F I N N I S H F I L M S

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FINNISH FEA

TURE FILMS 2012 | CHILDREN & YOUTH

Ella & Alex

– A Surprise Birthday Party

[

E l l a & A l e k s i – Y l l ä t y s s y n t t ä r i t

]

DCP, 35mm | Crop: 1:1,85 | Dolby Digital 5.1. | 48’08’’ | Released: September 16, 2011

Director: Juuso Syrjä

Script_{: Katri Manninen}

Editing: Ilmari Hakkola, Juuso Syrjä

Sound design_{: Magnus Axberg}

Music: Markus Koskinen,

Sampo Haapaniemi

Lead Animator: Janne Roivainen

Animation Dramaturg_{: Lauri Konttori}

Illustrator: Antti Kemppainen

Animation Producer_{: Ilmari Hakkola}

Cast: Antti Luusuaniemi, Malla Malmivaara, Jarkko Tamminen, Paleface, Olavi Uusivirta, Eero Ritala, Laura Malmivaara, Marek Urbanski

Producer: Jesse Fryckman

Production company_{: Bronson Club}

Production support: The Finnish Film

Foundation, ESEK – The Finnish Performing Music Promotion Centre, The Church Media Foundation

Financing TV companies: YLE

Distribution in Finland_{: Nordisk Film Oy}

Ella and Alex are siblings who get caught up in many adventures with their dog, Inspector Dog-son. Whether at home, in the city or in the country, they’re always making new friends. Alex is the precocious smarty and refl ective older brother who knows much about the world. Ella is the curious and impulsive little sister, full of life and creative solutions. With the help of their imagi-nation the two can shrink and grow, understand the language of animals and even create a train from thin air.

The kids help the quick-tempered MC Beetle to fi x his DJ gear, teach little Lenni the Seagull to fl y and fi nd the lost inspiration of the fashion designer Carl the Crayfi sh. Later they’re off to make magic soil with the soil dealing Mr Mole, aid the refugee Hely the Owl to fi nd a new home and fi nd the lodestar in their back yard and help it back into the night sky. The adventures are accompa-nied by songs sung by Ella and Alex.

Juuso Syrjä

Juuso Syrjä, an awarded director from Helsinki, Finland, has directed over 400 commercials and music videos around the globe. His clients include international brands such as McDonald’s, Samsung, Nokia Siemens Networks, Snickers, Polar Electro, Nokia, Citibank, Peugeot, Adidas and Schweppes. Syrjä is also known for award-winning music videos for such artists as Don Johnson Big Band, Bomfunk MC’s, Darude and Fintelligens. Ella & Alex –

A Surprise Birthday Party is his fi rst animated feature fi lm.

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FINNISH FEA

Ulrika Bengts

Ulrika Bengts (b. 1962) is a Finnish fi lm and theater director. She is a graduate of the Swedish Film School (Dramatiska Institutet) in Stockholm and has directed over 20 short fi lms, television-series and documentaries.

Iris is her fi rst feature fi lm and one of the fi rst Swedish spoken children’s movies ever made in Finland.

Iris

35mm, Digital Copy | 1:2,35 cinema scope | Dolby Digital | 90’ | Released: September 9, 2011

Director: Ulrika Bengts

Script: Annina Enckell

Cinematography: Robert Nordström

Editing: Tuomo Leino

Sound design_{: Risto Iissalo}

Music_{: Peter Hägerstrand}

Set design: Katarina Lume,

Cian Bornebunch

Costumes: Riitta Peteri

Cast: Agnes Koskinen, Maria Salomaa, Tobias Zilliacus, Marika Parkkomäki, Magnus Krepper, Emmi Pesonen

Producer: Mats Långbacka

Production company:

Långfi lm Productions Finland Oy

Co-Producers_{: Jon Lindström /}

Street Movies Ab (Sweden)

Production support:

The Finnish Film Foundation, Swedish Cultural Foundation in Finland, Konstsamfundet, Swedish Film Institut

Financing TV company: YLE FST5

Distributor in Finland: Sandrew

Metronome Distribution Finland Oy

International sales_{: Oy Interprod Ab}

The year is 1890. 8-year-old Iris lives in Stockholm with her artist mother, Ester. Precocious and experienced in the ways of the world, Iris feels at home among her mother’s modern artist friends. Now she is waiting for the big adventure to begin; Ester’s exhibition in Paris.

On the day of the departure, Iris is shocked to learn that she will not be going to Paris. When her proposed caregivers are unable to look after her as planned, she is sent by mail aboard a boat to Åland; a place she knows nothing about, but where she will learn to know her roots and fi nd the childhood she’s never had.

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FINNISH FEA

Rosa Karo

Rosa Karo is a writer, director and producer of shorts, documentaries, commercials, music videos and feature films. Rosa graduated from the film department of the University of Art and Design Helsinki in 2006. She has directed many documentaries including the award- winning Wrestling and

Rovaniemi All Night Long. The Italian Key is her first fictional

feature. Rosa grew up and went to school in Germany, France and Finland, and now lives in Helsinki and Santa Monica when she is not in India or Italy.

The Italian Key

[

A v a i n I t a l i a a n

]

DCP, 35mm | 1:1,85 | Dolby 5.1 | 90’ | Released: December 16, 2011

Director, script, costumes: Rosa Karo

Cinematography_:

Ville Tanttu & Gianni Giannelli

Editing_{: Pauliina Punkki &}

Paul Martin Smith

Sound design_{: Olli Huhtanen}

Music: Tuomas Kantelinen

Set design_{: Stefano Maria Ortolani}

Cast: Gwendolyn Anslow, Leo Vertunni Di Albanella, Joana Cartocci, Moose Ali Khan, Elisa Cartocci, Isadora Cartocci, Gioele Franchini, Peter O. Almond, John Shea, Joeanna Sayler, Andreas Wilson, Richard Ulfsäter

Producer: Seppo Toivonen, Tuomas

Kantelinen, Peter O. Almond

Production company: Harmaa Media Oy

Co-producers_{: Rose Hope Pictures,}

Old Trace Road

Production support_:

The Finnish Film Foundation

Distributor in Finland_{: Nordisk Film Oy}

International sales: Nonstop Sales

The Italian Key is an English-language feature fi lm by writer-director Rosa Karo. A genuine

feel-good movie with a heart of gold, The Italian Key was shot on location in Italy, India and the UK. 19-year-old Cabella has never known her parents and has lived with her non-related uncle Max for as long as she can remember. When Max dies Cabella only gets an old key that Max has left for her in secret. Sad, without much to look forward to and with nowhere else to go, she trav-els to Italy and fi nds a run-down villa in a little village where she takes up residence.

