Miroirs No. 3 / Mirrors No. 3

Christian Petzold: Miroirs No. 3 / Mirrors No. 3 (DE 2025). Philip Froissant (Jakob), Paula Beer (Laura) and Barbara Auer (Betty),

Germany 2025.

Director: Christian Petzold

Starring: Paula Beer, Barbara Auer, Matthias Brandt, Enno Trebs, Philip Froissant

Maurice Ravel: Miroirs 3: Une barque sur l'océan (1905)

Frédéric Chopin: Prelude No. 4

Pianist: Adriana von Franqué

    Language: German

    86 min

    Distributor: The Match Factory. Subtitles: English

    Love & Anarchy 38th Helsinki International Film Festival (HIFF).

    Viewed at Bio Rex Lasipalatsi, Helsinki, Sat 20.9. at 18.45–20.11

Pöly Julkunen (HIFF 2025): "Christian Petzold’s latest film is a minimalist, Hitchcockian chamber drama in which the presence of a recovering stranger forces a family to face the ghosts of their past."

"German arthouse film maestro Christian Petzold (Afire, R&A 2024) brings another cinematic gem to the big screen. Mirrors No. 3 is an understated chamber drama built around mystery, drawing on Petzold’s Hitchcockian mise-en-scène and visual storytelling."

"Laura (the dazzling Paula Beer, a familiar face in Petzold’s films) is a piano student who miraculously survives a car accident almost unscathed. She is taken in by Betty, an elderly woman who was the first to arrive at the scene, and recovers in her ramshackle country house. Betty is ready to take the stranger immediately into her tender, motherly care. However, Betty’s husband and son are more reserved in their hospitality towards Laura. Laura’s arrival brings the alienated family together to repair both neglected relationships and their estate. Beneath the polished surface of their renewed family life, the painful ghosts of the past emerge."

"Petzold skilfully creates a veil of family secrets with meaningful silences, glances, and emotional outbursts. Music—especially the beautiful piano piece by Maurice Ravel that gives the film its title—plays a subtle role as the interpreter of repressed emotions." Pöly Julkunen (translated by Pauliina Jännes)

"Petzoldin uutuus on vähäeleinen, hitchcockilainen kamaridraama, jossa onnettomuudesta toipuvan vieraan läsnäolo pakottaa perheen kohtaamaan menneisyytensä haamut."

"Saksalainen arthouse-elokuvan mestari Christian Petzold (Punainen taivas, R&A 2024) tuo valkokankaille jälleen pienen, upean elokuvahelmen. Mirrors No. 3 on vähäeleinen, mysteerin ympärille rakentuva kamaridraama, joka nojaa Petzoldille ominaiseen hitchcockmaiseen asetelmaan ja kuvakerrontaan."

"Auto-onnettomuudesta lähes naarmutta ihmeen kaupalla selviävä pianonsoiton opiskelija Laura (Petzoldin vakiokasvo, häikäisevä Paula Beer) jää toipumaan ensimmäisenä onnettomuuspaikalle saapuneen vanhemman naisen, Bettyn, ränsistyneeseen maalaistaloon. Betty on valmis ottamaan vieraan välittömästi äidillisen hellään huomaansa. Varauksellisemmin Lauraan ja Bettyn vieraanvaraisuuteen suhtautuvat kuitenkin tämän mies ja poika. Lauran ilmaantuminen tuo toisistaan etääntyneen perheen yhteen korjaamaan sekä laiminlyötyjä suhteita että tiluksia. Uudistuneen perhedynamiikan julkisivun takaa pyrkivät esiin kuitenkin menneisyyden kipeät haamut."

"Petzold luo taidokkaasti perhesalaisuuksien verhoa tempovan jännitteen merkitsevin hiljaisuuksin, katsein ja tunteenpurkauksin. Musiikilla – erityisesti Maurice Ravelin elokuvalle nimen antavalla kauniilla pianoteoksella – on hienovireinen rooli tukahdutettujen tunteiden tulkkina." Pöly Julkunen

AA: Christian Petzold's Miroirs No. 3 stands out among the films I have seen so far at the 2025 edition of the Helsinki International Film Festival in one respect: it has a strong compelling drive from the beginning to the end. All the other films I have seen have felt overlong or losing their grip at times.

This quality of intensity is one of the secrets and miracles of Miroirs No. 3, which remains a mystery even after the plot mystery has been solved.

Miroirs No. 3 is seemingly plot-driven, and the plot is not trivial. It is about healing from a trauma through a transference of love. It goes both ways. Betty has lost the dearest person in her life. Laura has also lost a partner. But with her, there is an absence of affect. 

It seems that even before the car accident, Laura has lost her sense of purpose, even her sense of self, and still more ominously, her will to live. This is the fatal connection between Laura and Yelena (Betty's daughter) and the subject of the movie. There is a profound affinity with L'avventura by Michelangelo Antonioni.

But the subject is not pursued in the plot. The suspense plot keeps the movie going, but the way the subject unfolds is image-driven.

The images are haunting.

The woman on the bridge and by the water.

The windswept curtains.

The rainswept windshields.

The strange look of Betty.

The curious gazes of the passers-by.

Food, all-important.

Königsberger Klopse (meatballs) and Pflaumkuchen (plum cake).

As well as drink.

Coffee, tea, water, wine and beer.

Women are creatures of culture.

Books and piano.

Men live in Tekniikan Maailma, the world of machines and technology.

Fixing the faucet, the dishwasher and the bicycle and tuning the piano.

Women also paint the fence (like Tom Sawyer) and do the gardening.

A recurrent motif is losing control of one's vehicle, be it car or bicycle.

A significant side motif is about Betty's son Max who runs a garage. Among his skills is deactivating the GPS from cars, because many customers reject the feature that enables constant surveillance.

Miroirs No. 3, named after a composition by Maurice Ravel, is also sound-driven.

The call of the crane is the most important Leitmotif.

There is a dialogue about determining the Tonart - the key. And of course the motif of tuning the piano of Betty's deceased daughter Yelena.

Laura returns to Berlin and participates in a concert of her art university. Betty, Richard and Max sneak in. Laura's performance is like a river of pearls. Transcendence through art.

In world-building, Petzold triumphs.

What remains is an intensity of being, Dasein. 

Allly baqi mink / All That's Left of You

 

Cherien Dabis: /اللي باقي منك/ Allly baqi mink / All That's Left of You (DE/CY/PS/JO/GR/QA/QA/SA 2025). Father Salim (Saleh Bakri) and mother Hanan (played by the director Cherien Dabis).

Telluride Film Festival 2025 TBA addition: "Saturday 8/30 TBAs * Sneak Preview * Noon Seminar * Le Pierre 8:45 Sneak Preview ALL THAT'S LEFT OF YOU (145 minutes) Q&A with Peter Sellars and Cherien Dabis "Writer-director Cherien Dabis's moving and eye-opening epic follows one Palestinian family over the course of multiple generations, telling a story of displacement, heartbreak and ancestral trauma. In the present West Bank, Noor, a young Palestinian teen, is swept into a protest and confronted by Israeli soldiers. How did he get there? Dabis brings us back to 1948 in Jaffa, as Israeli troops during the war, displace thousands, including Noor's grandfather, from their villages. In the present, we meet Noor's parents Hanan (played by Dabis) and her husband Salim (Saleh Bakri), whose spirit has been broken by the continuous oppression and the loss of his family's land. Powerful and focused, ALL THAT'S LEFT OF YOUR has the scope and ambition of THE BEST OF YOUTH. It's told with urgency, a deeply resonant portrait of a community that has been largely invisible and remains under siege. (Germany, 2025, 145m). In person: Cherien Dabis."

/اللي باقي منك/ Ce qu'il reste de nous

Germany, Cyprus, Palestine 2025

Director: Cherien Dabis

Starring: Cherien Dabis, Saleh Bakri, Mohammad Bakri, Adam Bakri, Maria Zreik

    145 min

    Loc: Cyprus.

    Languages: Arabic, English

    Distributor: The Match Factory, subtitles: partly English

    Love & Anarchy 38th Helsinki International Film Festival (HIFF)

    Viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki, Sat 20.9.2025 at 15.15–17.40

Diego Ginartes Rodríguez (HIFF 2025): "This epic-scale drama explores decades of Palestinian history through the story of a single family."

"In All That’s Left of You, Cherien Dabis delivers a standout and moving generational epic that spans 75 years of Palestinian history. Both intimate and political, the film traces the lives of three generations of a family marked by displacement and the relentless pressure of the Zionist occupation. The film is structured around a series of moral and existential choices, the gravity of which is shown with striking clarity. Dabis masterfully balances the familiar and the historical, drawing attention to how the personal resolutions echo the broader Palestinian struggle."

"All That’s Left of You is a powerful act of cinematic witnessing, weaving together past and present, memory and rupture, through richly composed cinematography and emotionally resonant performances. The result is not just a story of loss and humiliation, but a vivid testament to intergenerational resilience, the enduring will to survive amidst a violent occupation, and the dignity of those forced to endure what should never be forgotten." Diego Ginartes Rodríguez

"Eeppiset mittasuhteet saavassa draamassa tarkastellaan vuosikymmeniä Palestiinan historiassa yhden perheen tarinan kautta."

