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FORTHCOMING FINNISH FILMS |
• Aleksis Kivi - Rolling Stone (Rolling Stone) Prod co: Blacksmith Callahan´s Filmworld Ltd. Prod/Dir: Jari Halonen. Scheduled release: Spring.
• Badding. Prod co: Fennada Filmi Oy. Prod: Kari Sara. Dir: Markku Pölönen. Scheduled release: Autumn.
• Hurmaava joukkoitsemurha (A Charming Mass Suicide). Prod co: Ere Kokkonen Oy. Prod: Anna-Maija Kokkonen. Dir: Ere Kokonnen. Scheduled release: January.
• Hylätyt talot, autiot pihat (Abandoned Houses, Empty Homes). Prod co: Jörn Donner Productions Oy. Prod: Jörn Donner. Dir: Lauri Törhönen. Scheduled release: February.
• Kova onni (Bad Luck Love). Prod co: GNUfilms Oy. Prod: Anna Heiskanen. Dir: Olli Saarela. Scheduled release: Spring.
• Kuningas Hidas (King Slow). Prod co: Blind Spot Pictures Oy. Prod: Outi Rousu. Dir: Saara Saarela. Scheduled release: Spring.
• Lähiösatu (A Suburban Tale). Prod co: Kinotar Oy. Prod: Lasse Saarinen. Dir: Sakari Kirjavainen. Scheduled release: Autumn.
• Lakeuden kutsu (Return to Plainlands). Prod co: Matila & Röhr Productions Oy. Prod: Marko Röhr, Ilkka YL Matila. Dir: Ilkka Vanne. Scheduled release: January.
• Levottonat (Restless). Prod co: Solar Films Inc. Prod: Markus Selin. Dir: Aku Louhimíes. Scheduled release: January.
• Pelon maantiede (Geography of Fear). Prod co: Blind Spot Pictures Oy. Prod: Tero Kaukomaa. Dir: Auli Mantila. Scheduled release: January.
• Pieni pyhiinvaellus (A Small Pilgrimage). Prod co: Dada-Filmi Oy. Prod: Anna-Kaisa Sukura. Dir: Heikki Kujanpää. Scheduled release: Autumn.
• Silmä silmästä (An Eye for an Eye). Prod co: Talent House/Matila & Röhr Productions Oy. Prod: Johannes Lassila. Dir: Atro Lahtela. Scheduled release: Autumn
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The young cast members of erotic comedy/drama Restless
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The first-timer is Aku Louhímies, whose Levottonat (Restless) is the story of a young male charmer trying it on with a number of young women over one of those Finnish summers when the sun scarcely drops below the horizon. Boasting a fair amount of male and female nudity - though of a tasteful and erotic rather than a directly pornographic nature - Restless is expected to open strongly in Finland later this month (January) because, notes Tykkyläinen with a chuckle, “we are not used to having sex scenes in Finnish films”.
Of the two films from established directors, the first is from Olli Saarela, whose Rukajärven tie (Ambush) was a huge hit at the local box-office last year, where it was seen by some 430,000 people (almost 10% of the population). His new film, Kova onni (Bad Luck Love), is a gritty tale of two brothers who have lived all their lives in suburban Helsinki, grappling with the problems of drug-addiction and violence.
Director Olli Saarela
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Also featuring violence as a major theme, meanwhile, is the latest film from a young female writer/director Auli Mantila, whose Neitoperho (The Collector) was Finland´s Oscar submission in 1997. Pelon maantiede (Geography of Fear) is a thriller about a grisly series of murders, and may well be the first movie ever to have a forensic dentist as its central character (she becomes a key to the investigation after she is asked to use dental records to identify a body that has been washed ashore).
The Collector was an equally violent tale about a young woman who sets fire to her sister´s apartment, steals her car and sets out to take revenge on the world, and Mantila makes no bones about her theme. “I don´t think we are living in particularly peaceful times right now,” she says, “and it would be escapist of me to say violence doesn´t exist. The film is about things I know” - researching it, Mantila attended a number of post mortems and worked closely with Helsinki´s violent crimes squad - “and I just wanted to show what is really happening.”
Geography of Fear is, she says, “about the origins of fear. Fear comes from disrespect - from when you are not able to protect your own private space.” But, while Mantila admits that she sometimes likes to shock audiences for the sake of it, she insists that her films are neither difficult nor exploitative. “My ambition is to be able to entertain people with a film that has a lot of suspense in it, but also carries some deeper meaning.”
And that, reckons Tykkyläinen, could go for any one of the half-dozen new Finnish films that will see the light of a projector for the first time this spring.
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