Little by little Cabella starts to fi t into the life of the village and makes friends with three local sisters and a friendly ghost. With their help, the mysteries of the house and her family history slowly unfold. Cabella rediscovers her joie de vivre, as do many others into whose life she has suddenly drifted.

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Matti Kinnunen

Matti Kinnunen is a MA in screenwriting and fi lm directing at the Art University of Art & Design Helsinki (1996). He studied fi lmmaking also at the Deutsche Film- und Fernseheakademi, at Hochschule den Kunste in Berlin (1993) and at the SOURCES 2 screenwriting workshop in Ireland (2008). Kinnunen has written and directed successful drama series for Finnish TV channels which have been well received by audiences and critics alike. Matti is the father of three children and enjoys cooking, football and literature.

Miss Blue Jeans

[

M i s s F a r k k u - S u o m i

]

Director, script_{:Matti Kinnunen}

Cinematography: Peter Flinckenberg

Editing_{: Jyrki Keränen}

Sound design: Mikael Brodin

Music_{: Fredrik Viklund, Kauko Röyhkä}

Set design: Saara Joro

Costumes_{: Tiina Wilén}

Make-up design: Marjut Samulin

Cast_{: Mikko Neuvonen, Sanni}

Kurki-suo, Elias Gould, Pirkko Hämäläinen, PK Keränen, Maria Ylipää

Producers:

Outi Rousu & Markku Flink

Production company:

Periferia Productions Oy

Co-production company:

MIGMA Film (SE)

Production support:

The Finnish Film Foundation, Swedish fi lm Institute, Filmpool Nord

Financing TV companies_{: MTV3}

Distribution in Scandinavia:

Nordisk Film

The year is 1977. Punk and new wave rock ´n roll has arrived in the remote country of Finland and the bleak, small town of Oulu where increasingly odd-looking youths began to appear on the streets with a message. Their rebellion speaks to Välde (17). Välde dreams of joining a rock band and becoming famous. He wants to get drunk for the fi rst time and to win the love of Pike, the most beautiful girl in his class. When Pike wins the Miss Blue Jeans contest organised by the country´s leading (and only) pop music magazine, Suosikki, and takes the bourgeois Henri Hakala as her boyfriend, Välde puts all his eggs in one basket. He abandons his former self and begins purposefully constructing a new persona. But things don’t go quite as Välde planned… 35mm, DCP, DVD | 1:1,85 |

Dolby Digital, Stereo | 95’ | Premiere: August 17, 2012

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Matti Grönberg

Matti Grönberg (b. 1957) has worked since 1987 in YLE TV2 as producer and director. His works include entertainment, drama, children’s programs, music programs and sports spectaculars. Grönberg has been awarded several times for his work in television. He has also directed three feature-length fi lms with the comedy crew Kummeli.

Pekka Karjalainen

Pekka Karjalainen (b. 1961) graduated as a Master of Arts from the Film Department of the University of Art and Design in Helsinki. He has worked as a sound designer in more than 30 feature-length fi lms. His works as a director include the documentary The Rhythm (Rytmi, 1991), the feature-length road-movie Hysteria_{(1993), the television fi lms}A Pastoral_(Pastoraali,

1995) and Beatlehem (2003) as well as the feature fi lms Jackpot (Kummelin Jackpot, 2006) and Gimme Some Respect_{(Vähän kunnioitusta, 2010).}

Mr. Hayhill

[

H e r r a H e i n ä m ä k i j a L e i j o n a t u u l i v i i r i

]

35mm, DCP | 1:2,35 | Dolby Digital | 90’ | Released: December 16, 2011

Director: Matti Grönberg,

Pekka Karjalainen

Script: Timo Kahilainen, Heikki Salo

Cinematography_{: Harri Räty}

Editing: Kimmo Taavila

Sound design_{: Pekka Karjalainen}

Music: Janne Louhivuori,

Timo Kahilainen

Set design: Marjatta Kuivasto

Costumes_{: Jaana Aro}

Cast: Heikki Hela, Heikki Silvennoinen, Satu Säävälä, Outi Mäenpää,

Jukka Rasila, Timo Kahilainen, Heikki Salo, Tuija Ernamo, Mia Selin

Producer: Timo Kahilainen

Production company_:

Jackpot Films Oy

Co-producers_:

Meguru production Oy

Financing TV companies_{: YLE TV2}

Distributor in Finland:

The Walt Disney Company Nordic

During the Finnish war (1808–09) bandit, Jeppe Antinpoika, robs a treasure belonging to the King of Sweden leaving the loot, a bag of gems, hidden behind a stove and left there for two hun-dred years. Modern day city girl, Aurora, comes to visit her country relative, the original Mr. Hay-hill. His neighbour, the baker Kakelberg, is not doing very well – his house seems to be haunted and his baking business has been sabotaged. Aurora and Mr. Hayhill start solving the mystery of the baker’s house.

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FINNISH FEA

Kari Juusonen

Kari Juusonen is the most successful Finnish animation director. He directed Niko & The Way

to the Stars with Michael Hegner which

re-ceived over 3 million admissions in world-wide cinema distribution. Kari has also directed sev-eral short animations, among them the Cannes Festival winner Pizza Passionata.