"Cherien Dabisin koskettava sukueepos All That’s Left of You kattaa 75 vuotta Palestiinan historiassa. Intiimi ja poliittinen elokuva seuraa kolmea sukupolvea yhden perheen elämässä, jota leimaavat pakkosiirrot ja siionistisen miehityksen jatkuva paine. Elokuva rakentuu moraalisten ja eksistentiaalisten valintojen ympärille, joiden merkitys kuvataan hätkähdyttävällä tarkkuudella. Dabis tasapainoilee mestarillisesti historiallisen ja henkilökohtaisen välillä näyttäen, miten palestiinalaisten laajempi kamppailu heijastuu yksilöiden päätöksiin."

"All That’s Left of You on väkevä elokuvallinen todistus, joka rikkaan kuvauksen ja tunteellisten näyttelijänsuoritusten kautta kietoo yhteen menneen ja nykyisyyden, muistin ja rikkoutumisen. Tuloksena ei ole vain tarina menetyksestä ja nöyryytyksestä, vaan elävä testamentti sukupolvia halkovalle selviytymiskyvylle keskellä väkivaltaista miehitystä sekä kunnianosoitus ihmisille, jotka joutuvat kestämään asioita, joita meidän ei koskaan tulisi unohtaa." Diego Ginartes Rodríguez (kääntänyt Inari Ylinen)

AA: Cherien Dabis's All That's Left of You is a family saga in three generations, covering the epic story of Palestine.

On the West Bank, as young Noor is seriously wounded at a demonstration, his mother Hanan tells the family story.

In 1948 during the British Mandatory Palestine, during the naqba, brutal Zionist military assaults force a Palestinian community in Jaffa to leave their native land. The family home and garden are robbed at gunpoint by the militia, the family forced to exile and the grandfather Sharif badly beaten and forced to hard labour behind barbed wire. He suffers his first heart attack and his health never recovers.

In 1978 there is a big wedding for Sharif's daughter. Sharif walks in his sleep, dreaming of still being under the fig tree in his garden in Jaffa. Palestinians are outsiders in their own country. Sharif's son Salim, a teacher, is walking with his own son Noor towards home when they are stopped by gunpoint by an IDF patrol of young soldiers, who threaten, humiliate and insult the unarmed Salim in front of his son. The encounter traumatizes both Salim and Noor for life. Sharif teaches Noor the Palestinian anthem "My Homeland". Noor starts to call his father a coward and turns increasingly to Sharif.

In 1988 Noor is a young rebel, wary of collaborators and infiltrators. In a demonstration, he is seriously hurt in the brain and falls into coma. Overcoming a series of bureaucratic obstacles, Hanan and Salim manage to get Noor into a top hospital in Haifa, but Noor cannot be saved. They discuss the proposal of organ donation and finally accept. There is a big and moving funeral memorial.

Hanan and Salim meet the Israeli family of the organ recipient Ali, their son. Ali is repugnant and unwilling to even meet them. "Kiittämättömyys on maailman palkka" is the untranslatable Finnish proverb about good deeds rewarded with ingratitude. But also: "hyvä työ palkitsee itsensä": a good deed is its own reward. This sober sequence is the heart of the movie. Its full meaning keeps growing after the film. In this film about violence, injustice and oppression, there is also this wellspring of dignity and transcendence.

The final sequence takes place in 2022. Hanan and Salim have become Canadian citizens and visit the family home in Jaffa. "We had to get a foreign citizenship to visit our home".

All That's Left is a magnificent historical family saga. The core psychology about children rejecting their parents and embracing their grandparents is emotionally and socially of burning relevance. Cherien Dabis and Saleh Bakri portray the complex roles of the parents caught in the storm currents of history with passion and conviction.

The film starts with a compelling drive, but loses some of its grip, while constantly providing deeply engaging passages.

... 

Love & Anarchy the Helsinki International Film Festival dedicates four films to the Free Palestine theme. I would like to see films also devoted to the deeds of Hamas, Hizbollah and their soul brothers. Without them we cannot understand anything about what is going on. 

I would also like to see Israeli films on Palestine. They are being cancelled by the Israeli government. We should not follow the example of that government. I mean films like: 

Dani Rosenberg: The Vanishing Soldier (2023) 

Natalie Braun: Shooting (2025) 

Nadav Lapid: Yes! (2025) 

Shai Carmeli-Pollak: The Sea (2025)

...

Once Upon a Time in Gaza is a showcase of how world history can be telescoped in a low budget film.

What I miss most is the big picture. We live in the age of the instant, and indeed, Instagram, but more than ever we need the opposite, the long arch and the capacity to handle complexity.

The tragedy of the Middle East is one of the most complex in political history. We should start with the Ottoman Empire and the British Mandate of Palestine and face the injustice done to Arabs and Jews. Colonial powers set a death trap for both. Everybody who refused asylum for Jews (read Exodus by Leon Uris) shares a responsibility for what is happening today.

...

The slogan "From the river to the sea, Palestine shall be free" was shouted before the screenings. The slogan is open to interpretation. Among them is the 1988 Hamas charter (the Covenant of the Islamic Resistance Movement), revised in the 2017 charter. The ultimate goal is an Islamic state of Palestine and the destruction of Israel, in 2017 called the Zionist entity. The explicit antisemitism of the 1988 charter was edited away in the 2017 charter.

FROM THE 2017 HAMAS CHARTER: 

2. "Palestine, which extends from the River Jordan in the east to the Mediterranean in the west and from Ras Al-Naqurah in the north to Umm Al-Rashrash in the south, is an integral territorial unit. It is the land and the home of the Palestinian people. The expulsion and banishment of the Palestinian people from their land and the establishment of the Zionist entity therein do not annul the right of the Palestinian people to their entire land and do not entrench any rights therein for the usurping Zionist entity."

18. "The following are considered null and void: the Balfour Declaration, the British Mandate  Document, the UN Palestine Partition Resolution, and whatever resolutions and measures that derive from them or are similar to them. The establishment of “Israel” is entirely illegal and contravenes the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people and goes against their will and the will of the Ummah; it is also in violation of human rights that are guaranteed by international conventions, foremost among them is the right to self-determination."

19. "There shall be no recognition of the legitimacy of the Zionist entity. Whatever has befallen the land of Palestine in terms of occupation, settlement building, Judaization or changes to its features or falsification of facts is illegitimate. Rights never lapse."

20. "Hamas believes that no part of the land of Palestine shall be compromised or conceded, irrespective of the causes, the circumstances and the pressures and no matter how long the occupation lasts. Hamas rejects any alternative to the full and complete liberation of Palestine, from the river to the sea.  However, without compromising its rejection of the Zionist entity and without relinquishing any Palestinian rights, Hamas considers the establishment of a fully sovereign and independent Palestinian state, with Jerusalem as its capital along the lines of the 4th of June 1967, with the return of the refugees and the displaced to their homes from which they were expelled, to be a formula of national consensus."

...

Ghazi Hamad

Hamas Political Bureau

LBC TV (Lebanon)

24 October 2023

GHAZI HAMAD: "Israel is a country that has no place on our land.

We must remove that country, because it constitutes a security, military and political catastrophe to the Arab and Islamic nation, and must be finished.

We are not ashamed to say this, with full force.

We must teach Israel a lesson, and we will do this again and again.

The Al-Aqsa Deluge [7 October] is just the first time, and there will be a second, a third, a fourth... because we have the determination to resolve, and the capabilities to fight.

Will we have to pay a price?

Yes, and we are ready to pay it.

We are called a nation of martyrs, and we are proud to sacrifice martyrs.

We did not want to harm civilians, but there were complications on the ground, and there was a party in the area with (civilian) population...

It was a large area, across 40 kilometers...

The occupation must come to an end."

Q: Occupation where? In the Gaza strip?

GHAZI HAMAD: No, I am talking about all the Palestinian lands.

Q: Does that mean the annihilation of Israel?

GHAZI HAMAD: Yes, of course.

The existence of Israel is illogical.

The existence of Israel is what causes all that pain, blood and tears.

It is Israel, not us. We are the victims of the occupation. Period.

Therefore, nobody should blame us for the things we do.

October 7, October 10, October 1,000, 000... everything we do is justified.

https://youtu.be/BJNccvNJtGk?si=7DGHVqqwtwOGT3Sp

https://www.memri.org/tv/hamas-official-ghazi-hamad-we-will-repeat-october-seven-until-israel-annihilated-victims-everything-we-do-justified

Harvest

Athina Rachel Tsangari: Harvest (GB/DE/US/FR/GR 2025).

2024 Greece, United Kingdom, Germany, France, United States, Cyprus

Director: Athina Rachel Tsangari

Screenplay: Athina Rachel Tsangari, Joslyn Barnes - based on the novel (2013) by Jim Crace

Cinematographer: Sean Price Williams - shot on 16 mm

Starring: Caleb Landry Jones, Harry Melling, Frank Dillane, Rosy McEwen

    131 min

    Loc: Argyllshire, Scotland.

