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Covered with laurels for his recent series “Soviet Jeans” (audience award at Series Mania 2024) and for his features “Modris” (Latvia’s Oscar submission 2014) and “Oleg” (Cannes Director’s Fortnight entry 2019), Latvian writer/director Juris Kursietis is competing at Tallinn’s Black Nights Film Festival’s Official Selection with “The Exalted,” due to world premiere Nov. 14.

The satire about cultural clashes between Eastern and Western Europe, seen through the prism of an upper-class couple, has just been acquired by newly launched French sales outfit B-Rated International, outside the co-producing countries Estonia, Latvia, and Greece.

“The Exalted” offers a harsh and cynical portrayal of the upper class,” said Arnaud Chevallier, formerly at Mediawan International Sales and founder of the Paris-based outfit. “We admire the pic’s brilliant and subtle directing and are convinced that it will resonate with foreign audiences due to its globally relevant themes and multiple languages spoken throughout the film.

The Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (known as PÖFF) has unveiled the full lineup of its flagship Official Selection, whose 18 features from 23 countries will compete for the coveted €20,000 Grand Prix.

They include 11 world premieres. The jury is helmed by acclaimed German director Christoph Hochhäusler.

Tiina Lokk, the founder and director of the festival, said “the Official Selection Competition has it all! There’s a psycho-thriller that approaches horror, a psychological family drama, and sci-fi genre is represented. The selection is broad, and so is the range of countries. We’re not trying to highlight a certain theme or a particular region, we are free in our choices,” she noted.

Emphasizing the various topics covered, Lokk cites old age, the end of life and euthanasia “perhaps due to the influence of Covid,” domestic violence and war, “not tackled in the traditional form” but rather via psychological dramas.

“Last year there were...

Helsinki-based production company It’s Alive Films has boarded upcoming “Copernicus Secrets” as ca o-producer, joining Orka Studio’s Magdalena Zimecka (Poland) and 4film’s Anita Juka (Croatia.)

Recently, Orka co-produced Naomi Watts survival drama “Infinite Storm” by Małgorzata Szumowska and Michał Englert, as well as Marta Minorowicz’s “Illusion.”

“We like to try new things and we have never been involved in this kind of co-production before. Copernicus was an intellectual giant, whose vision had a tremendous effect on modern science. In a way, this story has been relevant since the 15th century,” said Finland’s Jani Pösö.

Running It’s Alive Films alongside director and longtime collaborator Teemu Nikki, Pösö is also behind “Euthanizer,” Finland’s 2018 Oscar submission, Venice-winning “The Blind Man Who Did Not Want to See Titanic” or children’s film “Snot & Splash – The Mystery of Disappearing Holes,” starring Pekka Strang.

Currently, the duo is shopping their new feature “100 Liters of Gold.

“Death Is a Problem for the Living,” now also in Italy.

The Finnish black comedy, directed by Teemu Nikki of “Euthanizer” fame, will premiere at the Rome Film Festival in October.

“I am so proud of everything we have made together, especially ‘Euthanizer’ and [Venice Horizons Extra winner] ‘The Blind Man Who Did Not Want to See Titanic,’ but this one is certainly the most consistent. And the most surprising, because you really don’t know what’s going to happen to these characters,” says Jani Pösö, who produces for Helsinki-based It’s Alive Films.

Co-produced by Andrea Romeo for Italy’s The Culture Business, and scored by Marco Biscarini, it will be distributed in Italy by I Wonder Pictures in the spring, with Scandinavian Film Distribution overseeing the Finnish release.

In the film – previously known as “The Player” – gambling addict Risto (Pekka Strang) and his kind neighbor Arto, who just found out he...

Awards

The European Film Academy has revealed the nominations for Lux – The European Audience Film Award. The award is presented by the European Parliament and the European Film Academy in partnership with the European Commission and Europa Cinemas.

The nominated films are: “20,000 Species of Bees” by Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren (Spain); “The Teacher’s Lounge” by İlker Çatak (Germany); “Fallen Leaves” by Aki Kaurismäki; “On the Adamant” by Nicolas Philibert; and “Smoke Sauna Sisterhood” by Anna Hints.

The five nominated films will now be subtitled in all 24 EU languages. The winner will be determined by the general public and the members of the European Parliament (each holding 50% of the vote) and announced during an awards ceremony in March 2024.

European Film Academy chair and president of the Lux jury Mike Downey said: “We know that cinema not only enhances the imagination but also shows our entire world in multiple perspectives and...

Stars: Saana Koivisto, Inka Kallén, Pekka Strang | Written and Directed by Joonas Pajunen, Max Seeck

As a young girl, Matilda (Saana Koivisto) was discovered locked inside a cage while her father’s dead body lay outside, and her mother was declared missing. Now an adult, Matilda inherits the house and the surrounding forest along with her older siblings, Maria (Inka Kallén) and Mikko (Pekka Strang). Their return sees the siblings face their traumatic past while grappling with unfathomable forces.