Niko 2

(working title)

Niko, a young reindeer boy, secretly wishes his mom and his hero dad from Santa’s world famous Flying Forces would get back together so they could be a real family - something they have never been. One day mom springs the news on Niko; she’s met a guy, an ordinary reindeer Lenni, and he and his little son Jonni will be moving in. Niko´s world is shaken: he will no longer be the only child. Furthermore, he will have to look after this darn, cute little step-brother – are the results are not so good…

S3D – DCP, 35mm | 1:1,85 | Dolby Dig-ital | 75’ | Premiere: October 12, 2012

Director_{: Kari Juusonen}

Co-director: Jørgen Lerdam

Script: Hannu Tuomainen,

Marteinn Thorisson

Production design: Mikko Pitkänen

Editing: Antti Haikala

Animation: Anima Vitae, Studio Rakete,

A.Film Production, Tidal Films

Producer: Antti Haikala,

Petteri Pasanen, Hannu Tuomainen,

Production company: Anima Vitae &

Cinemaker for Animaker

Co-producers: Ulysses Films (D), A.Film

Production (DK), Tidal Films (IE)

Production support_{: The Finnish Film}

Foundation, Eurimages, German Federal Film Fund, Filmfund Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein, The Irish Filmboard, FFA, The Danish Film Institute, NFTF, Nordmedia, Telepool, Nordisk Film, Universum, MEDIA Program of the European Community

Financing TV companies_:

YLE, TV2 Denmark

Distributor in Finland: Nordisk Film Oy

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FINNISH FEA

Mari Rantasila

Mari Rantasila (b. 1963) is a director, actress and musician. Over the last years she has been become more focused on directing. Rantasila has made fi lms for children and young audiences. Her Ricky Rapper fi lms have been enormous box offi ce hits in Finland in 2008 and 2010.

Ricky Rapper and Cool Wendy

[

R i s t o R ä p p ä ä j ä j a v i i l e ä V e n l a

]

35mm, digital print | 1:1,85 | Dolby Digital | 72’ | Premiere: February 10, 2012

Director_{: Mari Rantasila}

Script: Sinikka and Tiina Nopola

Story_{: Sinikka and Tiina Nopola,}

Mari Rantasila

Cinematography_{: Timo Heinänen}

Editing: Tuuli Kuittinen

Sound Design_{: Risto Iissalo}

Music: Iiro Rantala

Music Producer_{: Markku Kanerva}

Set Design: Minna Santakari

Costumes_{: Niina Pasanen}

Cast: Lauri Karo, Venni Uotila, Olivia Ainali, Ulla Tapaninen, Juha Muje, Annu Valonen, Martti Suosalo

Producers_{: Lasse Saarinen,}

Rimbo Salomaa

Production company_{: Kinotar Oy}

Production support:

Financing TV companies:

Yle co-productions

International Sales_{: Kinotar Oy}

The family musical comedy Ricky Rapper and Cool Wendy is an eventful relationship comedy about friendship, loneliness and tolerance based on an original story.

Ricky Rapper and Nelly Noodlehead go to an Island resort where Fanny Freezer works as a holiday camp hostess. The guests include Wendy, who is slightly older than Ricky and Nelly, and her father Herb Willow.

Wendy’s arrival puts a strain on Ricky and Nelly’s friendship since nelly begins to spend more time with Wendy.

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Antti Haikala

Antti Haikala, (b. 1975), is one of the founders of the successful Finnish animation studio Anima Vitae. He was the supervising animator of The Rulers, a popular TV series of political satire. He has directed numerous TV commercials and several prize-winning animated short fi lms. He was animation director of the feature fi lm The Emperor’s Secret and production supervisor of

Niko & The Way To The Stars, a feature fi lm that has been

sold to over 100 countries.

Santa’s Magic Crystal

[

M a a g i n e n k r i s t a l l i

]

Stereoscopic 3D | 1:1,85 | Dolby 5:1 | 76’ |

Released: November 18, 2011

Director_{: Antti Haikala}

Assistant directors:

Mark Mertens, Igor Bertolucci

Script: Thomas Wipf, Bob Swain,

Dan & Nuria Wicksman, Alessandro Liggieri, Antti Haikala, Kurt Weldon

Editing_{: Jukka Nykänen, Tommi Ojala}

Sound design: Quentin Collette

Music_{: Menno Van Riet}

Set design: Antti Haikala & co

Animation_{: Luca Bruno & co}

Producer: Mikael Wahlforss

Production company_{: Epidem ZOT}

Co-producers:

Skyline Entertainment, Araneo

Production support:

Financing TV companies: Nelonen

Future Film Distribution Oy

International sales_{: TF1 International}

A magic crystal makes it possible for Santa to multiply his efforts and distribute presents to children, thus bringing happiness to families all over the world. But Santa’s evil twin brother Basil has a diabolical plan; he will steal the crystal and gain control over the minds of children. Thanks, however, to the courage of a human boy, Yotan, the crystal is saved by the Red Caps – Santa’s crew of elvish helpers. They succeed, after many adventures and crises, in saving the crystal and bringing it back to Santa’s headquarters in Korvatunturi.

But even if this fi lm shares the ethical values of Elvish traditions, Santa’s Magic Crystal is closer to science fi ction than to the classic Nordic mythology.

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TURE FILMS 2012

Teemu Nikki

Teemu Nikki (b. 1975) has directed several short fi lms (including A Mate, 2007 and

A Perfect Day, 2011), music videos,

commercials and a documentary fi lm

Play God (2010). 3 Simos is his debut

feature-length fi ction.

3 Simos

[

3 S i m o a

]

DCP, HDCAM | 1:2,35 | Dolby | 90’ | Premiere: 2012

Director, editing: Teemu Nikki

Script_{: Teemu Nikki, Jani Pösö}

Cinematography: Jyrki Arnikari

Sound design_:

Tuomas Seppänen, Timo Anttila

Music:_{Janne Huttunen}

Set design, costumes: Maria Ylätupa

Cast_{: Paula Vesa, Rami Rusinen,}

Olli Rahkonen, Pekka Streng, Matti Onnismaa, Antti Reini, Jouko Puolanto

Producer_{: Teemu Nikki, Jani Pösö}

Production company:

It’s Alive Productions Oy

Production support:

International sales_:

It’s Alive Productions

Distributor in Finland_{: tba}

Lasse and Simo are two unlucky burglars operating in Helsinki. Eeva is a single mom with a bad memory and a baby named Simo. Eeva had a one-night stand with the burglar named Simo, but the night included so much heavy drinking that Eeva can’t even remember his face – she only remembers his name, which she gave to her son, the fruit of the encounter. Simo comes up with an evil plot in which Lasse will pretend to be him, the baby’s father.

One hot summer day Simo and Lasse sink deep into a swamp of explanations and then come back up to the surface. They escape tricky situations with white lies, change roles like they change clothes, posing as a veterinarian, family man, home caregiver and TV fee inspector. In the end, everything is going really well except that Lasse takes his role as the baby’s father a little too seriously.