    Language: English

    Distributor: The Match Factory

    Subtitles: English

    Love & Anarchy 38th Helsinki International Film Festival (HIFF)

    Fri 19.9.2025 at 20.45–22.56 Kinopalatsi 1

Paavo Ihalainen (HIFF 2025): "Over the course of a fateful week, xenophobia and capitalism plunge a peasant community into chaos in this hallucinatory and painterly period piece."

"In a Scottish coastal village, fear of famine grips the community as the year’s harvest has failed. There are three ways to respond. First, one can prepare for a long journey to beg for help from distant and wealthy nobles or royalty. Second, one can listen to strangers who happen by—suspicious visitors such as a cartographer (Arinzé Kene) or an efficiency-minded smooth-talker (Frank Dillane)—who claim to know tricks and schemes to save the crops. And third, one can vent one’s dissatisfaction on a marginalised outsider whom no one particularly cares about (Caleb Landry Jones). For this widower, it is in his own interest to make the villagers invest their efforts in one of the other courses of action."

"Subtle satirist and keen observer of humanity’s less savory behaviors, Athina Rachel Tsangari (Chevalier, R&A 2016) returns with what may be her most ambitious work yet, examining how a village community behaves under pressure and drifts off course. Although the film is set in the past, its depiction of economic hardship and a highly segregated society, saturated with xenophobia and narrow-mindedness, clearly serves as an allegory for contemporary issues as well."

"The film’s rich and vivid illustration of nature evokes, at times, the work of Terrence Malick, and at others, 1970s folk horror films. The cinematography itself tells a part of the story: the delicate balance with nature must be earned through hard labour, and yet it remains unpredictable." Paavo Ihalainen (translated by Kati Ilomäki)

"Kohtalokkaan viikon aikana muukalaisviha ja kapitalismi ajavat talonpoikaisyhteisön kaaokseen hallusinatorisessa ja maalauksellisessa epookissa."

"Skotlantilaisessa merenrantakylässä pelätään nälänhätää, koska vuoden satokausi on epäonnistunut. Tähän voidaan suhtautua kolmella tavalla. Ensinnäkin voidaan varustautua pitkään matkaan anelemaan apua kaukaisilta ja äveriäiltä aatelisilta ja kuninkaallisilta. Toiseksi voidaan kuunnella paikalle sattuvia mutta epäilyttäviä muukalaisia, kartantekijää (Arinzé Kene) tai tehostushenkistä helppoheikkiä (Frank Dillane), jotka väittävät tietävänsä poppaskonstit sadon pelastamiseksi. Ja kolmanneksi voidaan purkaa oma tyytymättömyys yhteiskunnan laitapuolella kulkijaan, josta kukaan ei erityisemmin piittaa (Caleb Landry Jones). Tämän leskimiehen intresseissä on oman nahkansa vuoksi syytä saada kyläläiset kiinnittämään toimintansa jompaankumpaan muuhun keinoon."

"Hienovarainen satiristi ja ihmisten käytöksen ikävämpien puolten tutkiskelija Athina Rachel Tsangari (Chevalier, R&A 2016) palaa ehkä kunnianhimoisimmalla työllään, joka tarkastelee kyläyhteisön käyttäytymistä kiipelitilanteessa ja suistumista raiteiltaan. Vaikka elokuva sijoittuu menneisyyteen, sen käsittelemä taloudellinen ahdinko ja äärikerrostunut yhteiskunta muukalaisvihamielisine ahdasmielisyyksineen kuvaa selkeän allegorisesti nykypäivääkin koettelevia ongelmia."

"Elokuvan rikas ja eläväinen luontokuvaus tuo mieleen paikoin Terrence Malickin tuotannon, paikoin 1970-luvun folk horror -kauhuelokuvat. Kuvaus kertoo omalta osaltaan tarinaa siitä, kuinka tasapaino luonnon kanssa on hankalan työn kautta ansaittava ja silti arvaamaton." Paavo Ihalainen

IMDb: "Over seven hallucinatory days, a village with no name, in an undefined time and place, disappears."

AA: Athina Rachel Tsangari's Harvest is a piece of visionary cinema: expressively crafted in every detail, sensual and violent in its view of life, constructed as a series of painterly tableaux. It strikes with a raw immediacy and nonconformist tenderness.

Based on the novel by Jim Croce, Harvest takes place during the long process of England's inclosure acts, renegotiating time-honoured traditions of pasture, pannage and estovers, the open-field system and the ancient culture of glanage, made famous in the cinema by Agnès Varda's masterpiece Les Glaneurs et la glaneuse / The Gleaners and I (FR 2000).

The inclosure was an epic process of class struggle spanning centuries, most decisively during the Industrial Revolution, but Harvest is not a historical epic, although Tsangari stages violent encounters between the landowners and the villagers who finally leave the village and burn it down.

The focus in more on superstition and xenophobia: strangers become scapegoats for everything that goes wrong in the village. Harvest is not a tale of evil landowners vs. nice villagers. The villagers are entirely capable of evil themselves, including harassing three refugees from another site of inclosure, shearing the young woman's beautiful hair and chaining the two men to a pillory for an entire week. They also gratuitously kill the landowner's magnificent horse Willowjack.

Harvest is not a story-driven movie. Instead it is a work of imagist poetry, image-driven, often proceeding in close-ups and even extreme close-ups, but also opening to gorgeous wide shots and awesome aerial shots. 

There is a lush and bucolic drive in the harvest day feast and rain dance sequences. Among many memorable visions is a visit to a stone memorial arch, the gravesite for Cecily and Lucy: both Walter Thirsk (Caleb Landry Jones) and Master Kent (Harry Melling) have lost their wives - and their inner compass and aim in life.

All this has been caught with painterly light and colour by the cinematographer Sean Price Williams on 16 mm stock. 

Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk / Dae rudak fi yadayk w-amshi

Sepideh Farsi: Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk /ضع روحك على يدك وامشِ/ Dae rudak fi yadayk w-amshi / (PS/FR/IR 2025) featuring Fatma Hassouna (1999-16 April 2025 Al Touffah, Gaza City).

/ضع روحك على يدك وامشِ/ 

2025 Palestine, France, Iran

Director: Sepideh Farsi

Non-fiction, featuring: Fatima Hassouna, Sepideh Farsi

Languages: English, French, Arabic

Subtitles: English

113 min

Distributor: Cercamon

Love & Anarchy 38th Helsinki International Film Festival (HIFF)

Fri 19.9.2025 at 16.00–17.53 Bio Rex Lasipalatsi

Omar Fasolah (HIFF 2025): "A heartbreaking documentary about Fatma Hassona, a young Palestinian photographer killed in an Israeli airstrike, told through video calls between her and the filmmaker."

"Sepideh Farsi’s previous picture The Siren (R&A 2023) animated the Iran-Iraq war, of which the director had personal experience. Distant memories return with the onset of the Gazan genocide in 2023. Farsi hopes to go on location, but as this turns out to be impossible, she begins to film the Palestinians leaving Gaza. Through them she finds out about photojournalist Fatma Hassona, and the two strike up a virtual friendship in the spring of 2024."

"The video diary tinged with technical difficulties and connectivity issues focuses on everyday life, but dreams too. Once in a while Hassona’s face freezes on the screen, and the frame is filled with her smile, showing the purest positivity, talent and resolution."

"An Israeli airstrike killed Hassona and ten of her family members in their home in April 2025. Only a day earlier, the filmmakers had found out that their documentary would premiere at Cannes. Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk, born in the midst of mass destruction, is a bare and honest depiction of the time we live in." Omar Fasolah (translated by Adrian Murtomäki)

"Sydäntäsärkevä dokumentti Israelin ilmaiskussa tapetusta nuoresta palestiinalaisesta valokuvaajasta Fatma Hassonasta, johon dokumentaristi pitää yhteyttä videopuheluiden välityksellä."

"Sepideh Farsin edellinen elokuva The Siren (R&A 2023) kuvasi animaation keinoin Irakin-Iranin sotaa, josta hänellä oli omakohtaisia kokemuksia. Kaukaiset nuoruuden muistot palautuvat jälleen ohjaajan mieleen Gazan kansanmurhan alkaessa lokakuussa 2023. Hän toivoo pääsevänsä paikan päälle, mutta sen käydessä mahdottomaksi alkaa ohjaaja kuvata Gazasta tulevia palestiinalaisia. Heidän kauttaan hän tutustuu Gazassa asuvaan kuvajournalistiin Fatma Hassonaan, jonka kanssa syntyi keväällä 2024 virtuaalinen ystävyys."

"Teknisten haasteiden ja yhteysongelmien värittämä videopäiväkirja keskittyy jokapäiväiseen elämään, mutta myös unelmiin. Välillä Hassonan kasvot jähmettyvät näytölle, ja ruudun täyttää hänen hymynsä, jossa tiivistyy elämänmyönteisyys, lahjakkuus ja periksiantamattomuus."