Writing/directing duo Joonas Pajunen and Max Seeck capture this look at a family struggling with their past, while glimpsing at how it has affected their present. Flashbacks capture the souring relationship between the family and its patriarch, as tensions rise from his domineering nature. While Matilda and Mikko want to sell the location of such bad memories, Maria is wary of the environmental damage that may be caused by the buyer.

‘Codename: Annika’: SkyShowtime Unveils Cast & Trailer

SkyShowtime has unveiled cast and trailer for Codename: Annika, one of the fledgling Paramount/Comcast Jv’s biggest originals to date. The series follows a Finnish detective, Emma Haka, played by Sannah Nedergård (Yellow Sulphur Sky), who is still completing her undercover training when she gets sent on a mission into Stockholm’s corrupt world of fine art trade. Unveiled at the Stockholm International Film Festival, Codename from Mia Ylönen and Aleksi Bardy will star the likes of Ardalan Esmaili (Easy Money) as Rasmus Ståhlgren, Eva Melander (Border) as Rina Olander and Helena Bergström (House of Angels) as Agatha Torstensson, along with Pekka Strang (Tom of Finland) as Raimo Korpi, Clarisse Lhoni-Botte (Rolling to You) as Béatrice Joly and Charles Martins (Emily in Paris) as Denver Carpentier. Show will launch next month on the streaming service that is available in territories in which...

SkyShowtime, the European streaming joint venture of Comcast and Paramount Global has unveiled a teaser trailer for six-part original crime drama series Codename: Annika at the Stockholm International Film Festival outdoor cinema, Sommarbio.

The Finnish-Swedish production, which originally had the working title ID, was part of a deal that the streamer struck early this year with Warner Bros. Discovery for exclusive rights across all of Europe to 21 HBO Max European originals. Codename: Annika will launch on SkyShowtime in September.

Created by Mia Ylönen and Aleksi Bardy of production company Helsinki-Filmi (Tove, Ladies of Steel, Tom of Finland, Heart of a Lion, Lapland Odyssey) and directed by Finnish director Aj Annila (Peacemaker), the show promises to take audiences behind the scenes of the world of high-class art fraud, while also exploring “the reality of navigating a double identity.”

The series stars Sannah Nedergård (Yellow Sulphur Sky) as Finnish art fraud investigator Emma/Annika.

FilmSharks has picked up world sales rights to Finnish children’s film “Snot & Splash: The Mystery of Disappearing Holes.”

“It was a bidding war. They got offers from everybody,” said FilmSharks CEO Guido Rud.

“Snot & Splash” (“Räkä ja Roiskis”) is produced by It’s Alive Films – founded by director Teemu Nikki and Jani Pösö – and set for distribution in its native Finland (Scanbox), Scandinavian sub distribution by Sweden (Folkets Bio) and Norway (Norsk Filmdistribusjon), and Italy in the spring (I Wonder Pictures).

Poland’s Orka and Post Control Helsinki are also on board.

“We are very proud to be working with one of the most creative of Finnish production companies. Most great scripts and ideas are coming from Finland right now. It’s one of the hottest creative hubs,” added Rud.

The deal was signed during the Locarno Film Festival, where the film premiered as part of Locarno Kids Screenings.

The...

The industry event of Helsinki International Film Festival runs from September 20-22.

Finnish Film Affair, the industry event of Helsinki International Film Festival, is to open with the Teemu Nikki’s Death Is A Problem For The Living.

The black comedy stars Pekka Strang and Jari Virman as the cheapest drivers in the hearse businessb who decide they need a fresh start.

Death Is A Problem For The Living is produced by Jani Pösö and Andrea Romero for It’s Alive Films. Nikki’s past films include The Blind Man Who Did Not Want to See Titanic and Euthanizer.

Finnish Film Affair,...

Warning! Spoilers for Seven Kings Must Die!

Seven Kings Must Die deviates heavily from its source material, including making a much-needed ending change to the book series. As always, in adaptations between literature and the screen, some changes are necessary to finish the story in a way that best suits the medium and the abridged story, even when it deviates from the source material. The Last Kingdom and, by proxy, Seven Kings Must Die change many elements of the original novels and have done throughout their production. As such, it makes sense that the series and film lead to a significantly different ending in Seven Kings Must Die than the one found in the books.

Seven Kings Must Die is a sequel to The Last Kingdom series and is roughly based on the book series The Saxon Stories. The film catches up with Uhtred of Bebbanburg (Alexander Dreymon), with his...

Seven Kings Must Die concludes the story of Uhtred Ragnarsson, a decades-long frenemy of the English crown since the days of King Alfred the Great. It’s largely adapted from Bernard Cornwell’s final instalment in his Saxon Stories books, War Lord, along with elements of the two previous novels, and tracks the contested succession to the royal throne following the death of King Edward.