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TURE FILMS 2012

Maarit Lalli

Maarit Lalli (b. 1964) has directed several short fi lms, including A Stone Left Untumed (1999), The Lake (2006)

and Sway With Me_(2009).Almost 18_{is her debut}

feature-length fi ction.

Almost 18

[

I h a n k o h t a 1 8

]

DCP | 1:1,85 | Dolby 5.1 | 110’ | Premiere: March 9, 2012

Director:_{Maarit Lalli}

Script: Henrik Mäki-Tanila,

Maarit Lalli

Cinematography: Rauno Ronkainen

Editing_{: Jenny Tervakari, Maarit Lalli}

Sound Design: Pasi Peni

Music_{: Kepa Lehtinen}

SetDesign: Maarit Lalli

Costumes_{: Ihan Kohta Ensemble}

Cast: Anton Thompson Coon, Karim Al-Rifai, Arttu Lähteenmäki, Henrik Mäki-Tanila, Ben Thompson Coon, Elina Knihtilä, Ilari Johansson, Niina Nurminen, Mats Långbacka, Mari Perankoski, H-P Björkman, Tarja Heinula

Producer_{: Maarit Lalli}

Production Company:

Huh Huh -Filmi Oy

Production Support:

The Finnish Film Foundation, AVEK

Distribution in Finland: tba

“There were fi ve of us guys. We stuck together through thick and thin – most of the time. I think we all had normal families. Normal problems. Normal feelings. There was nothing we couldn’t overcome. And then one year, for some reason, everything started going to shit.”

KARRI, 17. A car, Mom and the last driving lesson. Karri hasn’t even gotten out of his yard when he makes the fi rst wrong turn: Finland loses to Sweden in the ice hockey world championships yet again, and his mom can smell he’s been drinking the night before.

PETE, 17, and a girlfriend who took the abortion pill. The thought of killing a human being keeps haunting him.

ANDRÉ, 17, and a forgotten little brother. André picks up his little brother from daycare once again because their mom is “working overtime.” She comes home late at night – with a strange man. AKSELI, 17, and an ex-alcoholic father. Years of not talking about anything behind them and a two-square-meter hunting watchtower where you have to be totally silent ahead.

JONI, 18, and demanding women. Joni dresses up in a furry wolf’s costume and works as a mascot, giving hugs to kids and teenage girls. In his free time, he

works as a stripper, taking clothes off for wealthy older women. Will he calm down when his mom fi nds out he’s been smoking pot?

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TURE FILMS 2012

Joona Tena

In 2005 Joona Tena’s fi rst two feature fi lms went into production;

FC Venus, a romantic comedy, which he co-wrote and directed, and

Unna & Nook_{, of which he wrote the original screenplay. FC Venus was}

a box offi ce hit, and it has been distributed throughout 10 territories, worldwide. It was also remade in Germany in 2006.

As a fi lm director Tena is known as an entertaining storyteller and gifted visualist. In addition to feature fi lms, he has directed over 200 episodes of various drama series for every broadcaster in Finland and he has won the Venla-Award for Best Drama Series in 2008.

Body of Water

[

S y v ä l l e s a l a t t u

]

35mm | 1:2,35 | Dolby Digital | 100’ | Released: October 7, 2011

Director: Joona Tena

Script: Pekka Lehtosaari, Joona Tena,

Mikko Tenhunen

Cinematography: Kjell Lagerroos

Editing: Benjamin Mercer

Sound design: Juha Hakanen

Music: Panu Aaltio

Set design: Päivi Kettunen

Costumes: Anne-Maria Ylitapio

Cast: Krista Kosonen, Peter Franzén, Kai Lehtinen, Kari Hietalahti, Viljami Nojonen

Producer: Mikko Tenhunen

Executive producer: Marko Röhr

Production company:

MRP Matila Röhr Productions

Production support:

Financing TV companies: Nelonen

Distributor in Finland: Nordisk Film

www.matilarohr.com

Julia is a determined lawyer in her thirties, whose job takes her to a remote rural village. While there, she fi nds herself the target of frightening and mysterious attacks. She begins to suspect that the attacks are connected to an old legend about a spirit that lives in a lake. Until she fi nds out the truth about the village, the spirit, and her family’s history, Julia must defend both herself and her child against the frightening threat.

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TURE FILMS 2012

Jarmo Lampela

Jarmo Lampela is a director and scriptwriter. Lampela is a professor of directing in the Department of Motion Picture, Television and Production Design in the School of Art and Design, Aalto University.

Conversations Between Men

[

M i e s t e n v ä l i s i ä k e s k u s t e l u j a

]

DCP | 1:1,85 |

Dolby digital 5.1. | 106’ | Premiere: Spring 2012

Director, script: Jarmo Lampela

Cinematography_{: Aarne Tapola}

Editing: Kauko Lindfors,

Juho Karhunen

Sound design: Patrick Boullenger

Music_{: Paleface, Juha Potka}

Graphics: Juha Fiilin

Cast_{: Juha Kukkonen, Pihla Penttinen,}

Rea Mauranen, Aarni Kivinen, Jari Virman, David Kozma, Rebekka Uotila, Calle Alm, Ville Tiihonen, Ursula Salo

Producer: Ilkka Mertsola

Production Company: _{Vegetarian Films}

Distribution in Finland: tba

www.vegetarianfilms.net

Kari Mairisaari’s literary œuvre includes eight novels, parodies and satires, about political ani-mals and cultural societies. The ninth book turns out to be a challenge; a novel with a serious topic leads the author to new paths.

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TURE FILMS 2012

Elias Koskimies

Elias Koskimies started out in television, as a writer on the famous

Have I Got News For You satire show. He won notoriety for writing and

directing over fi fty episodes of the highly controversial political satire

The Presidents Cabin. He then went on to write and direct the acclaimed

television movie Beauty Sleep _{(2010) about three raging drag queens, one}

homophobic politician and his pregnant wife and a messy kidnapping. Koskimies has also written the satirical book Korusähkeitä (2010).

Dirty Bomb is Koskimies’ fi rst feature fi lm and is, at the moment,

developing new projects both for TV and cinema.