"Israelin ilmaisku tappoi Hassonan ja hänen kymmenen perheenjäsentään heidän kotiinsa huhtikuussa 2025. Vain päivää ennen iskua tekijät olivat saaneet tietää, että heidän yhdessä tekemänsä dokumenttielokuva saisi ensi-iltansa Cannesissa. Joukkotuhon keskellä syntynyt Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk kuvaa alastomuudessaan aikaa, jota elämme." Omar Fasolah

AA: Sepideh Farsi's powerful Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk, focusing on the heroic photo journalist Fatma Hassona's coverage of the genocide in Gaza, invites comparison with the best of its kind, such as Waad al-Kateab's For Sama (2019), the first person testimony of the terror bombings of Aleppo. Both films are, among other things, evidence of war crimes and crimes against humanity. They document the most shameful nadir of the respective armies who have been reduced to baby killers on a massive scale.

Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk is essentially a record of phone video dialogues between Fatma Hassona and Sepideh Farsi, often covered in two-way mobile screen, sometimes also solo screens. There are also Hassona's stunning photographs, excellent in their visual quality and terrifying as documents of atrocities. Also included are montages of destruction and family photo albums. 

The dominant visual memory is that of the sunny smile of Fatma Hassona. This reminds me of what Matti Kuusi said about Finland's devastating war times: "of supreme importance was the joy". When you are aware of an imminent death, every second of life is precious and a source of joy.

The terrorizers of Palestinians have totally, completely and absolutely misunderstood them. This is their land, and even beyond death they belong to it and only to it. You can mass murder them, and they will never be beaten, on the contrary, they will only grow stronger. 

The great substance of Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk is about the triumph of the spirit. These people are in it forever.

The film is overlong, and it is practically completely in foreigner English. The often low tech quality is part of the documentary truth of the film made in circumstances bordering on the impossible.

Towards the end we see an extraordinary forward tracking shot of the Gaza City taken from beyond the windshield of a car. It is a classic shot in its own right, conveying the enormity of the destruction with Bazinian "montage interdit" impact.

Followed by the last dialogue between Sepideh Farsi and Fatma Hassona. The next day Fatma and her entire family were massacred by the IDF. The Gaza war has earned Herostratic notoriety as the war where a record number of journalists have been murdered. If the aggressors imagine that they can suppress the truth this way, they have failed. Their victims become immortal while the aggressors' reputations are consigned to eternal shame.

...

Love & Anarchy the Helsinki International Film Festival dedicates four films to the Free Palestine theme. I would like to see films also devoted to the deeds of Hamas, Hizbollah and their soul brothers. Without them we cannot understand anything about what is going on.

I would also like to see Israeli films on Palestine. They are being cancelled by the Israeli government. We should not follow the example of that government. I mean films like:

Dani Rosenberg: The Vanishing Soldier (2023)

Natalie Braun: Shooting (2025)

Nadav Lapid: Yes! (2025)

Shai Carmeli-Pollak: The Sea (2025)

...

Once Upon a Time in Gaza is a showcase of how world history can be telescoped in a low budget film.

What I miss most is the big picture. We live in the age of the instant, and indeed, Instagram, but more than ever we need the opposite, the long arch and the capacity to handle complexity.

The tragedy of the Middle East is one of the most complex in political history. We should start with the Ottoman Empire and the British Mandate of Palestine and face the injustice done to Arabs and Jews. Colonial powers set a death trap for both. Everybody who refused asylum for Jews (read Exodus by Leon Uris) shares a responsibility for what is happening today.

...

The slogan "From the river to the sea, Palestine shall be free" was shouted before the screenings. The slogan is open to interpretation. Among them is the 1988 Hamas charter (the Covenant of the Islamic Resistance Movement), revised in the 2017 charter. The ultimate goal is an Islamic state of Palestine and the destruction of Israel, in 2017 called the Zionist entity. The explicit antisemitism of the 1988 charter was edited away in the 2017 charter.

FROM THE 2017 HAMAS CHARTER: 

2. "Palestine, which extends from the River Jordan in the east to the Mediterranean in the west and from Ras Al-Naqurah in the north to Umm Al-Rashrash in the south, is an integral territorial unit. It is the land and the home of the Palestinian people. The expulsion and banishment of the Palestinian people from their land and the establishment of the Zionist entity therein do not annul the right of the Palestinian people to their entire land and do not entrench any rights therein for the usurping Zionist entity."

18. "The following are considered null and void: the Balfour Declaration, the British Mandate  Document, the UN Palestine Partition Resolution, and whatever resolutions and measures that derive from them or are similar to them. The establishment of “Israel” is entirely illegal and contravenes the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people and goes against their will and the will of the Ummah; it is also in violation of human rights that are guaranteed by international conventions, foremost among them is the right to self-determination."

19. "There shall be no recognition of the legitimacy of the Zionist entity. Whatever has befallen the land of Palestine in terms of occupation, settlement building, Judaization or changes to its features or falsification of facts is illegitimate. Rights never lapse."

20. "Hamas believes that no part of the land of Palestine shall be compromised or conceded, irrespective of the causes, the circumstances and the pressures and no matter how long the occupation lasts. Hamas rejects any alternative to the full and complete liberation of Palestine, from the river to the sea.  However, without compromising its rejection of the Zionist entity and without relinquishing any Palestinian rights, Hamas considers the establishment of a fully sovereign and independent Palestinian state, with Jerusalem as its capital along the lines of the 4th of June 1967, with the return of the refugees and the displaced to their homes from which they were expelled, to be a formula of national consensus."

...

Ghazi Hamad

Hamas Political Bureau

LBC TV (Lebanon)

24 October 2023

GHAZI HAMAD: "Israel is a country that has no place on our land.

We must remove that country, because it constitutes a security, military and political catastrophe to the Arab and Islamic nation, and must be finished.

We are not ashamed to say this, with full force.

We must teach Israel a lesson, and we will do this again and again.

The Al-Aqsa Deluge [7 October] is just the first time, and there will be a second, a third, a fourth... because we have the determination to resolve, and the capabilities to fight.

Will we have to pay a price?

Yes, and we are ready to pay it.

We are called a nation of martyrs, and we are proud to sacrifice martyrs.

We did not want to harm civilians, but there were complications on the ground, and there was a party in the area with (civilian) population...

It was a large area, across 40 kilometers...

The occupation must come to an end."

Q: Occupation where? In the Gaza strip?

GHAZI HAMAD: No, I am talking about all the Palestinian lands.

Q: Does that mean the annihilation of Israel?

GHAZI HAMAD: Yes, of course.

The existence of Israel is illogical.

The existence of Israel is what causes all that pain, blood and tears.

It is Israel, not us. We are the victims of the occupation. Period.

Therefore, nobody should blame us for the things we do.

October 7, October 10, October 1,000, 000... everything we do is justified.

https://youtu.be/BJNccvNJtGk?si=7DGHVqqwtwOGT3Sp

https://www.memri.org/tv/hamas-official-ghazi-hamad-we-will-repeat-october-seven-until-israel-annihilated-victims-everything-we-do-justified

Affeksjonsverdi / Sentimental Value

Joachim Trier: Affeksjonsverdi / Sentimental Value (NO/DE/DK/SE/FR/TK/GB 2025). The two sisters Nora Borg (Renate Reinsve) and Agnes Borg (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas).

With Affeksjonsverdi in Telluride: Elle Fanning (Rachel Kemp), Renate Reinsve (Nora Borg) and Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas (Agnes Borg Pettersen). Photo: Kevin Van Rensselaer / Telluride Film Festival 2025.

Valeur sentimentale

    2025. Country: Norway, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, France, Turkey, United Kingdom

Director: Joachim Trier

Shot on 35 mm

Starring: Renate Reinsve, Stellan Skarsgård, Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, Elle Fanning, Lena Endre

Languages: Norwegian, English

133 min

    Festival premiere: 21 May 2025 Cannes

    American festival premiere: 30 Aug 2025 Telluride

    Finnish premiere: 17 Oct 2025 – distributor: Nordisk Film – subtitles: Finnish, Swedish by Ilse Rönnberg / Charlotte Elo

    Love & Anarchy 38th Helsinki International Film Festival (HIFF) opening gala opened by Pauliina Ståhlberg – Pekka Lanerva – Outi Rehn – with Annu Suvanto, Inari Ylinen and Diego Ginartes Rodríguez, Thu 18.9.2025 at 16.00–18.13, Bio Rex Lasipalatsi

TELLURIDE FILM FESTIVAL PROGRAM NOTE BY LARRY GROSS: "In his sixth film, the Oscar-nominated director Joachim Trier (THELMA, THE WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD) takes on Bergman’s canonical topics: women, actresses, theatrical illusion, and family trauma. But Trier ingeniously and thrillingly makes them his own. Renate Reinsve is brilliant as Nora, a gifted stage performer who is still wrestling with her relationship with Gustave, her famous film-director father (Stellan Skarsgård), who abandoned her years before. Skarsgård, a former Telluride tributee, conveys an astonishingly subtle mix of charisma and childish selfishness. The superb supporting cast includes Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas as Nora’s reliable sister, and Elle Fanning as a Hollywood movie star with touching artistic aspirations. SENTIMENTAL VALUE, which Trier again wrote with his longtime collaborator Eskil Vogt, is soulful, deeply thoughtful and enormously entertaining." –LG  (Norway/France/Denmark/Germany, 2025, 134m) In person: Joachim Trier, Renate Reinsve, Elle Fanning, Stellan Skarsgård, Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas

Saija Holm (HIFF 2025): "The spirit of Ingmar Bergman is strongly present in one of this year’s most magnificent movie gems, a ruggedly beautiful and unsentimental story of love, mercy, art and sisterhood."

