Canary. The tragedy of school bullying. Everybody looks the other way.

National Competition 10
Tampere International Film Festival (TFF)
Plevna 5, Tampere, 6 March 2020.
    Q &A with Antero Jokinen, Emma Louhivuori, Jan Ijäs, Miia Tervo and Sampsa Huttunen.

KANARIALINTU
CANARY

Risto-Pekka Blom | Finland 2020 | Experimental, Fiction | 5 min

TFF: "Every morning thousands of children go to school like canaries in a coal mine, measuring toxicity. The film deals with the chain of harassment and the way we all are broken in our own ways."

"Joka aamu tuhannet lapset lasketaan kouluun, kuin kanarialinnut kaivokseen testaamaan ilman myrkyllisyyttä. Elokuva kertoo kiusaamisen ketjuuntumisesta ja siitä kuinka olemme kaikki omalla tavallamme rikkinäisiä." TFF

AA: A high angle crane shot opens the film like in Lang and Mizoguchi. We witness traces of extreme cruelty and bullying by schoolmates. The solitude of the little girl, abandoned by father, abandoned by mother. She disappears into a path in the forest.

Nalle Sjöblad: Limbo with Martti Suosalo going down and Iida Kuningas going up, a bit like Jean and Miss Julie in August Strindberg's tragedy.

LIMBO

Nalle Sjöblad | Finland 2019 | Fiction | 10 min

TFF: "A quiet staircase of an ordinary office building. Two colleagues, Markku, an older accountant, and Eeva, younger HR manager are heading down the stairs, one after another. It turns out that earlier that day, Eeva has had to tell Markku that he has been fired from the company after many years. Markku is bitter and full of rage. Then something unordinary happens."

"Hiljainen porraskäytävä tavanomaisessa toimistorakennuksessa. Kaksi kollegaa, vanhempi kirjanpitäjä Markku ja nuorempi henkilöstöpäällikkö Eeva, kävelevät perätysten portaita alas. Käy ilmi, että aiemmin päivällä Eevan täytyi kertoa Markulle, että tämä on irtisanottu vuosien työsuhteen jälkeen. Markku on katkera ja täynnä raivoa. Sitten tapahtuu jotain epätavallista." TFF

AA:A contemporary rage of drama of an outsourced male veteran (Martti Suosalo) and the female human resource manager (Iida Kuningas) who has just fired her. They spit out a full register of contemporary outrage as they descend in an elevator and then go down an endless staircase in nightmare mode. From Nalle Sjöblad who gave us the brilliant Love & Anarchy Helsinki Film Festival trailer Mannerheim kuulee (2014) based on the meme on Der Untergang.

Emma Louhivuori: Hänen päänsä / Her Head. Her head is a cat.

HÄNEN PÄÄNSÄ
HER HEAD

Emma Louhivuori | Finland 2019 | Animation | 7 min

TFF: "A woman’s life is difficult because her head is a cat."

"Naisen elämä on hankalaa, koska hänen päänsä on kissa." TFF

AA: An animation based on line drawing, reduced in the extreme, black and white with colour spots, naivist. The story of a woman whose head is a cat.

Juulia Kalavainen: Checkpoint. The sentry and the little girl who fools him.

CHECKPOINT

Juulia Kalavainen | Portugal 2019 | Fiction | 6 min

TFF: "A war-torn area. A solitary military checkpoint. A soldier stands guard alone, the only soul between two conflicting areas. Amidst the oppressive and desolate landscape, he discovers an unexpected connection with a little girl."

"Sodan repimä alue. Syrjäinen armeijan tarkastuspiste. Sotilas seisoo yksin vartiossa, ainoana sieluna kahden vastakkaisen alueen välissä. Pakahduttavan, aution maiseman keskellä hän löytää odottamattoman yhteyden pikkutytön kanssa."

AA: A live action drama vignette about a little girl who fools a military man on guard by inviting him to a bout of football.

Jan Ijäs: Waste No. 4 New York, New York. An epic of garbage, the biggest manmade monument in history.

WASTE NO. 4 NEW YORK, NEW YORK

Jan Ijäs | Finland 2019 | Experimental, Documentary | 20 min

TFF: "Waste no. 4 New York, New York revisits the history of the City in twenty minutes through twelve cemeteries and one landfill. The short documentary is the fourth, independent episode from the ten-part Waste series."

"Waste no. 4 New York, New York kertaa New Yorkin historian 20 minuutissa kahdentoista hautausmaan ja yhden kaatopaikan välityksellä. Lyhytdokumentti on neljäs, itsenäinen osa kymmenosaista Waste-sarjaa."

AA: A new entry into Jan Ijäs's devastating series about waste. Potter's Field in New York is compared with the Great Wall of China, Egyptian grave monuments and the Sun Temple in Mexico: it beats them all. It is the finest portrait of Western civilization, built before the age of recycling, incorporating also the WTC twin towers. It is the garbage capital of humanity. Stunning. I have blogged twice about Waste No. 2 Wreck (2016).

Miia Tervo: Ei mitään hätää / It's All Right. A Kafkaesque trial: the first case of the prosecutor (Johannes Holopainen) is a brutal rape processed as mere routine. Shot on location at the Helsinki Court House in Salmisaari, modernist architecture by Väinö Vähäkallio.

