Short Films from Finland Screening at Nordic Nights

The Nordic Nights film series at Ryerson University School of Image Arts ends its season with an evening of short films from Finland on Tuesday March 26.

The programme showcases Finnish short films from animation to experimental, including the first ever Sámi-spoken animated film made by a Sámi director.  It looks at life and how we face its challenges.

 

The films come from a set curated for the Finnish Film Foundation by Kirpi Uimonen, a Finnish entertainment journalist based in Los Angeles .  She is also a voting member of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association who host of the Golden Globe Awards and passionate about cinema and fully enjoying her life in Hollywood .

 

Featured selection

 

Kalle Kotila: The Papers (Tärkeitä papereita) 9’ 2013  Animation

A day in the life of a fastidious office worker and his happy-go-lucky class clown colleague.  Kalle Kotila’s animation skills have brought him to the arena in gaming.  He is currently an editor at Ubisoft Redlynx in Helsinki . 

Watch trailer - https://vimeo.com/74218745

 

Jouni West: Áigin 10’. 2014 Animation

Anime style update to an ancient Sámi story of standing up to marauders and plunderers.  Áigin has become a classic, still making the rounds at film festivals.  Jouni West spent his youth in Utsjoki, the northernmost municipality in Finland , and is among young Sámi filmmakers introducing Sámi stories to the mainstream.

Watch trailer - https://vimeo.com/94118202

 

Katariina Lillqvist: Baby Box 9’ 2015 Puppet animation

Director Katariina Lillqvist(Link to another website.) has just added another honour to a lengthy list of accolades as she recently received the Animation Master Award at the 2019 Animac Festival in Spain .  In Baby Box, a street musician is urged to give his crying baby away by a sinister social worker.

 

Miikka Leskinen: The Witching Hour (Juhannusyö) 16’ 2014

Midsummer night in Finland is a time for spells and magic to find out who your true love is, or to make someone fall in love with you, with success being a relative thing.  Director Miikka Leskinen(Link to another website.) was given the Rising Star award for the Witching Hour at the Canada International Film Festival in Vancouver in 2016.  He is currently focusing on editing and his latest handiwork can be seen in Virunga, a Netflix documentary about mountain gorillas and BBC Docudrama Out of Thin Air

Watch trailer - https://vimeo.com/114163309

 

Jussi Hiltunen: All Hallows Week (Hiljainen viikko) 17’ 2011

Director Hiltunen witnessed a shooting incident in his youth and the experience shines through in his short film about the ripple effects of a tragic incident in a small town.  He admits to being a big fan of the Coen brothers, perhaps in evidence in his feature crime drama Law of the Land (Armoton maa) from 2017.

Watch trailer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlBh5XBwWhE(Link to another website.)

 

Iddo Soskolne & Janne Reinikainen: Reunion (Tuolla puolen)15’ 2015

Interestingly, the two co-directors of Reunion really do not do much directing. Iddo Soskolne has a prolific career as a cinematographer and Janne Reinikainen is an actor starring in many Finnish films with a stint in couple episodes of the Scandi Noir crime drama Bordertown (Sorjonen) on Netflix.  

In Reunion the duo directs the story of a kind young girl, who comforts the newly-deceased on their way to afterlife with music and dance.  Reunion had its world premiere at the 2015  Berlinale and received a special mention from the international jury.

Watch trailer-  https://vimeo.com/118017136

 

Marko Röhr: Noste  (Buoyancy) 4’ 2014

In Noste, director Marko Röhr’s daughter Etel performs an ethereal underwater dance.  Both Marko and Etel Röhr are avid divers and originally the film was a graduation project for Etel’s dance school.  It was filmed in one night at a community pool in Helsinki with four hours of free diving resulting in a sumptuous short film.  Marko Röhr is a partner in a major production company in Finland , Matila Rohr Productions, who have todate produced over 40 films.

 

Preceded by short film about the Ryerson University Iceland Workshop 2018, edited by Adrian Pop.

Screening Tuesday March 26, 6.30 pm (doors open at 6.00 pm) at Ryerson University School of Image Arts 122 Bond Street, third floor, Room IMA307, Toronto.

 

Free admission, films with dialogue subtitled in English