"Stellan Skarsgård is an egotistical film director whose selfish choices have left his now grown-up daughters lacerated. Nora (Renate Reinsve) is a hot-headed straight talker, an actress suffering from crippling stage fright, who has a complex relationship with her father, her work in the theatre — and herself. The seemingly lucid sister Agnes (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas) lives a nuclear family life and is sentimental only in her research work."

"At the heart of the story is the sisters’ National Romantic childhood home, which hides doors, memories and secrets within. One day, the director father brings in actress Rachel Kemp (Elle Fanning), the star of his next film…"

"Four years ago, Joachim Trier, Renate Reinsve and Trier’s co-writer Eskil Vogt caused a sensation with their film The Worst Person in the World. Now they are spoiling us even more with their new film, which enchanted in Cannes."

"The stunningly intense film knocks the wind out of the audience. Renate Reinsve’s eyes burn a hole in the screen through which we see ghosts whacking and caressing the living." Saija Holm (translated by Moritz Müller)

"Vuoden upeimpiin lukeutuva elokuvahelmi on sentimentaalisuuden välttävä ja rujon kaunis kertomus rakkaudesta, armosta, taiteesta ja sisaruudesta."

"Ingmar Bergmanin henki on vahvasti läsnä vuoden upeimpiin lukeutuvassa elokuvahelmessä, joka on sentimentaalisuuden välttävä, rujon kaunis kertomus rakkaudesta, armosta, taiteesta ja sisaruudesta."

"Stellan Skarsgård on egoistinen elokuvaohjaaja, jonka itsekkäät valinnat ovat jättäneet nyt jo aikuiset tyttäret ruhjeille. Nora (Renate Reinsve) on äkkiväärä suorasuu, lamaannuttavasta ramppikuumeesta kärsivä näyttelijä, jolla on kompleksinen suhde isäänsä, työhönsä teatterissa – ja itseensä. Näennäisen selväjärkinen Agnes-sisko (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas) elää ydinperhearkea ja tunteilee ainoastaan tutkimustyönsä äärellä. Keskeisessä roolissa on sisarusten kansallisromanttinen lapsuudenkoti, joka kätkee sisälleen ovia, muistoja ja salaisuuksia. Eräänä päivänä ohjaajaisä tuo taloon näyttelijä Rachel Kempin (Elle Fanning), seuraavan elokuvansa tähden…"

"Neljä vuotta sitten Joachim Trier, Renate Reinsve ja Trierin työparina toimiva käsikirjoittaja Eskil Vogt aiheuttivat sensaation elokuvallaan The Worst Person in the World. Nyt he hemmottelevat meitä lisää Cannesissa lumonneella, virtuoosimaisella uutuudellaan."

"Pökerryttävän intensiivinen elokuva iskee ilmat pihalle. Renate Reinsven silmät polttavat valkokankaaseen reiän, josta näemme haamujen mätkivän ja hellivän eläviä." Saija Holm

AA: Joachim Trier's Sentimental Value starts as the story of the Borg family house in Oslo: a National Romantic building in Dragestil ("dragon style"). It is a house of secrets, nightmares and family tragedies. There is a fracture in the foundation.

A prestigious premiere is interrupted at the Oslo Nationaltheatret. The prima donna Nora Borg (Renate Reinsve), playing Nora in A Doll's House, has stage fright. The music cue is Hector Berlioz's cover of the Gregorian chant "Dies irae" ("The Day of Wrath"), about the Last Judgment, familiar in the cinema from Fritz Lang (Metropolis) to Stanley Kubrick (The Shining), also popular in heavy metal.

In her previous film Armand, the extraordinary (and even otherworldly) Reinsve played the misunderstood schoolboy's mother like a drama queen of her own life. In Sentimental Value, she plays a drama queen by profession who is lost in her own life.

Sissel Borg, the mother of the sisters Nora and Agnes (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, equally outstanding) has died. When their father Gustav Borg (Stellan Skarsgård) left the family, he gave the house to Sissel but the documentation of ownership was never completed, which is why the house now again belongs to him.

Enter Gustav Borg. There is a striking parallel to Noah Baumbach's Jay Kelly (US 2025) in which George Clooney plays a self-centered film star who has passed his best before date and now visits a retrospective of his movies. He has two daughters who ignore him because he was never there when they grew up. Jay has not lost his charm, but he faces an existential identity crisis. 

There the parallels end. Jay Kelly is a road movie with flashbacks like in Wild Strawberries. Sentimental Value is based on jumbled timelines, and ultimately it is about coming to terms with transgenerational tragedy.

I have four favourite sequences in Sentimental Value.

The meeting of Rachel Kemp (Elle Fanning) and Nora Borg (Renate Reinsve). Rachel has tried her best to become immersed in the role in Gustav's film, but increasingly she senses that it is meant for Nora and she is just a replacement. She does not understand the character who commits suicide like Gustav's mother Karin Borg (Vilde Søyland) had done, in a film meant to be shot on location at the family house.

The nocturnal meeting of Rachel with Gustav. Rachel is a Hollywood star who is genuinely committed to a personal project with high artistic value, and she has invested deeply in the Hemlängtan (Homesickness) screenplay. Her bankability has made the production possible on a big budget, but Gustav is also committed to Rachel as an artist who can bring the film to life on her own terms. These two encounters bring out the best of the professionals. They do not simplify complex terms of engagement and highlight great human qualities in all involved.

My third favourite sequence is the one where first Agnes, then Nora have finally read the screenplay, which Gustav has already promoted as the best thing he has ever done. As he would say. But Agnes is really impressed and tells Nora. "It is about you. It has been written for you". 

One more favourite sequence is the finale. Nora opens the door with the rope and the chair. The chair falls. The camera starts a long backward tracking shot to reveal the soundstage and the entire production crew in a general view.

As the plot unfolds we learn clues to the fabula. During the German occupation of Norway (1940-1945), Karin Borg, Gustav's mother, was a Resistance fighter active in distributing anti-Nazi propaganda until she was imprisoned for two years. Nora and Agnes, her granddaughters, get access to the archives with her files and find out about the usual torture methods with graphic illustrations.

We are free to imagine for ourselves why many who survived Nazi terror later committed suicide. Gustav grew up motherless, and himself became a terrible father for his daughters. Now Nora seems to walk the path of Karin, and in Hemlängtan she incarnates a fate similar to Karin.

The only sample we get of a film by Gustav Borg is the clip at the retrospective of two little children escaping Nazis during the occupation. The daughter survives by catching a moving train. The son is caught. The daughter was played by Agnes as a child. Gustav was always impressed by her performance, but Agnes rejected him because that was the only time in her life when she was the center of his world.

The screening had Finnish and Swedish subtitles, but the copy did not carry a Finnish title. The straight translation TUNNEARVO would be accurate in every way and better than the original since shorter.

Helsinki International Film Festival / Love & Anarchy Trailer 2025: Pulp Gospel

Jan Sederlöf: Helsinki International Film Festival / Love & Anarchy Trailer 2025: Pulp Gospel (FI 2025). The organist plays "Misirlou". My screenshot from YouTube. Please click on the photo to expand it.

OFFICIAL CREDITS:

Let there be lights, camera, action! 

Production company: Breakfast. Executive Producer: Henkka Hämäläinen. Producer: Antris Bonsdorff. Production Coordinator: Julia Rumyantseva. Production Assistant: Benjamin Phosri.

    Director: Jan Sederlöf

    DOP: Daniel Lindholm. Focus Puller: Nea Salminen. Gaffer: Kari Malmio. Light technician: Vladimir Krestjanoff.

    Storyboard artist: James Iles. Costume Design: Juho Pihlajaoja. Makeup and Hair: Anu Uusipulkamo. Stylist assistant: Lucas Toljamo. Equipment & Vehicles: Valofirma & Kamerafirma.

    Color Grafe: Marko Terävä, Post Control. Online: Mika Onnela, Post Control. Post Producer: Toni Valla, Post Control. Graphics: Victor Granbacka

    Music: Petja Virikko, Akseli Soini, Ville Riippa, El Camino Helsinki

    Sound Recordist: Saku Anttila. Sound Design: Akseli Soini, El Camino

    Editor: Julius Greis

    Catering: Elisa Hämäläinen

    Actors: Kati Outinen, Lauri Maijala, Mikko Kaukonen, Pekka Kauhanen

    Thank you: Oulunkylän Seurakunta, Valofirma, Kamerafirma, El Camino Helsinki, Post Control, Capperi Oulunkylä, Maria Sederlöf, N2 Creative, all the wonderful extras

Viewed at the Love & Anarchy: Helsinki International Film Festival (HIFF) Opening Gala, 18 Sep 2025.

