Fakiiri

Jalmari Helander continues his series of short fantasy films with Fakiiri (The Fakir), and this seems more polished and more to the point than his previous films. Helander has filmed unordinary stories before with Santa Claus hunters in "Rare Exports" and this film doesn't stray from that path although this isn't as popcornish than "Rare Exports" with less dialogue and lack of clichés.

The story features a guardian angel (Jorma Tommila playing pretty much his usual character), who unlike the archetypal Frank Capra angels in films and TV shows, is rude and seemingly not very protective of his protégé, the fakir (Manninen) who does very dangerous tricks in his shows.

The film relies on this twisted guardian angel theme and in the end is really about (not) taking responsibility of your own life.

There's really nothing negative I can come up regarding this film. The cinematography, lightning, props and even the credits provide a believable atmosphere of early 20th century rural Finland, and the film is certainly not stretched in its 10+ minute runtime.