EI MITÄÄN HÄTÄÄ
IT’S ALL RIGHT

Miia Tervo | Finland 2019 | Fiction | 17 min

TFF: "The young prosecutor Aleksi is unexpectedly called to his first trial, which is about rape. Aleksi represents Niina, who has waited for the trial for years. Aleksi has had way too little and Niina way too much time to prepare. Will the system give mercy to Aleksi and justice to Niina?"

"Aloitteleva syyttäjä Aleksi (Johannes Holopainen) joutuu yllättäen ensimmäiseen oikeudenkäyntiinsä, joka käsittelee raiskausta. Aleksi edustaa Niinaa (Lotta Kaihua), joka on odottanut käsittelyä jo vuosien ajan. Istunnon alkaessa Aleksilla on ollut liian vähän ja Niinalla aivan liian paljon valmistautumisaikaa. Antaako systeemi armoa Aleksille ja oikeutta Niinalle?" TFF

AA: I have blogged about Miia Tervo's masterpiece (my favourite film of the world cinema in 2019) in my entries on Tottumiskysymys and Yksittäistapaus.

Sampsa Huttunen: Toinen linja / Second Lane. Just when they have found the way to do something right with drug addicts the city of Helsinki calls the contract off. Toinen linja [Second Line] is a street in the district of Kallio in Helsinki, one of five lines that follow each other horizontally across the hill on top of which is the Kallio Church.

TOINEN LINJA
SECOND LANE

Sampsa Huttunen | Finland 2018 | Documentary | 29 min

TFF: "Second Lane is a story about drug addiction, living with it and fighting it. It is a documentary about people who use intravenous drugs and the professionals and peers working with those people. What happens when ‘Vinkki’, a social and healthcare counselling centre in Helsinki, closes its doors due to a lost contract."

"Toinen linja on tarina huumeriippuvuudesta, sen kanssa elämisestä ja sitä vastaan taistelemisesta. Se on dokumentti suonensisäisten huumeiden käyttäjistä ja ammattilaisista, jotka työskentelevät heidän parissaan. Miten käy, kun terveysneuvontapiste ”Vinkki” Helsingin keskustassa sulkee ovensa menetettyään sopimuksensa?" TFF

AA: A deeply moving film about a very special center for drug addicts, the Vinkki center which was forced to close after the city of Helsinki renewed the contract and switched to another service. Seven peer helpers soon died after the devastating event. There is no artistic approach in this film which is a straight documentary record, but it has a lot to say about the history of drug addiction, dating back to WWII years, and about possibilities to help those who are the most difficult to help.

Tampere Film Festival 2020: National Competition 8

Malakias: Luuranko kaapissa / A Skeleton in the Closet.

National Competition 8
Tampere International Film Festival (TFF)
Plevna 2, Tampere, 6 March 2020.

LUURANKO KAAPISSA
SKELETON IN THE CLOSET

Malakias | Finland 2019 | Animation | 11 min

TFF: "A Stranger In A Strange Land, Exodus 2:22"

"Muukalainen vieraalla maalla, 2. Moos. 2:22"

AA: Animation based on line drawing, white on black / dark, reduced, personal, grotesque, macabre. personal and original.

Merja Maijanen: Kiltti tyttö / Good Girl.

KILTTI TYTTÖ
GOOD GIRL

Merja Maijanen | Finland, Estonia, Portugal 2019 | Fiction | 12 min

TFF: "After being awarded for being a good girl, a naive little girl learns what it really means to be one."

"Saatuaan palkinnon kiltteydestään sinisilmäinen pikkutyttö oppii, mitä todella tarkoittaa olla kiltti tyttö."

AA: A striking vignette from domestic life and domestic violence. The Hymytyttö [Smiling Girl] statuette is a traditional special school award for a contribution to good team spirit in the school community. The daughter gets one. It is Christmas time, mother visits a "Little Christmas" party, at night there is a violent encounter with father who has had one drink too many. At breakfast a "keep smiling" atmosphere is enforced. Theme song: "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town".

Hanna Hovitie: Terraria. Misu who lives with snakes.

TERRARIA

Hanna Hovitie | Hungary, Finland 2019 | Documentary | 17 min

TFF: "In peaceful swampland, a solitary man wades through long grass, crawling carefully through the water. Unable to fit in with the world of humans, Misu prefers to spend his time with cold-blooded reptiles, caring for them with extraordinary empathy. Solitude is his way of survival but also his biggest enemy."

"Rauhallisella suolla yksinäinen mies kahlaa heinikossa ja ryömii varoen vesien halki. Ihmisten maailmaan sopeutumaton Misu viettää mieluummin aikansa kylmäveristen liskojen kanssa ja huolehtii niistä poikkeuksellisen empaattisesti. Yksinäisyys on hänen selviytymiskeinonsa, mutta myös pahin vihollisensa." TFF

AA: In Hungarian, a portrait documentary of a loner who lives with snakes and keeps catching water snakes in shallow waters. He feeds thems and breeds them and otherwise immerses himself in digital games.

Teemu Niukkanen: Onko sulla nälkä? / Are You Hungry? Matvei German as the adopted teenage son who is a total mystery to his mother.

ONKO SULLA NÄLKÄ?
ARE YOU HUNGRY?