AN ADDITION TO THE OFFICIAL CREDITS: MISIRLOU: 

"Misirlou" is the tune played by the organist in the finale at the Old Church of Oulunkylä. First recorded in 1927 in Greece, it is a traditional melody of the Eastern Mediterranean peoples, popular in the Ottoman Empire with Arabic, Greek rembetiko and Jewish klezmer musicians, known in belly dancing, Albanian, Armenian, Serbian, Persian, Indian and Turkish versions. I believe the haunting melody might be of ancient origin. Immigrant communities brought it to America in the 1920s. Dick Dale (Richard Anthony Monsour, of Lebanese / Polish-Belarusciant descent), "the King of the Surf Guitar", released an American surf rock version in 1962, remembering how his uncle had played it on the oud. In 1994 his record was heard as the explosive opening title track in Pulp Fiction - a film that had its Finnish premiere at Love & Anarchy on 24 Sep 1994 at Maxim 1.

Most of the data from: Wikipedia: Misirlou.

View the trailer on YouTube.

...

THE DECLARATION OF VENGEANCE IN PULP FICTION

  

THE AMERICAN VERSION OF BODYGUARD KIBA (JP 1973) STARRING SONNY CHIBA:

"The path of the righteous man and defender is beset on all sides by the iniquity of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he, who in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness, for he is truly his brother's keeper, and the father of lost children. And I will execute great vengeance upon them with furious anger, who poison and destroy my brothers; and they shall know that I am CHIBA the BODYGUARD when I shall lay my vengeance upon them."

— Ezekiel 25:17

  

PULP FICTION (US 1994):

  

"Ezekiel 25:17. "The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who, in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of the darkness. For he is truly his brother's keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know I am THE LORD when I lay my vengeance upon you."

Despite the source notation, neither quote is accurate. They have been fundamentally changed both in letter and in spirit. The Pulp Gospel has been slightly changed even further.

38th Helsinki International Film Festival (Rakkautta & Anarkiaa / Love & Anarchy, 18-28 Sep 2025) lineup

38th Helsinki International Film Festival. Poster concept: Tuomas Kärkkäinen (Festival Artist 2025). Poster design: Tuomas Kärkkäinen in collaboration with Samppa Ranta. Inspired by Marcel Duchamp's Nu descendant un escalier (N°2) (1912) and Benito Jacovitti's Cocco Bill comics. More about the poster at the end of the blog entry.

Data from the Helsinki International Film Festival (HIFF) website.

78 dana / 78 Days

8-ban deguchi / The Exit 8

Affeksjonsverdi / Sentimental Value

Agapouse ta louloudia perissotero / She Loved Blossoms More

All We Imagine as Light / Prabhayay ninachathellam

Allly baqi mink / All That’s Left of You

Alt skal bort / Everything Must Go

Aprili / April

Architecton

Ástin sem eftir er / The Love That Remains

Aurora

Avaz-e bughalamum / Une langue universelle / Universal Language

Boomerang

Brott och straff / Crime and Punishment

Bukeneng nuhai / 1 Girl Infinite / One Girl Infinite

Chronology of Water, The

Dae ruhak fi yadayk / Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk

Dasatsqisi / Beginning

Dating Game, The

Ditsei Ahmet / DJ Ahmet

Dreams (Michel Franco)

Drømmer / Dreams (Sex Love)

Duas Vezes João Liberada / Two Times João Liberada

Dva prokurora / Zwei Staatsanwälte / Two Prosecutors

E

Eat the Night

Emalõvi / Lioness

End, The

Endless Cookie

Enzo

Fiume o morte!

Flickorna / The Girls

Før mørket / Safe House

Författaren som hatade svenskan / The Writer Who Hated the Swedish Language

Fréamhacha / Fréwaka

Gaucho Gaucho

Geu jayeoni nege mworago hani / What Does That Nature Say to You

Good One

Hanami

HAPPYEND

Harvest

Helsinki Effect, The

Histeri / Hysteria

Hjem kære hjem / Home Sweet Home

In die Sonne schauen / Sound of Falling

Incomptables / Untamable

Inshallah walad / Inshallah a Boy

Intérêt d'Adam, L' / Adam's Sake

Israel Palestine on Swedish TV 1958-1989

Je tu il elle

Jēkabs, Mimmi un runājošie suņi / Jacob, Mimmi ja puhuvat koirat

Jockey, El / Kill the Jockey

Jukebox

Kærlighedens gerninger / Acts of Love

Kaj ti je deklica / Little Trouble Girls

Kan ya makan fi Ghazza / Once Upon a Time in Gaza

Kapina elämän puolesta

Kimi no iro / The Colors Within

Kjærlighet / Love

Kotimainen kilpailu: (Valittuja) perheitä

Kotimainen kilpailu: Elämän maantiede

Kotimainen kilpailu: Lähekkäin

Kotimainen kilpailu: Muistoissa

Kotimainen kilpailu: Oi ihmisyyttä

Kotimainen kilpailu: Palkitut

Kotimainen kilpailu: Toisilla taajuuksilla

Kuang ye shi dai / Resurrection

Last Chapter, The / Viimeinen kotimaa

Last Dive, The .

Last Paradise on Earth, The

Lesbian Space Princess

Liebiadzinaja piesnia Fiodara Ozierava / The Swan Song of Fedor Ozerov

Life of Chuck, The / Chuckin ihmeellinen elämä

Little Sister, The

Ljósbrot / Kahden auringonlaskun välissä

Llueve sobre Babel / Rains over Babel

Los Bando

Lotus

Magalhães / Magellan

Magic Farm

Mamlaket al-qasab / The President's Cake

Manas

Marcel et Monsieur Pagnol / A Magnificent Life

Mastermind, The

Memoir of a Snail

Mimang

Min evige sommer / My Eternal Summer

Minden rendben / Growing Down

Miroirs No. 3 / Mirrors No. 3

Misteriosa mirada del flamenco, La / The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo

Mond / Moon

Motel Destino

Mr. K

Mueatar bialnaenae / Perfumed with Mint

Must auk / The Black Hole

My Father's Shadow

Nile Hilton Incident, The

Nouvelle Vague

Nusur aljumhuriati / Republikens örnar / Eagles of the Republic

Örökbefogadás / Adoption

Orwell: 2+2=5

Pagwa / The Old Woman with the Knife

Pampa, La / Block Pass

Pamyo / Exhuma

Pavements

Pee chai dai ka / A Useful Ghost

Peter Hujar's Day

PMMP keikalla: Ei enää ikinä (R&A x Yle Teema)

Promis le ciel / Promised Sky

Que ma volonté soit faite / Her Will Be Done

Quiet Life

R&A Adventures -peli

R&A Shorts: African Express – Lyhäripysäkki

R&A Shorts: Do the Right Thing

R&A Shorts: Filmmaker in Focus – Hilke Rönnfeldt

R&A Shorts: Homo Technologicus

R&A Shorts: I saw my heart broken open, like a pomegranate

R&A Shorts: Laumasielut

R&A Shorts: Night Visions esittää

R&A Shorts: Our Bodies, Ourselves

R&A Shorts: Outouden laakso

R&A Shorts: Pohjolan huiput

R&A Shorts: Poikien välisestä ystävyydestä

R&A Shorts: Queer Joy & Jest

R&A Shorts: Refugee Film Festival esittää

R&A Shorts: Silmäkarkkia

R&A Shorts: Skábmagovat esittää

R&A Shorts: TAFF esittää – Palkitut lyhytanimaatiot

R&A Shorts: Time Warp

R&A Shorts: Trailblazer Shorts

R&A x Film Tonight!: Deca-dance

R&A x Jäbät & Tunteet: Poikien välisestä ystävyydestä

R&A x Puistokatu 4: Kapina elämän puolesta

R&A x TOIVOLA: Pantteri ja minä

R&A x Uusi Juttu: Live-Kerma

Romería

Rumours

Sanatorium pod klepsydrą / Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass

Sauna

Schwesterherz / The Good Sister

Segundo premio / Saturn Return

Sex

Sirât

Sisu: Road to Revenge (Kotimainen yllätysgaala / Domestic Surprise Gala) (TBA reveal) 

Small Things Like These / Nämä pienet asiat

Sorda / Deaf

Sorry, Baby

Spatz im Kamin, Der / The Sparrow in the Chimney

Splitsville [late addition]

Strichka chasu / Timestamp

Stygge stesøsteren, Den  / The Ugly Stepsister

Sugar Island

Suzuki=Bakudan

Teema: Kotimainen kilpailu

Testa o croce? / Heads or Tails?

Travolti da un insolito destino nell'azzurro mare d'agosto / Swept Away… By an Unusual Destiny in the Blue Sea of August

Último azul, O / The Blue Trail

Walad min al janna / Boy from Heaven / Conspiracy in Cairo / Salaliitto Kairossa

Walls – Akinni Inuk

Was Marielle weiss / What Marielle Knows

White Snail

Yalla Parkour

Yek tasadef sadeh / It Was Just an Accident

...