A significant time jump has taken place since the final moments of The Last Kingdom season five, during which Aelswith, Hild and Eadith have all passed or moved away. A core of male characters remains though, including Uhtred, Finan, Sihtric, Father Pyrlig and Aldhelm. They’re joined by brand new characters, as below.

Laurie Davidson as Ingilmundr

The biggest addition to The Last Kingdom’s regular cast is Aethelstan’s new trusted advisor, Ingilmundr, a Danish-born Christian who shows a powerful influence over King Edward’s successor.

Set mostly in England, back before it was officially called England — and centuries before Great Britain was so much as a glint in the eye of James I — director Ed Bazalgette’s workmanlike historical epic “The Last Kingdom: Seven Kings Must Die” wraps up the events of “The Last Kingdom,” the Netfix drama series based on Bernard Cornwell’s “Saxon Tales” novels. Playing like “Game of Thrones” with more history and fewer dragons, the film opens with several smaller kingdoms, including Northumbria, Mercia and East Anglia, gearing up for a power struggle exacerbated by the recent death of Alfred the Great, king of Wessex, and worsened by the surreptitious attempts of the Danes to sow discord.

The hero of the hour is Uhtred (Alexander Dreymon), a young Saxon and the protagonist of the TV series, who fans will know was raised by Danes after a Danish attack wiped out most...

“When capital grows, do the middle and working classes inevitably have to grow poorer?” asks Salla Nurminen, a smart economics student delivering her PhD dissertation on the need to control money markets.

Two years later, having gotten a job with Finland’s Bank Inspectorate, which investigates financial skullduggery, she returns to her native town, Pello, in northern Finland, brought to its knees by a Finland’s 1991-93 banking crisis, she is spat upon in the street.

How did Finland get to this pretty pass? A Finnish “Margin Call” but spread out over six episodes and two years, the Fremantle-distributed “The Invincibles” asks why, providing a beginners guide to banking malpractice, such as “cornering” – when a bank seizes control of a company via a cohort of straw parties, offering control back to its original owner at a higher price.

Co-written with Mikko Reitala (“Blind Donna”), “The Invincibles” also exposes money market mechanisms which,...

Finnish horror film The Knocking marks the feature debut of Max Seeck and Joonas Pajunen, and Variety indicates in a report this morning that it’s coming Stateside early next year.

The film is “expected to premiere domestically in February 2023.”

LevelK has also sold The Knocking to over 70 countries around the world.

The Knocking is said to “revolve around three adult siblings who return to their childhood home, where their parents were allegedly murdered many years ago. Their plan is to get the house and estate ready to be sold but an evil force tries to prevent them from doing so.”

“Our mission with ‘The Knocking’ is to create a mood that enables waking up these fears hiding in the corners of our minds,” the filmmakers said in a statement.

“We were also inspired by old Finnish stories and myths. So many of them are about spirits hiding away in the woods,...

LevelK continues to terrify international distributors with Finnish horror “The Knocking,” directed by Max Seeck and Joonas Pajunen.

The film has now been sold to over 70 countries, Variety has learned, with the company sealing further deals in Germany, Austria and Switzerland (Alamode Film), Latin America (Gussi), Cis (Capella Film), France (Kmbo), Indonesia (Pt. Falcon) and Taiwan (Av-Jet International Media).

“We have been looking at many Nordic projects, especially the Finnish ones. We definitely see a shift in not just more genre projects emerging, but also in the subjects and the creativity,” says CEO Tine Klint.

“‘The Knocking’ ticks those boxes in providing a Nordic horror with an original story, told through classic genre tropes, which is exactly what the buyers are looking for at the moment.”

The film is produced by Markus Selin and Jukka Helle for Helsinki-based Solar Films, also behind Mika Kaurismäki’s “The Grump: In Search of an Escort,...

Italy’s I Wonder Pictures has boarded Finnish comedy “The Player” as a co-producer ahead of its bow at Haugesund’s industry sidebar New Nordic Films.

The company will also handle local distribution. The project is directed by Teemu Nikki and produced by It’s Alive Films’ Jani Pösö.

“I consider Teemu Nikki as one of the best European directors. He is brilliant, prolific and always surprising,” Andrea Romeo, I Wonder Pictures’ general manager and head of acquisitions, told Variety.

“I think that his cinema will be increasingly appreciated in the world, as well as in Italy. His movies always talk about important issues, keeping a perfect balance between black comedy and auteur cinema. It’s also a great pleasure for us to work with a producer like Jani and a company as prestigious as It’s Alive Films.”

The Finnish duo has just been nominated for the Nordic Council Film...

More than 300 industry delegates from top shingles including Warner Bros Discovery, Viaplay, Germany’s Constantin Film, The Match Factory and France’s TF1 Studio are expected on the shores of Haugesund, Norway, over Aug. 23-26, for Scandinavia’s major film showcase, New Nordic Films.

Ruben Östlund’s Palme d’Or winner “Triangle of Sadness” will both open the film confab festivities and screen alongside 18 new Nordic finished films at the market. But for the avid buyers and programmers of Nordic content, the biggest draw will be the 18 works in progress – half of them looking for sales and distribution – and 23 pics in development available for co-production and financing.