Teemu Niukkanen | Finland 2019 | Fiction | 12 min

TFF: "A single mother struggles to connect with her adopted teenage son, who she believes is gay. Worried that the vulnerable boy will fall victim to older men preying on young boys online, she takes it upon herself to guide him safely through this period of self-exploration by setting him up on a date."

"Yksinhuoltajaäiti yrittää saada yhteyden adoptoituun teinipoikaansa, jonka uskoo olevan homo. Pelätessään, että herkkä poika jää netissä saalistavien vanhempien miesten uhriksi, hän ottaa asiakseen opastaa pojan turvallisesti läpi itsetutkiskelun vaiheen järjestämällä tälle treffit."

AA: Generation gap writ large. The mother is light years away from her teenage son adopted from Asia. A radical experiment leads nowhere and the distant son keeps his cool.

Milja Viita: When We Are Nothing Left. A film about infinity.

WHEN WE ARE NOTHING LEFT

Milja Viita | Finland, Canada 2020 | Experimental, Documentary | 8 min

TFF: "A minimalist film about time, infinity and life cycle, created in the spirit of William Blake. The film is shot and hand processed at the Film Farm in Ontario, Canada, during the summer 2018."

"Minimalistinen elokuva ajasta, äärettömyydestä ja elämänkierrosta William Blaken hengessä. Elokuva on kuvattu ja kehitetty käsityönä Film Farmilla Ontariossa, Kanadassa kesällä 2018."

AA: Shot on photochemical film, a film of duration, about the universe and eternity, a film of meditation like Untitled (White - Alps) by Salla Tykkä seen in a previous programme in this festival.

Teppo Airaksinen: Keppi / The Stick. The little daughter (Elina Patrakka) gets a substitute for a dog.

KEPPI
THE STICK

Teppo Airaksinen | Finland 2019 | Fiction | 11 min

TFF: "Denied a dog by her father, a young girl gets a very unusual new friend."

"Kun isä ei anna ottaa koiraa, nuori tyttö saa hyvin epätavallisen ystävän." TFF

AA: A family tragicomedy with top actors. A bad move by the father who tries to cope with a daughter who insists on a dog. If she will walk a stick for two weeks, three times a day, she is promised a dog. Starring Elina Patrakka, Juho Milonoff and Vilma Melasniemi.

Maija Blåfield: The Fantastic. Video and digital artifacts as a form of expression.

THE FANTASTIC

Maija Blåfield | Finland 2020 | Documentary | 30 min

TFF: "The Fantastic is a film about imagination and encountering the unknown. Former North Koreans describe their experiences of watching forbidden foreign films. What did they imagine the world outside to be like on the basis of smuggled fiction films?"

"The Fantastic on elokuva mielikuvituksesta ja tuntemattoman kohtaamisesta. Entiset pohjoiskorealaiset kertovat kotimaassaan salaa katsomistaan kielletyistä ulkomaisista elokuvista. Millaiseksi he kuvittelivat tuntemattoman ulkomaailman, kun tietolähteenä toimivat salakuljetetut fiktioelokuvat?" TFF

AA: Instead of a predictable account about North Korea this movie opens surprising insights into the Western imagination and new dismal insights about the totalitarian tyranny. The film is also a piece of media art where the VHS aesthetique and digital artifacts become a form of expression.

Salla Tykkä: Untitled (White - Alps)

Salla Tykkä: Untitled (White – Alps).

National Competition 7
Tampere International Film Festival (TFF)
Plevna 5, Tampere, 6 March 2020.
    Languages: English, French.
    In the presence of Salla Tykkä.

UNTITLED (WHITE – ALPS)

Salla Tykkä | Finland, Switzerland, France 2019 | Documentary | 70 min

TFF: "A travelogue film about looking and the human need to see and understand the world and about the limits of the sensory system as mind penetrates deeper in the matter, time and space."

"Matkakertomus etsimisestä, ihmisen tarpeesta nähdä ja ymmärtää maailmaa sekä aistijärjestelmän rajoitteista, kun mieli tunkeutuu syvemmälle materiaan, aikaan ja tilaan." (TFF)

AA: An experimental film, a philosophical film, a gallery art film.

A film of duration, a film of meditation, a film of contemplation.

A film shot on film, the visual experience is that of a journey over the Alps around Chamonix in a hot air balloon. The aesthetique is that of the long take. The camera is mobile, and towards the finale there are even 360° aerial panoramic shots. The film is based on extreme long shots. We see the magnificence of the Alps in a big picture in great detail. It is rewarding to experience this movie on a big cinema screen.

The soundtrack is a compilation of statements from top cosmologists. They are not identified during the course of the movie, and their names flash past in the final credits too fast to read the names properly. A cosmologist tells she is focusing on the first second of the universe. Black holes and issues of gravity are discussed. Many questions are ontological: what matter is, what life is. Discussion opens from physics to chemistry and biology. The recitative is very intriguing. It is read in English by a female foreign speaker with a nasal accent, and during the course of the feature film what would be perfect in a lecture hall becomes slightly grating.

The concept is fascinating: the journey over the Alps becomes an ontological journey. At the same time, regarding Swiss ski resorts and Chamonix we cannot help but worry about what is happening as the climate change is by now an existential threat to the legendary ski paradises. A film with views like this might soon be impossible to make.