ABOUT THE POSTER:

Rakkautta & Anarkiaa: "Festivaalitaiteilija Tuomas Kärkkäinen tekee elokuvahurmoksesta kubistisen taideteoksen. Kevyen abstraktissa kuvituksessa silmät juoksevat helminauhana, kasvot monistuvat, jalat levittäytyvät hektisiksi oksiksi, keltaiset kädet muodostavat nesteviiruja violetille pohjalle. Kuvasta huokuu hektisyyden, dissonanssin, häiriintyneen ilon kaikuja.

Graafinen suunnittelija, kuvittaja ja muusikko Tuomas Kärkkäinen on suunnitellut tämän vuoden Helsinki International Film Festival – Rakkautta & Anarkiaa julisteen yhteistyössä festivaalin graafisen suunnittelijan Samppa Rannan kanssa. Kärkkäisellä on takanaan pitkä ura kuvittajana, mutta myös Rakkautta ja Anarkiaa vakiokävijänä. 

"Aloin käymään Rakkautta & Anarkiaa -festivaaleilla jo 2000-luvun alussa. Rakastuin festivaaliin samantien, sillä sillä on omanlainen tunnelmansa ja vahva identiteettinsä. Juostessani Orionin näytöksestä Maximille tunsin olevani sisällä festivaalikuplassa", Kärkkäinen kertoo. 

Rakkautta & Anarkiaa jäi Kärkkäiselle mieleen toiveprojektina. Siirryttyään freelanceriksi ja saatuaan kokemusta erilaisten kulttuuritapahtumien visuaalisen ilmeen suunnittelusta, hän otti yhteisen tuttavan kautta yhteyttä Rakkautta & Anarkiaa-festivaalin johtoon. Toiveen taustalla oli elinikäinen kunnioitus elokuvaa ja itse festivaalia kohtaan. 

"Elokuvan maailma on niin immersiivinen, että kun sen sisälle imeytyy se ei muistuta mitään muuta taidemuotoa. Se on täysin omanlaisensa maailma", Kärkkäinen toteaa. 

Rakkautta & Anarkiaa -festivaalin julisteen suunnittelee joka vuosi eri kuvittaja. Samppa Ranta seuraa aktiivisesti alan lahjakkuuksia, valitsee taiteilijan ja yhteistyössä he luovat kunkin vuoden julisteen. Taiteilijoita on yhdistänyt erityisesti historia sarjakuvan parissa. 

Julisteen tekeminen on monelle kiitollinen projekti, sillä festivaalin brändi antaa mahdollisuudet hyvin laajaan visuaalisten tyylien ja aiheiden kokeiluun. Tästä vapaudesta myös Kärkkäinen innostui: hän sai käytännössä vapaat kädet oman visionsa muodostamiseen. 

Julisteen syntyprosessi heijastaa elokuvan historiaa. Kärkkäinen aloitti julisteen luonnostelun miettimällä elokuvaa taidemuotona. Elokuva, vanhalta nimeltään liikkuva kuva, viittaa jatkuvaan liikkeeseen vastapainona kuvataiteen staattisille, jähmettyneille kuville. Kärkkäinen alkoi tehdä luonnoksia, joissa hän pohti miten liikkeen tunteen voisi saada osaksi kuvaa. 

"Halusin, että katsoja tuntee kuvan nähdessään liikkuvansa. Alunperin ajatuksena oli kolmiulotteinen putoaminen ylhäältä alaspäin. Tein erilaisia raakaluonnoksia, joista Samppa Ranta valitsi parhaat. Valitsin lähestyä aihetta kubismin perinteen keinoin: samassa kuvassa on monta kuvakulmaa. Lopputulos on särisevä, dynaaminen kokonaisuus", Kärkkäinen kuvaa. 

Esikuvana kuvitukselle toimi Marcel Duchampin Alaston laskeutuu portaita (1912), jossa useat päällekkäiset kuvat ja kuvakulmat rakentavat liikkeen tunteen. Kärkkäistä inspiroi myös Benito Jaccovittin surrealistiset Cocco Bill -sarjakuvat. 

Kärkkäinen pyrki luomaan julisteen, joka on uskollinen muistojensa festivaalikokemukselle. "Rakkautta & Anarkiaa on siitä erikoinen festivaali, että tarjolla on niin paljon kaikkea mielenkiintoista, että kaikkialle ei millään ehdi. Siinä on pää kolmantena jalkana juoksemassa kokemaan kaikkea mielenkiintoista. Julisteen hahmo ilmentää tätä hektisyyttä ja himoa revetä joka paikkaan", Kärkkäinen kuvaa. 

Festivaalimenneisyys luovuuden innoittajana

Tekoälyn käyttö puhuttaa kuvittajien keskuudessa. Tekoälyn tekemät oudot virheet voivat tarjota inspiraatiota surrealistisesta kuvituksesta kiinnostuneille. Kärkkäinen pyrkii kuitenkin kannustamaan kuvittajia pitäytymään omassa kädenjäljessään. 

"Kuvituksessa pitää olla säröä, inhimillinen epätäydellisyys, joka kutsuu samaistumiseen ja uusiin tulkintoihin. Tähän tekoäly ei pysty, vaan jälki on aina lähes liian kiiltokuvamaista ja siksi tylsää. Se vie jotain oleellista katsojan kokemuksesta", Kärkkäinen sanoo. 

Elokuvat vaikuttavat merkittävästi hänen visuaaliseen tyyliinsä, vaikka eivät ole leimallisesti elokuvallisia. Hänelle animaatiot ovat tärkeä inspiraation lähde, sillä ne ovat sommittelua ajassa ja niihin sisältyvät absurdit yksityiskohdat ovat kuvittajan näkökulmasta hedelmällisiä. "Staattinen kuvitus toimii eri ulottuvuuksissa kuin elokuva. Elokuvalla on taiteenlajina omat keinonsa rakentaa tunnekokemuksia", Kärkkäinen toteaa. 

Lopuksi elokuvafanilta ja Rakkautta & Anarkiaa -veteraanilta on pakko kysyä, mikä on hänen merkittävin elokuvakokemuksensa festivaaleilla? "Rakkautta & Anarkiaa -festivaaleilla on tullut nähtyä niin monta ainutlaatuista elokuvaa, joita ei tule nähtyä toiste isolta kankaalta. Yhden valitseminen on vaikeaa. Pakko kuitenkin sanoa, että visuaalisena ja runollisena elämyksenä Lucile Hadžihalilovićin Innocence (2004) oli vertaansa vailla. Elokuvaan upposi kuin maalaukseen, jossa tarinan puute herättää katsojan tulkitsemaan kuvia vapaasti ja assosioivasti. Tämä on elokuva kuvittajan mieleen." 

Joonas Kallonen, Rakkautta & Anarkiaa website 29 Aug 2025

Modern Times (Studio Aalto amphitheatre / Alvar Aalto Foundation / Alvar Aalto Museum)

Charles Chaplin: Modern Times (US 1936). French 1972 re-release poster design: Leo Kouper.

Charles Chaplin: Modern Times (US 1936). Might this have inspired Rossellini's Dov'è la libertà...? / Where Is Freedom? (IT 1954).

Charles Chaplin: Modern Times (US 1936). Coffee break with the minister's wife (Mira McKinney). The impact of the acidic coffee is conveyed wordlessly on the soundtrack.

Charles Chaplin: Modern Times (US 1936). Unwittingly, Charlie catches some of the smuggled "nose powder" in the salt shaker.

Göran Schildt: Moderna tider: Alvar Aaltos möte med funktionalismen [Modern Times: Alvar Aalto's Encounter with Functionalism] / Alvar Aalto. The Decisive Years (1985). 

The amphitheatre at Studio Aalto (1954-55 / 1962-63). Photo: Maija Holma / Alvar Aalto Foundation.

Open air screening at the amphitheatre of Studio Aalto.

Studio Aalto / Alvar Aallon ateljee.

Alvar Aalto Foundation / Alvar Aalto -säätiö.

Alvar Aalto -museo / Alvar Aalto Museum.

Tiilimäki 20, Munkkiniemi, 00300 Helsinki

Charles Chaplin: Modern Times (US 1936). 4K DCP, restored by Fondazione Cineteca di Bologna, the original Charles Chaplin score rearranged and rerecorded by Timothy Brock (2000), the film rereleased by MK2 (2001) and distributed in Nordic countries by NonStop Entertainment (2016), in Finland by ELKE with Finnish subtitles.

AA: I visit Studio Aalto for the first time. I like its English title. Alvar Aalto always acknowledged his wife - first Aino, after her death, Elissa - as an equal partner and would have refused crediting only him by first name. It would be about time to update all credits to pure "Aalto".

I fall in love with the place instantly. It is modernist-functional, while acknowledging the legacy of classical antiquity, not least in the amphitheatre. The inspiring office feels like home. Built space blends seamlessly with nature.

Today is the first ever public film screening at Studio Aalto. The audience has come despite the rain. Some stay indoors while others prefer outdoors. The evening is warm.