“We’ve noticed a shift in recent years, with buyers and sellers favouring the Works in Progress and Nordic Coproduction Market over the market screenings. These seem to be more valuable for the industry,” said Gyda Velvin Myklebust, head of New Nordic Films.

LevelK, the international sales and aggregation outfit, has boarded Finnish horror film “The Knocking,” the feature debut of Max Seeck and Joonas Pajunen.

“The Knocking” revolves around three adult siblings who return to their childhood home, where their parents were allegedly murdered many years ago. Their plan is to get the house and estate ready to be sold but an evil force tries to prevent them from doing so.

Seeck and Pajunen said the “inspiration for ‘The Knocking’ comes from the Finnish forests, which offer an excellent setting for psychological horror and a stage for a world that oozes rather gloomy folklore and pushes the buttons of the viewers’ subconscious.”

“Our mission with ‘The Knocking’ is to create a mood that enables waking up these fears hiding in the corners of our minds,” said the pair.

The film stars Pekka Strang, Saana Koivisto (“The Serpent”) and Inka Kallen.

Max Seeck...

Canneseries Awards: ‘The Allegation’ And ‘Mister 8’ Take Home Prizes

German drama The Allegation and Finnish offering Mister 8 won big at last night’s Canneseries Awards, each winning two of the most coveted gongs. Ferdinand von Shirach’s legal thriller The Allegation took home the Dior Grand Prize for Rtl Group and Von Shirach won Best Screenplay, while Teemu Nikki/Jani Pösö’s Mister 8 for Viaplay won Best Series and Best Performance for lead Pekka Strang. Elsewhere, the Audience Award went to Serbian crime drama Awake, while Norwegian entrants won awards in the Best Short Form Series category for Liv Mari Ulla Mortensen’s About Saturday and Izer Aliu/Anne Bjørnstad’s Countrymen in the High School Prize For Best Series. The awards rounded out the five-day festival, which has been taking place at the same time as Mipcom.

Arkham Asylum Immersive Experience

Department Studios, Inc., Myriad Entertainment and Warner Bros.

Two half-hour gems, Finland’s “Mister 8” and Germany’s “The Allegation,” took top-honors on Wednesday night at this year’s Canneseries, now fully consolidated as one of Europe’s major TV festivals.

The prizes are obvious recognition for the two series creators, Finland’s Teemu Nikki and Jani Pösö and Germany’s Ferdinand von Schirach, and underscore the spirit of innovation at major TV companies across Europe.

“Mister 8” is backed by Finnish SVOD operator Elisa Viihde, “The Allegation” by Germany’s Rtl Group, which is currently in the throes of a high-end scripted drama revolution as it preps its lineup for its relaunched SVOD service, now called Rtl Plus, which goes live on Nov. 4.

Sold by France’s Federation Entertainment and co-written by director Nikki and producer Pösö, Canneseries best series winner “Mister 8” was described to Variety by Nikki as “a thriller with a comedy plot.”

Shot in black and white,...

The Finnish comedy Mister 8 has won the top prize for best series at this year’s CanneSeries television festival. The series follows Maria (Krista Kosonen), a lean-in CEO of a family business who is also hyper-organized in her personal life, with a different partner for every day of the week. The problem comes when she falls for Mister 8, played by Pekka Strang. Strang who took the CanneSeries honor for best performance.

German crime drama The Allegation, the latest from bestselling crime author and screenwriter Ferdinand von Schirach, won the Dior Grand Prize at CanneSeries, as well as best screenplay honors ...

The Finnish comedy Mister8 has won the top prize for best series at this year’s CanneSeries television festival. The series follows Maria (Krista Kosonen), a lean-in CEO of a family business who is also hyper-organized in her personal life, with a different partner for every day of the week. The problem comes when she falls for Mister8, played by Pekka Strang, who took the CanneSeries honor for best performance.

German crime drama The Allegation, the latest from best-selling crime author and screenwriter Ferdinand von Schirach, won the Dior Grand Prize at CanneSeries, as well as best screenplay honors for von Schirach....

“Mister8,” a Finnish comedy series produced by It’s Alive Films, is set to make its international debut at Canneseries. In this meet cute turned meet-your-competition, Juho (Pekka Strang) pits himself against his love interest Maria’s (Krista Kosonen) seven other partners – one for each day of the week. Maria, a wealthy and powerful CEO, has each man comfortably under her control, until Juho uses his wits to weaponize jealousy in the ranks, and hilarity ensues.

Shot in black and white, “Mister8” takes a stylized approach to its comedy, eschewing jokes for situational and absurdist visual humor. Teemu Nikki directs, having successfully partnered with producer Jani Pösö before – Nikki directed “The Blind Man Who Did Not Want to See Titanic,” which in September won the Armani Beauty Audience Award in the new Horizons Extra section of the Venice Film Festival. They also made the 2017 film “Euthanizer,” which was selected as the...