PS. List of experts from the end credits retrieved from a screener link: Paula Eerola, Kari Enqvist, Antti Hakanen, Riitta Hari, Markku Kulmala, Eero Aleksi Kurkela, Kati Lassila Perini, Anne Lähteenmäki, Susanna Miettinen, Manu Tamminen, Esko Valtaoja.

Neiti Aika / Lady Time

Elina Talvensaari: Neiti Aika / Lady Time.

National Competition 7
Tampere International Film Festival (TFF)
Plevna 5, Tampere, 6 March 2020.
    In the presence of Elina Talvensaari.

NEITI AIKA
LADY TIME

Elina Talvensaari | Finland 2019 | Documentary | 61 min

TFF: "Lady Time is a documentary film in which filmmaker Elina Talvensaari gets to know the previous occupant of her new home. She was an old woman who died alone with no one left to remember her. Everything she owned remained in the apartment and passed on to Elina. What would happen if Elina was to throw everything away? Fear of oblivion drove Elina to find out who the woman was."

"Neiti Aika on dokumenttielokuva, jossa elokuvantekijä Elina Talvensaari tutustuu uuden kotinsa edelliseen asukkaaseen. Tämä oli vanha nainen, joka kuoli yksin ilman ketään, joka muistaisi häntä. Koko omaisuus jäi asuntoon ja sitä kautta Elinalle. Mitä tapahtuisi, jos Elina heittäisi kaiken menemään? Unohduksen pelko sai Elinan selvittämään, kuka nainen oli."

AA: Time is a most profoundly cinematic theme, and in her film Elina Talvensaari conducts a unique "search of lost time". This is a documentary journey with creative inserts such as a funeral which nobody attends, illustrating the film-maker's imagination of a woman who died forgotten.

Following a trail of photographs, official documents, objects, family archives and even home movies Talvensaari reconstructs an entire life full of drama and tragedy but also love, happiness and friendship. One person's life story (her name is Sirkka-Liisa Miettinen, née Dyberg, 1915-2012) opens a unique window to the saga of the nation of Finland over a time period of almost a century. We witness key events such as the wars of 1939-1945 and the 1952 Helsinki Olympics through the family lens.

Talvensaari gets so immersed into the legacy of an unknown woman that Sirkka-Liisa becomes almost a lost ancestor or relative to her own family.

Deeply cinematic is also the sense of "imprinted time" in the objects, and there is a touch of Tarkovsky in the way they are viewed. They are not rubbish to be disposed of with a Marie Kondo approach. Talvensaari even takes Sirkka-Liisas belongings with her when the family moves from the home to which Sirkka-Liisa and Veikko had moved after the 1952 Olympics, the house having originally been built for the Olympic village.

Another Tarkovsky connection is "Ich ruf zu Dir, Herr Jesu Christ!" BWV 639 the funeral organ standard, also heard as a main theme of Solaris. Friends had attended Sirkka-Liisa's funeral, and she did not die alone, as Talvensaari finally learns. Among the couple's remains we find a love letter from the beloved hubby Veikko in which he hopes that "one day pictures could tell how wonderful our life had been".

Nepalin morsian / The Beloved Daughter

Tiina Madisson: Nepalin morsian / The Beloved Daughter.

National Competition 5
Tampere International Film Festival (TFF)
Plevna 2, Tampere, 5 March 2020.
    Languages: Bhojpuri, Nepalese, Sanskrit. DCP with English subtitles. E-subtitles in Finnish.
    Q&A after the screening with Tiina Madisson (director), Kirsi Mattila (producer), Salla Luhtala (composer) and Katja Pällijeff (editor).

NEPALIN MORSIAN
THE BELOVED DAUGHTER

Tiina Madisson | Finland, Norway 2019 | Documentary | 72 min

TFF: "Rekha has a dream: she wants to become an English teacher. However, she is already 14, and time is running out to find a husband for her. Although child marriage is forbidden by law, the practice is still common in their remote Nepalese village near the Indian border. Rekha’s father is a loving father and he wants to find a good husband for Rekha."

"Rekhalla on unelma: hän haluaa englanninopettajaksi. Hän on kuitenkin jo 14-vuotias, ja on kiire löytää hänelle aviomies. Vaikka lapsiavioliitot on kielletty laissa, käytäntö elää yhä heidän syrjäisessä nepalilaiskylässään lähellä Intian rajaa. Rekhan isä rakastaa tytärtään ja haluaa löytää tälle hyvän aviomiehen."

AA: The story of the 14 year old Rekha who lives in a remote Nepalese village. She wants to have a good education and become an English teacher, but his father wants her to marry.

Tiina Madisson's beautiful film belongs to the Flaherty tradition. In the remote village we can still connect with an ancient way of life, outside electricity and the social norms of the state. For a Westerner this is a "mobile detox", living in the rhythm of the nature, following the sun.

In the Q&A after the screening Madisson told us that she has lived in the village for such long periods that she has become one of them, and gained privileged access to the families. After years she found Rekha whose family agreed to participate in the film.

Like Nanook of the North, The Beloved Daughter is enacted reality. The situations and the conversations would have been impossible to catch with candid camera. The characters of the drama portray themselves. We follow farming, we follow buffalo-herding, we follow fishing and how Rekha learns to prepare a meal from a fish that has just been caught in the river.