I give an introduction about Filmistudio Projektio, the first Finnish film society, the chairman and firebrand of which was Alvar Aalto, inspired by the international film society movement in France, the Netherlands (Filmliga), England (The London Film Society, celebrating its centenary this year) and the Nordic countries (Gösta Werner was our contact since 1934).

The 1930s were a decade of cultural and political turmoil in Finland. Unlike many countries on Russia's eastern border (such as Hungary, Poland and the Baltic states), to speak nothing of Italy, Germany and Austria, Finland did not take a Fascist / authoritarian turn. There was a violent anti-democratic and anti-liberal nationalistic movement. But Finland stayed true to its Nordic heritage of freedom. Alvar Aalto promoted the broad-minded, democratic, liberal and international trend in Finnish culture. 

Aalto was a modernist in all ways: he loved urbanity (always inseparable from nature), planes, automobiles, jazz (the anthem of Projektio was Duke Ellington's "Mood Indigo") and cinema. He was a Charles Chaplin fan to the point of identification.

Projektio screened City Lights. Chaplin's next movie, Modern Times, had its Finnish premiere a month before Projektio shut down. Like Chaplin, Aalto embraced modernity while alerting of its abuse - the danger of the human being being turned into a cog in the machine. For Aalto and Chaplin, humanity came first.

The Finnish secret police, Suojelupoliisi, spied on the "dangerously liberal" Projektio vigilantly.  (Its chief, Esko Riekki, was later in charge of the recruitment of the Finnish SS Battalion). Projektio was frequented by cultural circles, ministers of the government, ambassadors and diplomats. Also the major film directors Valentin Vaala, Teuvo Tulio and Nyrki Tapiovaara, as well as Heikki Aho and Björn Soldan, the sons of the author Juhani Aho who founded the Finnish documentary cinema as an art form. Plus students of the Piirustuskoulu [Art School] of Ateneum the National Gallery such as the young couple Sam Vanni and Tove Jansson (today the successor of the school belongs to Aalto University). The harassment caused such a scandal that Suojelupoliisi was disbanded (to be replaced by Valtiollinen poliisi), the government resigned, and Projektio closed down.

Although Projektio was active only for three years, it became an enduring inspiration and guiding light for Finnish film culture - including the Finnish film society movement and the Finnish Film Archive.

...

I stayed for the beginning of Modern Times, a film that I know so well that the best-known passages can feel over-familiar. The visual quality of the presentation was brilliant. I enjoyed the oddball passages most. The coffee break with the minister's wife, a shared endurance test with the acidic drink. The "nose powder" surprise in the salt dispenser. The satiric point of the Tramp preferring the prison to "freedom". 

Chaplin's previous three films (The Gold Rush, The Circus, City Lights) had formed a "trilogy of unrequited love". Now at last Charlie meets an equal partner in Paulette Goddard, and they leave towards the horizon together. These are hard times. It is not good to face them alone.

I blogged about the 2000 premiere at Bologna's Teatro Comunale of Modern Times with the Timothy Brock reconstruction of Chaplin's score.

I reviewed the 2003 dvd edition of the restored Modern Times.

I wrote the program note of the handbill of the 2009 Helsinki film concert of Modern Times at Finlandia Hall with Carl Davis conducting the Radio Symphony Orchestra to the Timothy Brock-arranged score.

I blogged about the 2014 tribute to the 80th anniversary of Filmistudio Projektio at Matin-Tupa, Ylistaro / Seinäjoki.

I blogged about the 2017 tribute to Filmistudio Projektio at Orion in the context of the Alvar Aalto and the Modern Form exhibition at Ateneum Art Museum.

I also blogged about the 2017 Alvar Aalto exhibition at Ateneum.

Shot on location at Bazoches-sur-Guyonne, France, at Maison Louis Carré, the twin of Studio Aalto: Victoria Schultz: On ne sait jamais / You Never Know (US/FR 2022).

My blog remarks on:

Virpi Suutari: Aalto (FI 2020).

Eino Ruutsalo: Alvar Aalto / Alvar Aalto. A Finnish Architect (FI 1972).

Eino Ruutsalo: Alvar Aalto (FI 1972) viewed in 2005.

Veikko Laihanen: Suomen Akatemian jäsenet: Alvar Aalto (FI 1962).

Alvar Aalto and the Cinema (seminar at Seinäjoki, 2014)

Future of Industry: 15th International Alvar Aalto Symposium (Jyväskylä 2021)

Alvar Aalto at Seinäjoki: four films (1952, 1961, 1962, 1966)

Aho & Soldan: Lappi rakentaa (1946)

Göran Schildt: Nykyaika: Alvar Aallon tutustuminen funktionalismiin (a book, FI 1985).

Aarno Mäkitalo & Leena Hautala: Kirkonrakentajat: Lakeuden Ristin rakennustyö 1957-1950 (footage shot in 1956-1960).

Sydney Pollack: Sketches of Frank Gehry (US/DE 2006).

Wikipedia: Studio Aalto.

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STUDIO AALTO OFFICIAL

Open-air screenings at Studio Aalto

 

The film club Projektio revived with open-air screenings at Studio Aalto!

Projektio was an art and experimental film club founded in 1934, at one time chaired by Alvar Aalto. The club, for instance, showed short films by the Aaltos’ modernist friends László Moholy-Nagy and Fernand Léger, as well as full-length silent films by Charlie Chaplin.

The theme of European Heritage Days 2025 is “Heritage and Architecture: Windows to the Past, Doors to the Future”, in honour of which the Alvar Aalto Foundation is staging two film screenings in the spirit of film club Projektio in the garden amphitheatre at Studio Aalto.

Friday, 12 September, 19:30: Charlie Chaplin’s classic Modern Times (1936). 1h 23min. Finnish subtitles. The screening will be introduced by film researcher Antti Alanen. The screening is fully booked.

Saturday, 13 September, 20:00: Architecton (2024), written and directed by Viktor Kossakovsky. 1h 38min. English-language documentary with Finnish subtitles. Tickets from Pop Up Kino Helsinki. Max. 75 spectators.

Bring your own sitting pad!

A photographer is present at the event and the images can be used for communications of the Alvar Aalto Foundation.

The screenings are arranged in cooperation with Pop Up Kino Helsinki. The event has been made possible by Artek Global and Iittala/Fiskars Group.

 

Studio Aalto, amphitheatre

Helsinki

Vie privée / A Private Life (2025) (American premiere, in person: Jodie Foster)

Rebecca Zlotowski: Vie privée / A Private Life (FR 2025). Jodie Foster as Lilian Steiner.

Yksityinen elämä / Privatliv

Made possible by a donation from Alli & Caroline McConnell

Larry Gross (TFF 2025): "Lilian Steiner (Jodie Foster), an American-born psychiatrist living and working in France, suspects foul play when her patient Paula (Virginie Efira) dies suddenly. But as Lilian begins her own investigation, with help from her adoring ex-husband (Daniel Auteuil), she finds herself also discovering her own internal mysteries. Director Rebecca Zlotowski (OTHER PEOPLE’S CHILDREN, AN EASY GIRL) works from a script co-written by Anne Berest and Gaëlle Macé to artfully weave suspense, psychological drama and surprising flashes of romantic comedy to hugely entertaining effect. Foster’s performance, entirely in French (save for a few memorable English expletives), is a mesmerizing tour de force. The supporting performances from Efira, Auteuil, Mathieu Amalric and Luàna Bajrami (who play Paula’s husband and daughter) match Foster’s intensity and creativity. Legendary documentary filmmaker Frederick Wiseman steals the show with a one-scene appearance." –LG (France, 2025, 107m) In person: Rebecca Zlotowski, Jodie Foster

Finnish premiere: 5 Dec 2025 – released by Future Film

Viewed at Chuck Jones's Cinema, Telluride Film Festival (TFF), 1 Sep 2025

AA: Rebecca Zlotowski's A Private Life is a policier, a mystery story about Paula (Virginie Efira) who dies suddenly. Her psychiatrist / psychoanalyst Lilian Steiner (Jodie Foster) has had no clue of any suicidal temptations. Instead she knows secrets that she cannot reveal due to the doctor's vow of confidentiality. There is a great inheritance in Paula's family circle, and another inheritor has also just died. Plus Paula's daughter and husband may have reasons to be resentful to Lilian. In addition, an old patient cuts ties because after many years with Lilian, he has been cured from his nicotine addiction in a single visit to a hypnotist. Even Lilian's own estranged son has reasons to be scornful of his mother's practice, which he has spied upon as a child. Lilian the doctor seems increasingly to land in a role of a mental patient, but his loyal ex (Daniel Auteuil) is there to help her sort this all out.

The film is fascinating, but more confusing than complex. Worth to watch because of the brilliant performances. Jodie Foster may be slightly too highly strung in her performance, although it is certainly an intentional choice. In the screening the sound volume was too loud, and the shrill intensity hampered the movie. The edit is rather too fast to my taste in a story like this.

I have worked together with dozens of mental health professionals in our Cinema and Psyche symposia and book projects, and I cannot recognize the character of Lilian Steiner in any of the colleagues I know in Finland.

...

Grace Jones: Private Life (A One Man Show, D: Jean-Paul Goude, US 1982).