Perkele 2 – bilder från Finland.
FI © 2017 Oy Bufo Ab. P: Misha Jaari, Mark Lwoff. Co-P: Jörn Donner / Donner Productions. D: Jörn Donner. Interviewers: Jörn Donner, Maria Veitola, Janne Flinkkilä. CIN: Rafael Donner, J-P Passi. S: Karri Niinivaara. ED+post-production: Klaus Grabber.
A part of the Finland 100 jubileum program.
Featuring (in order of appearance): Kalle Nikunen (Helsinki), Tarja Olkinuora (Helsinki), Eija Lassila (Tornio), A Man from Baghdad (Vantaa), Ora Puukko (Porvoo), Roope Malmberg (Helsinki), Anthon Korkeamäki (Kauhava), Emmi Söderling (Kauhava), Erica Nuormaa (Kauhava), Julia Jensen (Helsinki), Jouni Kuosmanen (Helsinki), Helena Perttunen (Helsinki), Risto Tiainen (Mäntsälä), Kyösti Stenroth (Äänekoski), Jari Vaittinen (Kiihtelysvaara), Pentti Sallinen (Piikkiö), Anni Rissanen (Kuopio), Esa Ruuska (Halsua), Jaakko Uusisalo (Kyyjärvi), Hannu Kalliojärvi (Kyyjärvi), Elina Honkola (Kyyjärvi).
2K DCP – 93 min – English subtitles
Viewed twice, first from an online screener.
Love & Anarchy, Helsinki International Film Festival (HIFF).
Festival premiere in the presence of Jörn Donner.
Viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki, 16 Sep 2017
HIFF Catalogue: "Vuosien kuluessa Suomi on muuttunut kovasti, mutta paljon on yhä perkeleellistä. Vuonna 1971 Jörn Donner, apunaan ohjaajat Jaakko Talaskivi ja Erkki Seiro, murskasi kiiltokuvamaista Suomi-kuvaa esittelemällä tavallisten kansalaisten ongelmia kohudokumentissaan Perkele! Kuvia Suomesta. Nyt, 46 vuotta myöhemmin, Donner palaa aiheeseen Suomen itsenäisyyden juhlavuoden kunniaksi."
"Myös Perkele 2:ssa tarkastellaan Donnerille ominaisella sarkastisella otteella nyky-Suomen kipupisteitä haastattelemalla tavallisia ihmisiä. Elokuvan teemana ovat erilaiset elinmahdollisuudet. Osa kansalaisista löytää onnen, osa suistuu masennukseen. Moni haaveilee yhä paremmasta elämästä jossain muualla. Donner itse käy sydänleikkauksessa."
"Erityisen kitkerä elokuva on sitä kohtaan, että valtio on entistä vauraampi, mutta samalla tuloerot rikkaimpien ja köyhimpien välillä ovat kivunneet valtaviksi. Donner kuvaa humanistisella otteella niin tilanteen keskelle joutuneita pakolaisia, autioituvien kylien nuoria kuin vähäosaisiakin. Elokuvan kaino toive on, että katsojat tekisivät edes pieniä tekoja tilanteen parantamiseksi."
"Vanhassa Perkeleessäkin keskeisessä osassa olleiden laulujen päivitettyjä versioita esittävät Ismo Alanko, Yona ja M.A. Numminen." Paavo Ihalainen
"Finland has changed dramatically over the years, but a whole lot of it remains fucked. In 1971, Jörn Donner, nowadays a Finnish cultural icon, with the help of directors Jaakko Talaskivi and Erkko Seiro tore down the fancy façade of the country and instead presented ordinary citizens and their issues in the polemic-inducing documentary Fuck Off! Images from Finland. Now, 46 years later, Donner revisits the subject to honour the 100-year anniversary of Finland’s independence."
"In Fuck Off 2, Donner waxes sarcastic about the scourges in Finnish society by interviewing regular people. The film takes a theme of different living possibilities. Some people find happiness, others succumb to depression. Many still dream of a better life somewhere else. Donner himself undergoes cardiac surgery."
"The film grows particularly bitter on the fact that while the state has become exceedingly wealthy, income equality has been undermined. Donner’s touch is that of a humanism empathising with asylum seekers and the youth and the poor in provinces becoming deserted. The film makes a modest plea for making at least small gestures towards improvement."