Like Flaherty, Madisson favours the long take, the montage interdit approach. It is essential to catch the rhythm of the life which is based on the rhythm of the nature. A key experience is dignity.

Visually the movie is exceptionally beautiful: the people, the nature, the light, the colour, the compositions. This village does not seem to be located in the Himalayas but the nature looks ravishing anyway. Women's clothes have radiant colours. We also follow processes of beautification such as mehndi, the ancient Indian body art applied on hands by henna.

The marriage ceremony is a splendid highlight, but it is a great paradox because it means tragedy for Rekha. Her dream is crushed, and she bursts into bitter tears. "You are one with your deep driven desire". "As your deed is so is your destiny".

The practice of child marriage is illegal in Nepal, and we may be witnessing the last generations still experiencing it. In the final credits we learn about UNICEF's concerns. Globally, 12 million girls still are forced to marriage while under 18 years of age.

Orkesterin edessä / Conductivity

Anna-Karin Grönroos: Orkesterin edessä / Conductivity. Emilia Hoving flanked by the silhouettes of I Han-Fu and James Kahane.

National Competition 4
Tampere International Film Festival (TFF)
Plevna 2, Tampere, 5 March 2020.
    Q&A after the screening with Anna-Karin Grönroos.

ORKESTERIN EDESSÄ
CONDUCTIVITY

Anna-Karin Grönroos | Finland 2019 | Documentary | 75 min

TFF: "Conductivity is a film about creative leadership told through the story of three young conductors at the prestigious Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, Finland; I-Han Fu (Taiwan), Emilia Hoving (Finland) and James Kahane (France). When stepping on the podium, they are put under a magnifying glass. Conductor training, in essence, is leadership training."

"Emilia Hoving, I-Han Fu ja James Kahane ovat nuoria lahjakkaita muusikoita, jotka ovat valinneet itselleen instrumenteista kaikkein vaativimman, sinfoniaorkesterin. He opiskelevat orkesterinjohtamista Taideyliopiston Sibelius-Akatemian kapellimestariluokalla, joka on alallaan yksi maailman halutuimmista ja arvostetuimmista. Kapellimestarin on oltava itsevarma, karismaattinen, vakuuttava, herkkä, tarkka ja sytyttävä. Kuinka vakuuttaa orkesterin soittajat siitä, että tietää mitä tekee, kun oma mieli on täynnä kyseenalaistuksia ja epävarmuuksia? Orkesterin edessä elokuvassa Sibelius-Akatemian opiskelijoita päästään seuraamaan opetustilanteissa ensimmäistä kertaa näin laajasti." (TFF)

AA: I already blogged about Orkesterin edessä / Conductivity a month ago.

Mystinen metsätyömies / Mystical Lumberjack

Mikko Mattila: Mystinen metsätyömies / Mystical Lumberjack: Pekka Myllykoski, "Freud" in the country band Freud Marx Engels & Jung.

National Competition 3
Tampere International Film Festival (TFF)
Plevna 5, Tampere, 5 March 2020.
    Q&A after the screening with Mikko Mattila.

MYSTINEN METSÄTYÖMIES
MYSTICAL LUMBERJACK

Mikko Mattila | Finland 2019 | Documentary | 63 min

TFF: "Portrait of Pekka Myllykoski (1959-2017), super intelligent bookworm and nature lover, almost graduaded medical doctor, who became the lyricist and singer of popular outlaw country band Freud Marx Engels & Jung. The band was specially known for many alcohol and drinking related hits. The optimism and joy of youth in 1980s turned in next decades to a deep alcoholism."

"Muotokuva Pekka Myllykoskesta (1959-2017), huippuälykkäästä lukutoukasta ja luonnonystävästä, melkein valmiista lääkäristä, josta tuli suositun country-yhtye Freud Marx Engels & Jungin laulaja-lauluntekijä. Yhtye tunnettiin etenkin useista alkoholista ja juomisesta kertovista hiteistään. 1980-luvun optimismi ja nuoruudeninto vaihtuivat myöhempinä vuosikymmeninä syvään alkoholismiin." (TFF)

Lauri Timonen (Midnight Sun Film Festival, 2019): "Should the yearning for country music course fiery in your veins, Texas boots be the thing, and the lyrics of the band called Freud, Marx, Engels & Jung play upon the most sensitive strings of your soul, this newly released documentary has been made just for you. The personal portrait of the singer Pekka Myllykoski (1959–2017) is a rough but honest story of an authentically sensitive bohemian whose exceptional talents partly also became a burden for him. This authentic anti-hero of thirsty romanticism, one of the most skillful lyricists in the realm, enjoyed quizzes in addition to his main job, something abetted by an IQ verging on Goethe’s magic limit, nevertheless sabotaging his act by the meticulous bottle-feeding required by his liquor-soaked reputation."