Dirty Bomb

[

L i k a i n e n p o m m i

]

Director, script: Elias Koskimies

Cinematography: Hena Blomberg

Editing: Iikka Hesse

Sound design: Pasi Peni

Music: Kepa Lehtinen

Set design: Vilja Katramo,

Okku Rahikainen, Tytti Tiri

Costumes: Ninni Lahtinen

Cast: Iida Lampela, Jukka Puotila, Ilkka Villi, Niina Herala, Jussi Vatanen

Producer: Jarkko Hentula

Production company: Juonifi lmi Oy

Production support:

Financing TV companies: YLE TV1

Distributor in Finland: FS Film Oy

International Sales: tba

Mirccu, 28, works as the PR manager for a record company. Expecting a raise, Mirccu is shocked when her boss, dramatic record mogul Martin Bakka, threatens to sack her. Though he tells her, in no uncertain terms, that she is a disappointment and lacks the key to success, Martin gives her one last chance to fi gure it all out.

Mirccu and her boyfriend Roba, a celebrity seeking, mediocre footballer, ponder if the good times are really over and will they do what’s necessary in order to succeed.

Opportunity presents itself in the form of the record company’s new secret project, code named; “Dirty Bomb”. Behind the code name is a 15-year-old girl, ruthless teenage sensation, PD. Mirccu must work as her assistant and sacrifi ce everything for the project – her reputation, honor, soul and, of course, her boyfriend. These are the keys to her success. But is the sweet and caring Mirccu ready to play the game?

DCP, 35mm | 1:1,85 | Dolby Stereo |

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FINNISH FEA TURE FILMS 2012

Fanatics

[

K u l m a n p o j a t

]

DCP, 35mm | 1:2,35 cinemascope | Dolby Digital 5.1. | 80’ | Premiere: February 24, 2012

Petri works in a sporting goods store in a small town in Eastern Finland. He and his friends spend their idle summer days and nights making mischief. Together the guys are the proudest – and seemingly only – members of the fan club for the local football team.

The team’s strongest opponent is another local team, the prim and proper AC United. To their horror AC United raises the stakes by hiring a professional for the upcoming season; ex nation-al league footbnation-all player Tuukka Tiensuu, the new home town hero.

Friends and slacking off have always been Petri’s number one priorities, but everything chang-es when he meets Emmi. It’s love at fi rst sight and Petri’s friends are naturally green with envy – for losing their friend to a girl. Everything would be perfect for Petri and his dream girl if she didn’t support the wrong football team and have a dangerously close relationship with their arch nemesis, the city’s own football champion, Tuukka Tiensuu.

Director_{: Teppo Airaksinen}

Script: Jaakko Kaján,

Teppo Airaksinen

Cinematography: Teppo Högman

Editing_{: Jussi Rautaniemi}

Sound design: Karri Niinivaara

Music_{: Arto Tuunela}

Set design: Otso Linnalaakso

Costumes_{: Henna-Riikka Taskinen}

Cast: Eero Ritala, Jussi Vatanen, Joonas Saartamo, Lotta Kaihua, Janne Ravi, Antti Väre, Ville Tiihonen

Producer_:

Jesse Fryckman, Oskari Huttu

Production company_{: Bronson Club}

Production support:

Financing TV companies: Nelonen Media

Distribution in Finland_{: Nordisk Film Oy}

Teppo Airaksinen

Teppo Airaksinen (b. 1982) is fi nishing his degree as Master of Arts from the School of Art and Design in Aalto University. Fanatics is his graduation fi lm as well as his fi rst feature.

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FINNISH FEA

TURE FILMS 2012

Aki Kaurismäki

Aki Kaurismäki was born in 1957.

Le Havre

35mm, Digital Copy | 1:1,85 | Dolby Digital | 94’ |

Released: September 9, 2011

Director, script_{: Aki Kaurismäki}

Sound Design: Tero Malmberg

Cinematography:Timo Salminen

Editing: Timo Linnasalo

Set Design_{: Wouter Zoon}

Costumes: Fred Cambier

Cast: André Wilms, Kati Outinen, Blondin Miguel

Producer: Aki Kaurismäki

Production company: Sputnik Oy

Co-Producers: Pyramide Productions,

Pandora Film, Arte France Cinéma, ZDF/Arte

Foundation, Nordisk Film & TV Fond, Le Centre National du Cinéma et de l’Image Animée, Cinécinéma, La Région Haute-Normandie

Financing TV company_{: Canal +,}

ARTE France, YLE Co-Productions

Distributor in Finland: Future Film Oy

International sales:

The Match Factory GmbH

Scandinavian sales:

Willmar Andersson Film AB

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FINNISH FEA

TURE FILMS 2012

Home Sweet Home

[

K o t i r a u h a

]

35mm, Digi | 1:2,35 | Dolby Digital | 105’ | Released: Autumn 2011

“Let’s pretend we’re doing well.”

Sami Luoto is a family man in his forties with a secret dream. He wants to succeed like his father and build a fancy house for himself, his wife and their teenage daughter.

Home Sweet Home_{is a dramatic thriller of one unlucky man’s descent into disaster. It examines}

contemporary social undertones such as; what is the measure of success? Can love be measured? Can a man fail totally and then pick himself up and try again?

Despite its challenging subject, the movie – based on the upcoming novel of the same title by Marko Leino - is full of humor with an ending that offers hope to all.

Director: Aleksi Mäkelä

Script_{: Marko Leino}

Cinematography: Pini Hellstedt F.S.C

Editing_{: Kimmo Taavila}

Sound design: Jyrki Rahkonen

Music_{: Lauri Porra}

Set design: Pirjo Rossi

Costumes_{: Tiina Kaukanen}

Cast: Samuli Edelmann, Katariina Kaitue, Kerli Kyllönen, Santeri Kinnu-nen, Kristo SalmiKinnu-nen, Aake Kalliala, Petra Frey, Tommi Korpela, Aku Hirviniemi, Taisto Oksanen, Niina Nurminen, Pekka Huotari

Producers: Markus Selin, Jukka Helle

Production company_{: Solar Films, Inc.}

Foundation, City of Vaasa

Financing TV companies: MTV3 Finland

Distributor in Finland_{: Nordisk Film}

International sales: TrustNordisk

www.solarfilms.com

Aleksi Mäkelä

A self-taught movie director, Aleksi Mäkelä(b. 1969) is the most successful of the modern era Finnish directors. The biggest domes-tic box offi ce hit since the eighties, Bad Boys, drew a phenomenal audience of 615,000 in only 5 months.