Finnish series “Mister8,” produced by It’s Alive Films and sold internationally by Federation Entertainment, will celebrate its international premiere at Canneseries. The series festival will take place on Oct. 8-13 in Cannes, alongside the 37th edition of the MipTV market.

Starring Krista Kosonen (spotted in “Blade Runner 2049”) and Pekka Strang, reuniting after their 2019 rom-com “Dogs Don’t Wear Pants,” it will see a successful woman, Maria, who shares her life with seven men – one for each day of the week. But when another one comes along, someone needs to go: a young poet, a restaurant owner that likes to party, a former soldier living on the outskirts of the society, or maybe a single dad of two kids.

“It’s a pitch-black comedy about modern relationships,” says producer Jani Pösö. “Maria has come to the conclusion that guys tend to have only one redeeming feature – everything else is total shit.

I first encountered Joonas Neuvonen’s Lost Boys, a sort of “unintended sequel” to 2010’s spectacular look at self-destructive Subutex addicts in rural Finland, Reindeerspotting: Escape from Santaland – which was co-written and edited by Lost Boys co-director Sadri Cetinkaya – at this year’s virtual Cph:dox. At the time I tried but failed to take notes while watching. The film just got under my skin in a way that froze me to my laptop screen. Atmospherically, Neuvonen’s decade-later doc brought to mind the sensation of being trapped inside a Nine Inch Nails video. Memorably narrated by Pekka Strang (Tom of Finland), Lost Boys picks up where Reindeerspotting left off: After […]

The post “A Deteriorating Mind Condemned to Hell…”: Sadri Cetinkaya on Fantasia Doc Lost Boys first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

I first encountered Joonas Neuvonen’s Lost Boys, a sort of “unintended sequel” to 2010’s spectacular look at self-destructive Subutex addicts in rural Finland, Reindeerspotting: Escape from Santaland – which was co-written and edited by Lost Boys co-director Sadri Cetinkaya – at this year’s virtual Cph:dox. At the time I tried but failed to take notes while watching. The film just got under my skin in a way that froze me to my laptop screen. Atmospherically, Neuvonen’s decade-later doc brought to mind the sensation of being trapped inside a Nine Inch Nails video. Memorably narrated by Pekka Strang (Tom of Finland), Lost Boys picks up where Reindeerspotting left off: After […]

The post “A Deteriorating Mind Condemned to Hell…”: Sadri Cetinkaya on Fantasia Doc Lost Boys first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

There’s a nightmarish quality to this documentary from Joonas Neuvonen and Sadri Cetinkaya, which entirely befits the subject, namely a descent into drugs from which, for one man, at least, there was no return. Its story is related in the first person – although Tom of Finland’s Pekka Strang narrates Neuvonen’s thoughts – as Neuvonen attempts to play detective after his friends go missing in Thailand, while also offering a sort of psychological confessional of his own mental state.

It helps if you know that Neuvonen was a drug dealer, with reference to his subsequent jailing providing a framing device of sorts for this film, and that he previously made Reindeerspotting – Escape From Santaland, which documented the exploits of young Finnish drug users Jani an Antii. They are central to this follow-up, which unfolds after the pair of them had finished serving a seven-year sentence and the trio go.

Sf Studios will release the comedy in Sweden in December.

Studiocanal is launching world sales on Tomas Alfredson’s Swedish-language feature The Jonsson Gang as Toronto gets underway today.

The film is in the final stages of post-production.

It is a reboot of a Swedish comedy film series which began in the 1980s, and produced eight feature titles. Sf Studios is releasing the title in Sweden this December.

The Jonsson Gang is about a thief who, on release from prison, finds his gang have become law-abiding citizens and he must continue on his own. But when he is tasked with a bigger job than expected,...

The dystopian drama is based on Emmi Itäranta’s 2014 novel of the same name. Finnish director Saara Saarela is currently working on a new project, a dystopian drama entitled Memory of Water based on Emmi Itäranta’s 2014 novel of the same name. The Helsinki-born helmer kicked off her career in film in the late 1990s and her latest feature was Finnish-Swedish drama Twisted Roots (2009), starring Milka Ahlroth in the lead role. Saarela’s new project, penned by Ilja Rautsi, focuses on a young woman who finds the courage to start a battle over fresh water in the Scandinavian Union, a land dried up by environmental disasters and controlled by a harsh military government. The main cast includes actors Saga Sarkola (Maria’s Paradise), Mimosa Willamo (Aurora), Pekka Strang (Dogs Don’t Wear Pants), and Lauri Tilkanen (Ladies of Steel). The film entered production at the end of July since filming was delayed.