"Friends, family, and bandmates do not prettify the truth here, but between the notes emerges an exceptionally frank image of a free spirit walking down the road of his own choosing – “Sunday morning streets” – a mystic who loved the forests and even worked as a doctor, a ragged scraggly-bearded rebel of Finnish Country music." Lauri Timonen (Midnight Sun Film Festival, 2019)

AA: The documentary portrait of Pekka Myllykoski, the lead singer of the country music band Freud Marx Engels & Jung (the name parodying Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young) grows into a music documentary of the popular band which was launched in the year 1984, also known by the abbreviation "Freukkarit". Mikko Mattila avoids the cliches of the genre but he does not avoid the issues of the band and the talented artist. Pekka Myllykoski was a talented and beloved physican who was too sensitive to practice the medical profession. He was also a blatant case of "medice, cura te ipsum" ("physician, take care of yourself!").

Mystical Lumberjack is in many ways a tale of alcoholism. Drinking songs were a staple in the Freud Marx Engels & Jung repertory. They rehearsed their programme to be performed in three modes: drunk, sober, and hung over. Alcoholism is approached from many sides. It is a state of fun, joy and creativity. It is a state of irresponsibility especially at home. It is a medical case, to be treated in withdrawal therapy and Antabus. But perhaps Pekka took cures only to be able to drink more. Ultimately it is a matter of self-destruction, slow suicide. Finally we face the fact that Pekka Myllykoski is what we in Finland call "itsemurhakandidaatti" ("candidate for suicide").

We return to the childhood trauma of Pekka Myllykoski, the "Freud" of the band. There was no love in Pekka's childhood. He was bullied by his big brother Matti who oppressed him even with physical violence. Pekka's fundamental experience of life was injustice.

Mystical Lumberjack, the title of the film (taken from a Freukkarit song), refers to the fact that Pekka found solace in nature. He loved to trek in Lapland. He was highly conscious of the environment and deeply concerned about the fact that humanity is about to self-destruct. Pekka's ashes were spread in the forest.

Instead of a funeral, there was a memorial concert at the popular rock club Tavastia, following the advice of Hound Dog Taylor: "don't have a funeral, have a party". We hear one of Pekka's key slogans: "life is a bad joke".

As a music documentary Mystical Lumberjack is excellent. Mikko Mattila has had privileged access to the Freukkarit archives and Pekka Myllykoski's home movies. The technically disparate materials have been edited in a meaningful way without polishing rough edges. Mattila's film is both reverent and irreverent.

It is a unique story about Finnish madness. And madness in the world at large.

Suuri savotta / The Forest Cartel Case

Jani Salminen: Suuri savotta / The Forest Cartel Case.

National Competition 3
Tampere International Film Festival (TFF)
Plevna 5, Tampere, 5 March 2020.
    Q&A after the screening with Jani Salminen and Reijo Lahtonen.

SUURI SAVOTTA
THE FOREST CARTEL CASE

Jani Salminen | Finland 2020 | Documentary | 63 min

TFF: "Over 70 % of Finland’s surface area is covered by forest. The forest sector is huge in Finnish economy and culture. On May 1, 2004 a new competition law with leniency procedure was passed. Immediately after UPM Kymmene informed Competition and Consumer Authority that it had been running a wood purchasing cartel. Reijo Lahtonen sees an opportunity to claim millions in compensation in court."

"Metsäkoneyrittäjä Reijo Lahtonen näkee tilaisuuden vaatia miljoonakorvauksia metsäyhtiöiltä, kun Suomen metsäjättiläset jäävät kiinni puunostokartellin ylläpidosta vuosina 1997-2004. Alkaa pitkä ja väsyttävä oikeustaistelu joka kestää 6 vuotta ja käy kaikissa oikeusasteissa." (TFF)

AA: A documentary film about the biggest legal process in the history of Finland. The three biggest forest industry companies - UPM Kymmene, Stora Enso and Metsä Group - were convicted for running a wood purchasing cartel. But no compensation was paid to the small forest owners. They sued the companies but finally lost the case in a multi-stage, multi-annual, exhausting and prolonged process.

The complex story is condensed into a highly interesting one hour film. I have been tracking bits and pieces of the story over the years, but this was my first opportunity to have an overview. It's not the complete story because the companies refused to comment.

The story is very serious and important. One of the big themes is law and justice. The big companies have superior financial resources, and they can employ Big Law - the best and the most expensive law firms, with their armiers of top lawyers. They have more resources for their case than the judges and other attorneys at the courts of law.

Watching this film we cannot help but realize that the companies knew themselves that they were breaking the law and the social contract based on justice, but with their superior financial resources they were able to sidetrack the legal process, confuse the proceedings and focus on technicalities. The very prolongation turned too exhausting for small forest owners to endure.

This film is not a critique of capitalism, on the contrary. The cartel system is preventing the free functioning of capitalism based on free enterprise and competition.

I look forward to learning more.

Silmästä silmään / Eye to Eye

John Webster: Silmästä silmään / Eye to Eye. The director's masterpiece.

National Competition 2
Tampere International Film Festival (TFF)
Plevna 2, Tampere, 4 March 2020.
    Q&A after the screening with Saija Viitala, Arja Konttinen and Mika Suomalainen.

SILMÄSTÄ SILMÄÄN
EYE TO EYE

John Webster | Finland 2020 | Documentary | 87 min

TFF: "When we experience traumatic loss, we grieve. It is the essential process of healing. For the family members of murder victims this process is often postponed indefinitely. To unlock the trauma and begin the grieving, a method called restorative dialogue brings two parents – and the audience – eye to eye with the murderers."