Home Sweet Home is his tenth feature fi lm. His debut The Romanov

Stones was released in 1993.

Besides movies, Mäkelä has directed hundreds of hours of TV series, commercials and music videos. Aleksi Mäkelä was given the State Art Prize for Cinema 2009.

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FINNISH FEA

TURE FILMS 2012

Jyri Kähönen

Jyri Kähönen (b.1975) studied documentary fi lm at the Helsinki University of Arts and Design but he soon became interested in fi ctional fi lm. Kähönen’s short fi lms have won several awards at various international fi lm festivals. Kähönen’s recent work includes the controversial political tv-drama about Anneli Jäätteenmäki, the disputed fi rst Finnish female prime minister. Jyri Kähönen also directs commercials and dreams of farming apples one day. Enter

the real night is Kähönen’s fi rst feature fi lm.

Hush – Anything for Love

[

J a s a a p u u o i k e a y ö

]

35mm, DCP | Cinemascope | Dolby 5.1 | ~90’ |

Premiere: Autumn 2012

Director: Jyri Kähönen

Script: Tuomas Parviainen

Cinematography: Mark Stubbs

Editing: Iikka Hesse

Sound design:

Mika Niinimaa, Janne Jankeri

Set design: Sarah Bowen-Walsh

Costumes: Marjo Federley

Cast: Jarkko Niemi,

Jemina Sillanpää, Martti Suosalo

Producer: Aleksi Bardy

Production company:

Helsinki-fi lmi Oy

Production support:

Financing TV companies: MTV 3

Scanbox Entertainment Finland Oy

Sakari and Veera are madly in love and get engaged. Veera asks Sakari to help her with a matter relating to the father and in a manner that completely shocks Sakari. He does everything in his power to stop her from pursuing her plan but, before long, Sakari is forced to make choices he thought he’d never face.

DEBUT

Ha n nel e Maj an iem i

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FINNISH FEA

TURE FILMS 2012

Imaginaerum

35mm, DCP | 1:2,35 | Dolby Digital | 85’ | Premiere: August 10, 2012

A coma sends an old man into his childhood’s sinister fantasy world where he must fi ght demen-tia and regain his memory before it’s too late.

Tom, an old composer and a musician, has lived a long and prosperous life which he cannot remember. He suffers from dementia and believes he’s still a young boy. After suffering a stroke, Tom slips into a coma and travels back to the fantasy world of his childhood where his dementia is disguised as a cunning but sinister snowman.

Simultaneously, in the real world, Tom’s daughter, Gem, is trying to discover the mysteries of her father’s life through his last written song. Having had a distant and bitter relationship with her father for years, she begins her search reluctantly. Eventually one single element brings them closer to each other. In his coma, Tom must fi nd a way to defeat the snowman, rebuild his memo-ries and gain his daughter’s love before it’s too late.

Imaginaerum_{is a music fantasy fi lm with an original score by Nightwish. The movie is}

pro-duced alongside Nightwish’s upcoming album of the same title. The band has sold over 7 mil-lion records worldwide and has been awarded over 60 gold and platinum records, which makes Nightwish the most successful Finnish band of all time.

Director_{: Stobe Harju}

Script: Stobe Harju,

Mikko Rautalahti

Cinematography: Benoit Beaulieu

Editing_{: Mathieu Bélanger}

Music: Nightwish

Set design_{: Elisabeth Williams}

Costumes: Ginette Magny

Cast_{: Tuomas Holopainen,}

Anette Olsson, Jukka Nevalainen, Erno “Emppu” Vuorinen, Marko Hietala, Marianne Farley, Quinn Lord

Producer: Markus Selin,

Jukka Helle, André Rouleau

Production company: Solar Films Inc. Oy

Co-producers_{: Caramel Film}

Production support:

The Finnish Film Foundation, Téléfi lm Canada

Financing TV companies_{: Nelonen}

Distribution in Finland: Nordisk Film Oy

International sales_{: Solar Films Inc. Oy}

Stobe Harju

Stobe Harju has directed everything from music videos to commercials, animation to short fi lms and game cut scenes (e.g. Alan Wake). He has won several awards including Cannes Lions, New York Festivals and London International Advertising Awards. Currently Stobe Harju is working on his fi rst feature fi lm Imaginaerum, a music fantasy fi lm based on the original score by Nightwish.

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FINNISH FEA

TURE FILMS 2012

Timo Vuorensola

Timo Vuorensola bridges the gap between the fi lm industry and new forms of media. A pioneer of online fi lm making, Timo has proven crowdsourcing to be a viable and powerful method of producing and fi nancing movies.

Timo has created a collaborative fi lm production platform Wreckamovie and has just fi nished his second feature fi lm, Iron Sky

(2012). Timo has given over 150 seminars and key note speeches worldwide, discussing crowdsourcing, fi nancing, viral marketing, and online distribution.

Iron Sky

In 1945 the Nazis fl ed to the Moon and built a gigantic fortress in a hidden valley on the dark side of the Moon. For nearly 70 years the Nazis have used this fortress to build a massive UFO fl eet, safe from prying eyes. Now the UFO armada is fi nished and the Fourth Reich is poised to attack the unsuspecting Earth with one goal in mind: total world domination!

DCP, 35mm | 1:2,35 (scope) | 5.1 Dolby Digital | ~97’ | Premiere: April 4, 2012

Director: Timo Vuorensola

Script_{: Michael Kalesniko}

(Based on a story by Johanna Sinisalo)

Cinematography_{: Mika Orasmaa}

Editing: Ayyar Suresh

Sound design_{: Heiko Müller}

Music: Laibach

Set design_{: Ulrika von Vegesack}

Costumes: Jake Collier

Cast_{: Julia Dietze,}

Christopher Kirby, Götz Otto

Producer_{: Tero Kaukomaa}

CGI Producer: Samuli Torssonen

Blind Spot Pictures

Co-producers_{: Oliver Damian,}

Cathy Overett, Mark Overett

Production Support_:

Financing TV companies_{: YLE}

Distribution in Finland:

Buena Vista International Finland

International sales:

Stealth Media Group

DEBUT

Mi ka O ras m aa

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FINNISH FEA

TURE FILMS 2012

Rax Rinnekangas

Rax Rinnekangas (b. 1954) is a Finnish fi lmmaker, author and photo artist. His last major work, Five Master Houses of The World is a fi ve part hour long documentary on modernist architecture throughout different continents (2010). He has been awarded at the 9th Ethnofest in Berlin and at the 25th FIFA Festival in Montreal. He has published over 25 works: novels, poems, essays, short stories and books on photography in Finland, Spain and France. Among other prizes, Rax Rinnekangas has been award-ed the State Prize for Photography (1989), the State Prize for Literature (1992) and the Art Prize of the Province Varsinais-Suomi (2003).