"Dogs don't stand on two feet." Rlje has released an official US trailer for the extra kinky Bdsm film from Finland titled Dogs Don't Wear Pants, which first premiered at the Cannes Film Festival last year in the Directors' Fortnight sidebar. It also stopped by the Toronto Strasbourg, Sitges, and Helsinki Film Festivals last fall. Described as an "affecting and absurd dramedy", Dogs Don't Wear Pants is about a guilt-stricken widower who discovers that a demanding dominatrix might be able to give him the therapy he needs. A film about how brutal Bdsm and pup play might actually be the therapy certain people need. Starring Pekka Strang, Krista Kosonen, Ester Geislerová, Ilona Huhta, Jani Volanen, and Oona Airola. With so much funky and awkward footage, they can cut together such kinky and amusing trailers for this film. And even if you don't like Bdsm (or maybe you do?), you may be into this film anyway.

To mark the release of Dogs Don’t Wear Pants, out now, we’ve been given 3 posters to give away.

Directed by Directed by J-p VALKEAPÄÄ, Dogs Don’T Wear Pants is a darkly humorous story of loss, love and the sweet pain of being, it stars the excellent Pekka Strang and Krista Kosonen. The film has won and been nominated for a number of awards including winning the audience award at Fantastic Fest, the new visions award at Sitges and it recently received nine nominations for the upcoming Jussi awards in the film’s home country of Finland.

Please note: This competition is open to UK residents only

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Open to UK residents only The competition will close 13th April 2020 at 23.59 GMT The winner will be picked at random from entries received No cash alternative is available To coincide with Gdpr regulations, competition entry information will...

A bereaved father chases his lost wife down a rabbit hole of domination and sadomasochism in this unexpectedly playful Finnish drama

“I know how the heart works.” So says Juha, a middle-aged heart surgeon whose life falls apart in the wake of tragedy, but who finds unexpected escape from pain in the rituals of bondage. Maintaining a remarkable balance between deadpan humour and deadening grief, J-p Valkeapää (the Finnish director of The Visitor and They Have Escaped) takes us tumbling down a Bdsm rabbit hole into a Wonderland-like world of asphyxiated wish-fulfilment. Despite the title the result is sometimes shocking, often funny, but ultimately redemptive and uplifting.

We open with the sound of breathing, foreshadowing a haunting sequence that recalls the devastating prologue from Nicolas Roeg’s Don’t Look Now. As Juha (Tom of Finland’s Pekka Strang) drifts in and out of a wakeful reverie, his wife and daughter swim in a lake,...

The hardcore story of a grieving surgeon who embarks on an odyssey of forbidden pleasures is intriguing but hard to watch

This movie from Finnish director J-p Valkeapää brought back to me the title of Jenny Diski’s Bdsm novel from the 80s: Nothing Natural – which is taken from lines by Brecht: “Let nothing be called natural in an age of bloody confusion, ordered disorder, planned caprice, and dehumanised humanity, lest all things be held unalterable!”

Respected surgeon Juha (Pekka Strang) is numb with grief after the death of his wife by drowning. When his teenage daughter chivvies him into taking her to a tattoo parlour so she can get a tongue-piercing, prim Juha does not care to witness the grisly procedure and so tactfully wanders away elsewhere on the premises and happens across the dungeon of dominatrix Mona (Krista Kosonen). He is enthralled and emotionally freed by the forbidden ritual,...

Finnish director Jukka-Pekka Valkeapää ensured that his new film was torture for his actors – literally. But he insists his immersive methods are just like gardening

Bdsm is – perhaps surprisingly – big news in Palm Springs, southern California. The director Jukka-Pekka Valkeapää, showing his new, fetish-themed, third feature, Dogs Don’t Wear Pants, at a festival in the city, was confronted with a crowd of incredulous pensioners. “There was a question: is this Bdsm thing real? Is it invented?” he says, chuckling. One shocked septuagenarian collared him after the screening to inquire after the mental health of the film’s hero: a widower who, after losing his wife in a drowning accident, tumbles headlong into the S&m scene. “She was saying: ‘No, he’s gone crazy. He’s totally lost it,’” says Valkeapää, hooting with laughter. He simmers down. “It’s not a very noble thing to achieve, disturbing old ladies.”

Dogs...

No doubt the brilliantly titled Dog Don’t Wear Pants may be perceived by some as the type of pseudo-provocative, Tinto Brass helmed bondage brouhaha which used to be deplored by Mary Whitehouse and released on VHS through the Redemption video label in the 1990s. But co-writer/director J-p Valkeapaa’s second feature is biting, spicy and electrifying film-making, melding Cronenberg, Roeg and Gaspar Noé into a dark, dreamy psychosexual drama that twists nerves, probes psyches, quickens pulses and tickles fancies with a glint in its eye, sting in its tail and sceptic, studded tongue in gullet.

The story centres on middle-aged surgeon Juha (Pekka Strang) and his teenage daughter Elli (Ilona Huta). A decade after the tragic death of Juha’s wife, he is still suffering from his grief/loss and unable to move on. That is until the day Juha stumbles upon the dungeon of dominatrix Mona (Krista Konsonen). After their first,...