"Koettuamme traumaattisen menetyksen me suremme. Se on keskeinen osa parantumisprosessia. Murhan uhrin omaisilla prosessi monesti lykkäytyy. Jotta trauman voi purkaa ja surutyö voi alkaa, restoratiiviseksi dialogiksi kutsuttu metodi tuo vanhemmat – ja katsojat – kohtaamaan murhaajat silmästä silmään." (TFF)

AA: An exceptional and unique documentary film, six years in the making, about restorative dialogue between families and murderers who have killed their children.

The film was shot in real circumstances at the Kylmäkoski Prison and the Vilppula Open Prison.

"In her heart the mother carries her child forever". The murder of one's child is an overwhelming experience, and it may be impossible to forgive, but one must do one's best to avoid hate becoming the all-encompassing emotion.

The film focuses on a few selected case studies. From the side of loss and negation it grows into a study of the strongest bonds in life, and a love everlasting.

It is also about the murderers coming to terms with what they have done, their lives also destroyed, their necessary reconstruction, sometimes a spiritual and religious awakening, the guilt and the torment never disappearing, haunting in nightmares every night.

John Webster has a strong visual and artistic vision in the film whose center is the stark and devastating confrontation. I am grateful for Sanna Liljander for emphasizing the exceptional artistic distinction of this movie, based on eye contact and various similes for the eye motif, even including the sunflower.

In the Q&A the film-makers emphasized the gross injustice that family members experience. The offenders are sentenced to pay heavy compensations, but because they get lifelong / very long prison sentences they cannot afford to pay, and families get nothing, instead they get stuck in prolonged litigations with the perpetrators whom they would prefer to avoid.

Tampere Film Festival 2020: Opening Screening

Angello Faccini, Guille Isa: Dulce.

Tampere Film Festival (TFF): Opening Screening
Plevna 2, Tampere, 4 March 2020

DULCE

Angello Faccini, Guille Isa | United States, Colombia, Peru 2018 | Documentary | 11 min

TFF: "On Colombia’s Pacific Coast, a mother teaches her daughter, Dulce, how to swim. It is an essential skill in this remote region, where livelihoods are made on the sea and where rising tides, made worse by climate change, have swept entire villages away in recent years. Overcoming her fear of the water is just one element of Dulce’s budding awareness of her natural and cultural surroundings."

"Tyynenmeren rannikolla Kolumbiassa äiti opettaa tytärtään Dulcea uimaan. Se on tärkeä taito syrjäisellä seudulla, jossa elanto tienataan merestä ja jossa ilmastonmuutoksen pahentamat nousuvedet ovat viime vuosina vieneet mennessään kokonaisia kyliä. Veden pelon voittaminen on vain yksi osa Dulcen kasvavaa tietoisuutta häntä ympäröivästä luonnosta ja kulttuurista." TFF

AA: The water is rising. To know how to swim is a matter of life and death. The climate change affects the entire habitat of the mangrove biome. A small story about great issues.

Miia Tervo: Lumikko (2009).

LUMIKKO
THE LITTLE SNOW ANIMAL

Miia Tervo | Finland 2009 | Documentary | 20 min

TFF: "It’s not wrong to want love – you just need to look for it in the right place."

"Ei ole väärin haluta rakkautta, pitää vain tietää mistä etsiä." TFF

AA: Miia Tervo's Lumikko, which won the Grand Prix of the Tampere Film Festival in 2009, was also for me the revelation of the talented director at the time, soon reaffirmed by an equally unique short film, Santra and the Talking Trees. Lumikko starts with a radio confession to Pekka Sauri at Yölinja (Night Line), a tale of sexual awakening, school bullying and survival instinct. It's a young woman's story of being "dazed and confused", told with confidential intimacy and a wide palette of cinematic means, including charcoal animation and documentary inserts (rescuing an elk from a hole in the ice).

Nelson Makengo: Up at Night.

UP AT NIGHT
YÖN TUNTEINA

Nelson Makengo | Congo, Belgium 2019 | Documentary | 21 min

TFF: "darkness > in the depths of the working class neighbourhoods, in the absurdity of the rubble of endless nights, night > in this nocturnal shipwreck of the physical and symbolic power cut, resistance > abandoned to itself like a motherless chick, like a pot without a lid, like a house without a window, without a door, like a door without a lock, like a lock without a key… light > resilience, darkness > and the beauty of resistance?"

"pimeys > työläislähiön syövereissä, loputtomien öiden raunioiden absurdiudessa, yö > fyysisen ja symbolisen sähkökatkon öisessä haaksirikossa, vastarinta > hylättynä kuin emoton linnunpoika, kuin vakka ilman kantta, kuin talo ilman ikkunaa, ilman ovea, kuin ovi ilman lukkoa, kuin lukko ilman avainta… valo > lannistumattomuus, pimeys > ja vastarinnan kauneus?" TFF

AA: Executed in Polyvision, like Napoléon vu par Abel Gance, a poetic and energetic vision about turbulence in Kongo, in accelerated motion.

Dylan River: Nulla Nulla.

NULLA NULLA

Dylan River | Australia 2014 | Fiction | 6 min

TFF: "A young policeman, fresh out of the academy, gets his first taste of the complexities of community life. Taken under the wing of a senior Aboriginal Community Police Officer, he is thrown into the deepend when he is encouraged to repsond to a Domestic Dispute on his own."