A Journey to Eden

[

M a t k a E e d e n i i n

]

35mm, Digi | cinemascope | Dolby Digital | 95’ |

Released: September 23, 2011

Director, script, cinematography:

Rax Rinnekangas

Editing: Jari Innanen

Sound Design_{: Heikki Innanen}

Music: Pascal Gaigne

Cast_{: Nacho Angulo, Hugo Wirz,}

Ramon Zuriarrain, Celia de Juan Hatchard, Saana Vuorenmaa

Producer: Rax Rinnekangas

Production company_{: Bad Taste Ltd.}

Co-Producers:

Pako Ruiz / Sonora Estudios (Spain)

Foundation, Zumaquera Films (Spain)

Pirkanmaan Elokuvakeskus

A Journey to Eden is the story of two male artists travelling in winter through the famous La Rioja

wine-growing region of Northern Spain. One of the men, Ignacio – a Basque modern music com-poser living in Finland – is weighed down by the traumatic guilt of his daughter’s car accident in Helsinki that left her in a coma. The other man, Comaz – a Swiss painter living in Spain – suffers from a creative block after the hand model for his drawings has announced she no longer wishes to continue. The men view religious paintings of hands displayed in churches and monasteries. Their travels ultimately bring them to the chapel of the renowned Remelluri wine estate at La Rioja Alavesa where the Basque painter Vicente Ameztoy created his own visual interpretation of Adam and Eve’s last moment of happiness in Eden. While gazing at the painting, the travel-lers experience a spiritual epiphany about the meaning of forgiveness which paves the way for a chance of a better future.

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FINNISH FEA

TURE FILMS 2012

Samuli Valkama

Samuli Valkama (b. 1974), studied at the University of Arts and Design in Helsinki from which he graduated 2005 (MA). His short fi lms Alright Love_{(2005) and}

Feelings and Stuff (2008), have garnered more than

10 international awards and been accepted to almost 100 international fi lm festivals. Alright Love won the Berlin Today Award at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2005. Love and Other Troubles is Valkama’s feature fi lm debut.

Love and Other Troubles

[

H u l l u n a S a a r a a n

]

35mm, DCP | Cinemascope 1:2,35 | Dolby Digital 5.1 | 90’ |

Premiere: January 27, 2012

Director_{: Samuli Valkama}

Script: Katri Manninen,

Samuli Valkama

Cinematography: Anssi Leino

Editing_{: Antti Reikko}

Sound design: Panu Riikonen

Music_{: Eike Hosenfeld,}

Moritz Denis, Tim Stanzel

Set design_{: Kaisa Mäkinen}

Costumes: Anna Vilppunen

Cast_{: Emilie de Ravin,}

Jussi Nikkilä, Ville Virtanen

Producer_{: Jesse Fryckman}

Production company: Bronson Club

Co-producers_{: Andrew D Corkin}

Production support:

The Finnish Film Foundation, West Finland Film Commission

Nelonen Media

Distribution in Finland_:

Nordisk Film Oy

International sales_{: tba}

Ville is a former child star who has never beaten his dad in wrestling. He now leads a routine life in a small Finnish town giving guitar lessons to kids. His life, which usually runs like clockwork, is shaken when his father, a washed-up rock star and an impulsive bohemian, shows up on his doorstep and announces that he needs a place to stay for a few days – or weeks. Ville does not know how to say no.

But the worst shock comes when his dad comes home one night with a girl about Ville’s age. Sara is a funny, quirky American student who teaches country line dancing at the local activity center.

After he and Sara become friends he feels an attraction toward her and an awkward love tri-angle begins. Several pony rides, line dancing face-offs and wrestling matches later, Ville learns that he can be just as impulsive as his father.

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FINNISH FEA

TURE FILMS 2012

Aku Louhimies

Aku Louhimies (b. 1968) became known with his box offi ce hit Restless (2000). He has worked in genres ranging from romantic comedies to historical drama fi lms. He won eight Jussi Awards for his fi lm Frozen Land

(2005). In Naked Harbour (2011), he returns to the same moods, except with more merciful tones. Louhimies was elected the chairman of the Association of Finnish Film Directors in 2011. Louhimies’s fi lms are known for their strong acting performances.

Naked Harbour

[

V u o s a a r i

]

DCP | 1:2,35 | Stereo | 123’ | Premiere: February 3, 2012

Director_{: Aku Louhimies}

Script: Nina Repo, Mikko Kouki,

Aku Louhimies

Cinematography: Tuomo Hutri

Editing: Benjamin Mercer

Sound design_{: Kirka Sainio}

Music: Markus Koskinen

Set design: Sattva Hanna Toiviainen

Costumes: Tiina Kaukanen

Cast: Amanda Pilke, Laura Birn, Mat leena Kuusniemi, Lenna Kuurmaa, Sean Pewtree, Jasper Pääkkönen, Mikko Kouki

Producer: Pauli Pentti ja Liisa Penttilä

Production company:

First Floor Productions & Edith Film

Co-producers: Natalia Drodzd,

Sergei Seljanov, Susan & Alexander Wieser, Christoph Thoke

Foundation, Nordic Film & TV Fund, Russian Cultural Ministry

Yleisradio, ZDF Arte

Buena Vista International Finland

International sales: EastWest

Distribution

Naked Harbour is a fi lm about being seen and touched. Set in a Helsinki suburb, it tells the story

of a welfare state in the era of individuality and Reality TV. Two weeks of life in modern suburbia shows people yearning for life and love. The lives of the people in the fi lm are absurd, touching and warm-hearted, at times fi lled with humour, at other times dark.

Naked Harbour is a network of stories from Aku Louhimies who is one of the most important directors of last decade in Finnish Cinema. Louhimies has been widely recognized in the Inter-national Film Festival scene. His earlier works Restless (2000) and Frozen Land (2005) create an interesting background for Naked Harbour, both fi lms being stories of an arctic soul. Naked Harbour is full of energy and emotion, feeling very realistic and poetic as well as amusing and entertaining at the same time.

