News

Tove director Zaida Bergroth: “We had a wonderful production designer [Catharina Nyqvist Ehrnrooth] who studied every little detail and she was able to build this wonderful place for us.” Photo: Sami Kuokkanen

Zaida Bergroth’s Tove (Finland’s 2021 Oscar submission), screenplay by Eeva Putro, stars Alma Pöysti (Xavier Picard and Hanna Hemilä’s Moomins On The Riviera) as Tove Jansson, the creator of Moomins and Krista Kosonen (in Denis Villeneuve’s Blade Runner 2049 with Carla Juri and in Bergroth’s Miami) as theatre director Vivica Bandler with Shanti Roney, Joanna Haartti, Robert Enckell, Kajsa Ernst, Jakob Öhrman, Eeva Putro, Liisi Tandefelt, Wilhelm Enckell.

During our conversation Zaida brings up a scene in Tove that she calls Aki Kaurismaki’s Paris, I remark that Lars von Trier’s Melancholia may have been influenced by the Moomins, and Alma Pöysti is quoted as saying “we are Moomin-marinated children.” We also...

Producer Riina Hyytiä named producer of the year at Finnish Film Week.

At the closing gala of the Finnish Film Week (Sept 20-26), producer Riina Hyytiä was named Producer of the Year for Johanna Vuoksenmaa’s divorce comedy 21 Ways to Ruin a Marriage (21 tapaa pilata avioliitto).

The comedy is the first Finnish feature by a female director to exceed 400,000 admissions, which only four films have achieved in the last 25 years.

Organised for the fourth time as part of the Helsinki International Film Festival-Love & Anarchy included 24 domestic productions introduced by the filmmakers.

It included previews of Ulrika Bengts’ Lärjungen (The Disciple - Finland’s submission for the Oscars), Rax Rinnekangas’ Luciferin viimeinen elämä (The Last Life of Lucifer), Pekka Lehto’s Luciferin viimeinen elämä (The Surrealist and His Naughty Hand), Dome Karukoski’s Leijonasydän (Heart of a Lion) and Pirjo Honkasalo’s Betoniyö (Concrete Night).

More awards for industry professionals went to:

Director of the Year Simo Halinen for Kerron...

Antti J. Jokinen’s “Purge,” Finland’s official Oscar entry, is based on the widely translated novel and play of the same title by Estonian-Finnish author Sofi Oksanen. The film alternates between two different yet interconnected stories set in rural Estonia: a young prostitute on the run from the Russian mafia in the early 1990s, and a village woman battling personal and socio-political demons during the mid-century Soviet occupation. We first see prostitute Zara (Amanda Pilke) running through the damp night and collapsing in front of the backwoods cabin owned by Aliide (Liisi Tandefelt), a reclusive old woman with a tough-as-nails face and a strong distrust for her scantily dressed surprise visitor. Through a series of flashbacks we learn that Zara was abducted by ultra-violent Russian sex traffickers, and subsequently escaped her domineering pimp. Yet coming to Aliide’s residence isn’t entirely promising for the wretched girl, as...