"Juuri akatemiasta valmistunut nuori poliisi saa esimakua yhteisöelämän monimutkaisuudesta. Aboriginaaliyhteisön vanhemman poliisin suojeluksessa oleva nuorimies joutuu tositoimiin, kun häntä rohkaistaan vastaamaan kotiväkivaltahälytykseen yksin."

AA: A novel twist to the conventional dramatis personae concept of the veteran cop / the rookie cop. Two mean and formidable First Nation grannies give the young white cop a lesson that he is unlikely to forget.

Typhoon Mama

Lou Strömberg: Typhoon Mama.

National Competition 1
Tampere International Film Festival (TFF)
Plevna 2, Tampere, 4 March 2020.
In Filipino, Swedish, English and Finnish. With English / Finnish subtitles.
Q&A with Lou Strömberg, Pertti Veijalainen (P), Jussi Saivo (M).

TYPHOON MAMA

Lou Strömberg | Finland 2019 | Documentary | 79 min

TFF: "The director's stepmother Yolanda, a Filipino woman married and living in Sweden, faces a balancing act for many immigrants: working a gruelling job as a maid to keep up with having to pay unrealistic remittances to her three sons back home in the Philippines. When a drug war breaks out in the Philippines, the family dynamics are put to test."

"Typhoon Mama on dokumenttielokuva ohjaajan äitipuolesta Yolandasta. Hän asuu kahden maailman välissä: Ruotsin, missä hän on asunut yli 20 vuotta ja Filippiinien, missä hänen kolme aikuista poikaansa vielä asuvat. He uskovat Euroopan olevan El Dorado, missä rahaa saa helposti ja painostavatkin Yolandalta sitä. Kun huumesota syttyy Filippiineillä, ravistelee se myös perhesuhteita." TFF

AA: A family documentary reflecting two worlds: desperate conditions in the Philippines and affluence in the West, Sweden appearing as paradise.

Mother Yolanda seems to be stuck in a life sentence of motherhood, toiling around the clock in Sweden, emptying her partner's bank account, appearing as a fairytale figure in the Philippines with lavish gifts reflecting "an immense accumulation of commodities", still keeping her sons although they have grown up by now. It's a tragedy of a multiple exploitation. The typhoon mama's love is bottomless but one-sided. Instead, the sons complain about the absence of the mother in their lives.

I keep being amazed at the possibility of making such intimate and revealing documentaries of families. There are multiple scenes where I feel like watching enactments, the protagonists playing parts in their lives. The relationship of the film's events to reality is constantly puzzling. This is the age of reality television: nothing is outside the possibility of being filmed.

The visual quality of the image is variable in the extreme. Hardly ever do the characters speak in their native language. Bad Swedish, bad English, etc., is dominant, which is part of the documentary reality. But it is hard to relate to people who are seen expressing themselves only in an extremely limited range of their human dimensions.

Ráhkkis eadni / My Dear Mother / Min kära mor

Paul Anders Simma: Ráhkkis eadni / My Dear Mother / Min kära mor. This image does not appear in the film.

National Competition 6
Tampere International Film Festival (TFF)
Jury preview, Tampere, Niagara, 4 March 2020.
Language: Russian.

MY DEAR MOTHER

Paul Anders Simma | Finland, Norway, Sweden 2019 | Documentary | 87 min

TFF: "Tasha is a nine-year-old Lapp girl. She is an inmate of a Russian orphanage, even when she is not an orphan. Tasha believes that her mother is dead and that her father is in jail for life. To survive she has found a Russian stepmother at the orphanage. One day her biological mother suddenly calls her. In the background of Tasha’s fate lurks the greater global narrative about the “stolen generation"."

"Tasha on yhdeksänvuotias saamelaistyttö. Hän on hoidokkina venäläisessä orpokodissa, vaikka ei edes ole orpo. Tasha uskoo äitinsä kuolleen ja isän istuvan elinkautista vankilassa. Selviytyäkseen hän on etsinyt orpokodista itselleen venäläisen ottoäidin. Eräänä päivänä biologinen äiti soittaakin hänelle. Tashan kohtalon taustalla piilee laajempi globaali tarina ”varastetusta sukupolvesta”." TFF

AA: A new movie from the veteran of Sami cinema, Paul-Anders Simma (Let's Dance, Sagojoga Minister) is the story of the Murmansk Sami girl Dasha (Daria) who is not an orphan but has been abandoned by her biological mother. Her father sits in prison for life. She finds a very good foster mother at a Russian orphanage. A wrenching moment in the movie is Dasha's visit to the abandoned home of her early childhood, where old photographs and documents witness of a life lost.

The childhood home is in Luujärvi / Lujaur / Lovozero, a center of Sami people in the Murmansk district, but the pull is to the south, to Petrozavodsk / Petroskoi, the capital of Russian Karelia.

Neglected by her biological parents, Dasha's ties to the ancient Sami legacy gradually disappear, and in the care of a good Russian foster mother, she grows up as a Russian.

In Lujaur, the reindeer were everything. The nomadic life of the Sami society was based on reindeer herding. When this way of life has vanished the whole existence of the people is veers towards the brink of an abyss.

The theme underlying Dasha's story is great and universal. Paul Anders Simma's touching film gives us a lot to think about.

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