Looking for horror to love this February? Shudder has you covered with their eclectic lineup of original series, new releases, and totally rad films from the VHS era, including Night of the Comet, Child's Play (1988), The Dead Lands, 3 From Hell, My Bloody Valentine (2009), the Horror Noire: Uncut podcast, a "Love Sick" collection that's perfect for Valentine's Day, and much more!

Below, you can check out the full list of titles coming to Shudder in the Us in February, and visit Shudder online to learn more about the streaming service.

Press Release: Good thing 2020 is a leap year, since you’ll need to find room to stream all the amazing movies, series and podcasts we’re serving up this month: new episodes of supernatural mythic adventure series, The Dead Lands; must-see Shudder original/exclusive movies Rob Zombie’s 3 From Hell, Fantastic Fest Best Picture winner Dog’S Don’T Wear Pants,...

The company has acquired all North American rights from The Yellow Affair.

AMC Networks’ Shudder has acquired all North American rights to J-p Valkeapää’s Finnish thriller Dogs Don’t Wear Pants from The Yellow Affair.

The film, which premiered in Cannes Directors’ Fortnight before screening in Toronto’s Contemporary World Cinema section, is about an emotionally paralysed man whose life is changed when he meets a dominatrix. Pekka Strang (Tom Of Finland) and Krista Kosonen (Blade Runner 2049) star.

The deal was negotiated by Emily Gotto on behalf of Shudder, and Karoliina Dwyer of The Yellow Affair.

The Yellow...

Chris Feil takes a quick look at three under-the-radar films at Tiff for genre fans and thrill seekers...

J-p Valkeapää’s Dogs Don’t Wear Pants is a giddy shocker about grief and domination, an imposing Scandinavian delight that could make John Waters proud. The film follows Juha (Pekka Strang), a heart surgeon still grieving the death of his wife a decade prior as he raises his teenage daughter. Almost comically by chance, he stumbles into the dungeon of dominatrix Mona (a suberb Krista Kosonen) whose asphyxiation routines become an addiction for Juha that bring him in hallucinatory communion with his dead wife. The film shocks with its spiritual and biological intimacy (get ready for some seriously squirm-inducing gore), but moreso in its wicked sense of humor. We’ve got a weird one here, and it’s kind of spectacular...

"I've met a nice lady." Time to get kinky. Tiff has debuted an international promo trailer for the Finnish film Dogs Don't Wear Pants, which first premiered at the Cannes Film Festival this year in the Directors' Fortnight sidebar, and is showing in Toronto next month. Described as an "affecting and absurd dramedy", Dogs Don't Wear Pants is about a guilt-stricken widower who discovers that a demanding dominatrix might be able to give him the therapy he needs. A film about how brutal Bdsm and pup play might actually be the therapy certain people need. Starring Pekka Strang, Krista Kosonen, Ester Geislerová, Ilona Huhta, Jani Volanen, and Oona Airola. This funky Finnish film is still seeking international distribution after Cannes, and hopefully a few brave cinephiles will give it a look up in Toronto. I love the title, and from this trailer the awkward comedy seems to elevate this story in just the right way.

Rolling off its Cannes Directors’ Fortnight world bow, J.-P. Valkeapää’s Bdsm movie “Dogs Don’t Wear Pants” has been sold by The Yellow Affair to new U.K. distributor Anti-Worlds for the U.K. and Ireland, as well as to The Klockworx Co for Japan, Ama Films for Greece, Hhg for Russia/Cis, Pilot Film for the Czech Republic and Kasi for the Baltics.

Further deals, notably with Australia/New Zealand, are pending, said Steven Bestwick, The Yellow Affair’s head of sales & business development.

“Dogs” is screening this week at Haugesund’s New Nordic Films market, before heading to Toronto’s World Contemporary Cinema program, then segueing to Austin’s Fantastic Fest where it will have its U.S. premiere.

In his Cannes Directors’ Fortnight review, Variety’s Guy Lodge said: “For those who found too much fantasy in ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’s’ depiction of S&m and its painful,...

For those who found too much fantasy in “Fifty Shades of Grey’s” depiction of S&m and its painful, cathartic pleasures, “Dogs Don’t Wear Pants” arrives as a welcome corrective. Though it doesn’t go in for explicit shock therapy, this inky comedy about a straitlaced widower who finds an alternative way to harness his grief — so to speak — is bracing for the empathetic psychological complexity it brings to oft-mistreated subject matter. Gradually carving out a tender, conflicted misfit romance from lurid beginnings, and eventually finding joy in some very dark corners, Finnish writer-director Jukka-Pekka Valkeapää maintains a peculiar tonal balance to the end of his irresistibly titled third feature. The result is audacious enough to whip up interest on the festival circuit following its Cannes premiere, but not so extreme as to discourage distributors with singular tastes of their own.

It’s hard to imagine “Dogs Don’t...