"Songs that featured prominently in the first Fuck Off! film have been retouched by Finnish artists Ilkka Alanko, Yona and M. A. Numminen." HIFF (Paavo Ihalainen. Translation: Tapio Reinekoski)
AA: Perkele! Images from Finland (1971, by Jörn Donner, Erkki Seiro, and Jaakko Talaskivi) was a milestone of the new wave documentary in Finland. It belonged to the current of direct cinema and cinéma-vérité. It was an irreverent pamphlet film, a satire, a provocation, a work of 1960s style cultural radicalism.
Perkele 2 is different. It is not directed by a team but by Donner alone. It has a subjective perspective and a first-person documentary approach absent from the first Perkele venture but characteristic for Donner in general. First-person documentary has become a major trend in recent decades, but this film is not about Donner's private life. Instead, Donner makes himself available as a guinea pig in a social survey, a representative for us all. There may be an affinity with the work of Michael Moore, but Perkele 2 belongs to the continuity of Donner's documentary film work since Morning in the City (1954) and his tradition of subjective reporting in various media (including his Report from Berlin, 1958, perhaps his best book), with connections even with gonzo journalism.
We observe Donner (84 years today) enduring cardiac surgery with local anesthesia, but the film starts with the interview of a little child. Dr. Tarja Olkinuora gives a memorable account on the falling birth rate. We witness a mother giving a birth to a baby with Caesarean emergency. There is a profound concern in the film about the survival of the Finns. We are better off than ever, and we procreate less than ever. Perkele 2 is also a tribute to the great standards of medicine. Medical experts were successful both with the old Jörn Donner and the little baby.
The epochal move from the countryside in the 1960s, the biggest structural change in the history of Finland, was the major theme of the first Perkele movie. Besides the huge move to Finnish cities, 300.000 Finns moved to Sweden, and many also to Canada and Australia. The impact to society was shattering. The big move theme in Perkele 2 is the European refugee crisis. A few thousand refugees from Iraq, Somalia, etc., have been granted asylum in Finland annually (in the record year of 2015 there were 32.500 asylum seekers in Finland, almost all dismissed). The Perkele movies put things into perspective.
We visit the city of Tornio in Northern Finland at the Swedish border, a hub for refugees. And the municipality of Kyyjärvi which has had a successful experience in taking care of refugees. In both places refugees are welcome as a positive element for the future.
In Perkele (1971) Stockholm was one of the locations since it was "the fourth biggest Finnish city" with 100.000 Finnish inhabitants. In Perkele 2 the biggest Finnish city outside Finland is Tallinn, essential for our life since the fall of the wall.
In the first Perkele movie several politicians were included, memorably Veikko Vennamo, the chairman of the Finnish Rural Party, and Väinö Leskinen, the Minister of Foreign Affairs. In the new film no politicans or celebrities appear, only people from all walks of life, including professionals. Donner had become known as an elitist in the 1950s. In the Perkele films he enjoys the company of people of many kinds. He enjoys the popular contact while fighting populism.
The first Perkele film boasts one of the best soundtracks in the history of Finnish cinema, songs composed by M. A. Numminen with lyrics by the poet Jarkko Laine. Uniquely, Perkele 2 recycles the original soundtrack with new arrangements by Pedro Hietanen and singers Ismo Alanko replacing Rauli Somerjoki and Yona instead of Arja Saijonmaa.
Perkele in 1971 was caught in the grip of censorship, and hard core pornographic footage was ordered cut. Since then censorship in Finland has been abolished, and there is no pornography in Perkele 2 as it has lost its shock value. Today Donner distances himself also from the pornographic footage of Perkele (1971) including Jaakko Talaskivi's gonzo scene with a prostitute.
Perkele (1971) was shot in gritty black and white on 35 mm film with a cinéma-vérité approach. Perkele 2 is being screened in bland digital in colour. It was a revelation to meet some of the featured people live after the show, to experience their real presence in comparison with the pale shadows on the screen. NB 18 Sep 2017: apparantly the problem is not with the movie but with the digital copy available today which is about to be replaced.
BEYOND THE JUMP BREAK: DATA FROM THE PRODUCTION COMPANY (BUFO):