Everyone grieves loss in their own way, and sometimes finding the way that works for you can be a journey of self-discovery. Sometimes we discover things about ourselves that we never even knew, often these realizations can be terrifying and liberating in equal measure. Such is the case in Jukka-Pekka Valkeapää's Cannes Directors' Fortnight selection, Dogs Don't Wear Pants.  The film opens on an idyllic lakeside scene. Juha (Pekka Strang) and his wife and daughter prepare to go for an afternoon swim, with his wife taking the first dip. Juha heads back into the house to nap and is suddenly awakened by the cries of his toddler daughter. Terrified and confused, he heads down to the lake to find that his wife has become tangled in...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

Yellow Affair also closed deals on Mika Kaurismaki’s Master Cheng for Switzerland, Israel , and Hungary.

The Yellow Affair has struck a North American deal with 1091 Media for Elizabeth Sankey’s essay film Romantic Comedy.

Yellow Affair also closed deals on Mika Kaurismaki’s Master Cheng for Switzerland (Frenetic Films), Israel (New Cinema), and Hungary (Circo). A Japanese deal is in negotiations now.

Kaurismaki produces for his own Marianna Films. The co-production companies are Huang Yaqui’s QianJi Culture Co. Ltd (China) and Iain Brown’s By Media (China/UK).

Kaurismaki directs from a screenplay by Hannu Oravisto. The...

One of the most exciting selections in this year's Cannes Directors' Fortnight is Finnish filmmaker Jukka-Pekka Valkeapää's tale of catharsis and bondage, Dogs Don't Wear Pants. This third film from Valkeapää tells the story of a man (Pekka Strang as Juha) who loses his wife in a tragic accident and finds a strange kind of solace when he accidentally stumbles across a local dominatrix and strikes up an unusual relationship. The program notes describe the film as, "a darkly humorous story of loss, love and the sweet pain of being." We've been given a first look at the film a stunning poster featuring Krista Kosonen and two brand new clips - one of which is Nsfw - that highlight a...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

The 11th Annual QFest St. Louis, presented by Cinema St. Louis, is proud to host the local premiere of Finnish biopic Tom Of Finland at 7 p.m. Wednesday, March 7, at the Tivoli Theatre. The event will serve as an early kickoff for the 2018 QFest St. Louis, which will be held April 4-8 at .Zack. QFest’s full schedule will be announced at the Tom Of Finland screening, which is sponsored by Cheap Trx.

Review by Stephen Tronicek

Tom Of Finland is a story of a man who simply wanted to depict the beautiful eroticism of gay men as they are and the trials and tribulations he took in order to do so. The film is more aptly split into thirds each detailing a moment in the life of Touko Laaksonen or “Tom of Finland” as an artist: the first being the time when he kept his art secret, the second...

Premiering at Goteborg Film Festival where it won the Fipresci Prize and moving on to Tribeca before playing many other festivals, Tom of Finland would seem to be testing the Academy with such a gay subject, but no more so than France with Bpm, Beats Per Minute, and South Africa’s The Wound, or in the past with Milk and the Celluloid Closet, and certainly within the context of the Academy Awards’ diversity this season, with Moonlight, a possible winner of best picture, and Luca Guadagnino’s stunningly beautiful Call Me by Your Name with Armie Hammer looking to make a run at Best Actor, the Academy’s spotty record of recognizing gay-themed cinema may be improving.

Obviously, with such iconic art, the Lgbtq world would be writing at length about this film and here I quote Blade, America’s Lgbt News Source article by Michael Jortner:

But what...

Pekka Strang, the Finnish actor-director who stars in the upcoming Dome Karukoski-helmed film Tom of Finland, wishes he could have met the title character of the biopic, whose real name was Touko Laaksonen. Pekka Strang Talks Tom Of Finland Laaksonen was an iconic artist who depicted erotic gay art. His subversive style was not accepted during his lifetime, but […]

Source: uInterview

The post Pekka Strang On ‘Tom Of Finland,’ Tom’s Legacy [Video Exclusive] appeared first on uInterview.

A man named Touko Laaksonen gained notoriety in the gay community under the name Tom of Finland for his erotic artwork, which featured butch muscle men in the tightest possible pants engaging each other with their exuberantly large members. His drawings are knowingly exaggerated and uncomplicatedly celebratory of images of male power like cops and bikers. Director Dome Karukoski’s disappointingly tame biopic “Tom of Finland” positions Tom (Pekka Strang) as an unlikely gay pioneer who fights on the Finnish side against the Russians in World War II and finds time to cruise for men in between missions. (Karukoski even cross-cuts.

Tom Of Finland Kino Lorber Director: Dome Karukoski Written by: Aleksi Bardy based on a story by Aleksi Bardy and Dome Karukoski Cast: Pekka Strang, Lauri Tilkanen, Jessica Grabowsky, Taisto Oksanen, Seumas Sargent, Niklas Hogner, Jakob Oftebro, Kari Hietalahti Screened at: Critics’ link, NYC, 10/7/17 Opens: October 13, 2017 Given that Norway and Denmark were […]

The post Tom of Finland Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.