The fi lm was shot entirely with two cameras. This method covers all the acting and non-acting which is not normally seen. It is more John Cassavetes than Dogma.

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Periferia

[

H ä r m ä

]

DCP, 35mm | 1:2,35 (scope) | Dolby Stereo | 128’ | Premiere: February 17, 2012

Director, script: JP Siili

Cinematography_{: Jani Kumpulainen}f.s.c.

Editing: Aleksi Raij

Sound design_{: Juha Hakanen}

Set design_{: Päivi Kettunen}

Costumes: Anu Pirilä

Cast_{: Lauri Tilkanen,}

Mikko Leppilampi, Pamela Tola

Producer_:

Olli Haikka, Jarkko Hentula

Yellow Film & TV

Distributor in Finland: Finnkino Oy

It is the 19th_{century. On the plains of Ostrobothnia, Western Finland, a tradition prevails,}

ac-cording to which the fi rst-born son inherits everything and the remaining offspring must fend for themselves. The law has been cast aside in many areas and groups of men, knife-wielding thugs, nicknamed “toughs”, control the fi elds. The blade rules the land.

The Välitalo household and farm are vast and affl uent. There are two sons in the household. The younger son Matti is an upstanding man fi t to inherit the farm, and secretly engaged to a young woman named Aino from a neighbouring farm. The older brother Esko a bum and the leader of toughs who is said to have killed several men. The father of the brothers makes a diffi -cult decision and chooses to will his farm against tradition, not to his fi rst-born son, but to Matti, the younger son.

Esko learns the will and all hell breaks loose.

JP Siili

JP Siili is one of the most prolifi c directors in Finland. He has directed hundreds of hours for television and a vast amount of commercials. Periferia is JP Siili’s fourth feature fi lms. His earlier features are Blackout

(2008), Ganes (2007) and

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Purge

[

P u h d i s t u s

]

35mm | 1:2,35 | Dolby Digital | 110’ | Premiere: September 7, 2012

Director_{: Antti Jokinen}

Script: Marko Leino, Antti Jokinen

Cinematography_{: Rane Ronkainen}

Editing: Kimmo Taavila

Sound design_{: Olger Bernadt}

Set design_{: Tiina Paavilainen}

Costumes: Anna Vilppunen

Cast_{: Liisi Tandefelt, Laura Birn,}

Krista Kosonen, Peter Franzén, Tommi Korpela

Producer: Markus Selin,

Jukka Helle, Kristian Taska

Production company:

Solar Films Inc. Oy

Co-producers: Taska Film

Finnish Film Foundation,

Estonian Film Foundation, Nordisk Film & TV Fund, MEDIA

Financing TV companies_{: MTV3 Finland}

International sales_{: TrustNordisk}

Purge is a breathtakingly suspenseful story of two women dogged by their own shameful pasts

and the dark, unspoken history that binds them.

Aliide has experienced the horrors of the Stalin era and the deportation of Estonians to Sibe-ria but, she herself, has to cope with the guilt of opportunism and even manslaughter. One night in 1992 she fi nds a young woman in the courtyard of her house; Zara has just escaped from the claws of the Russian mafi a who held her as a sex slave. Aliide later fi nds out that the girl is related to her. Survivors both, Aliide and Zara engage in a complex arithmetic of suspicion and revelation to distill each other’s motives; gradually their stories emerge in a culmination of a tragic family drama of rivalry, lust, and loss during the worst years of Estonia’s Soviet occupation.

Antti Jokinen

Antti Jokinen (b. 1968) is a writer and director of fi lm and television in Finland and internationally. Throughout the past 20 years he has written and developed features and produced and directed documentaries and series for Finnish TV, as well as helmed ca. 100 commercials and music videos in the US. His fi rst US feature fi lm is

The Resident (2010), starring Hilary Swank and Jeffrey

Dean Morgan. His feature fi lm Nicholas of the North is presently in pre-production in Finland.

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FINNISH FEA

TURE FILMS 2012

Rat King

DCP, 35mm | 1:2,35 | Dolby Digital | 93’ | Premiere: January 20, 2012

Director, script:_{Petri Kotwica}

Cinematography: Mika Orasmaa f.s.c.

Editing:_{Harri Ylönen}

Sound design: Ivo Felt, Seppo Vanhatalo

Music:_{Lauri Porra}

Set design: Jaagup Roomet

Costumes:_{Anu Lensment}

Cast: Max Ovaska, Julius Lavonen,

Outi Mäenpää, Niina Koponen

Producer: Kai Nordberg, Kaarle Aho

Production company:

Making Movies Oy

Co-producers:_{Ivo Felt/Allfi lm}

Production support:

The Finnish Film Foundation, EURIMAGES, NFTF,

Estonian Film Foundation, Estonian Ministry of Culture, The Cultural Endowment of Estonia

Financing TV companies: MTV3

Future Film Distribution Oy

International Sales: The Yellow Affair

A small town in Southern Finland. It’s spring and the seniors at the local high school are getting ready for their fi nal exams. Juri, 18, is one of them. He’s addicted to computer games and lives with his mom. She rarely sees her son because he spends all his time in his room.

Juri’s girlfriend leaves him because she can no longer stand his constant playing. He fi nally stops playing, and Mordred, an online friend, wants to see him. He turns out to be a young man named Niki, who bears a confusing resemblance to Juri on the outside.

Juri sees a tattoo of a website address on Niki’s arm. He types in the address on his computer and starts a strange new game titled Rat King. The boys become friends, and Niki helps Juri fi nish the dangerous game. This triggers a dramatic chain of events, and soon Juri fi nds out that his whole life is at stake.

Petri Kotwica

Petri Kotwica (b. 1964) has made several award winning short fi lms. His feature debut

Home Sick (2005) won several prizes on

international festivals. His second feature

Black Ice (2007) premiered internationally

in Berlin International Film Festival’s competition 2008 and won six national fi lm awards (Jussi) including best fi lm, directing and screenplay.

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Risto

DCP, 35 mm | 1:2,35 (Cinemascope) | Dolby Digital 5.1 | 99’ | Released: November 25, 2011

Director_{: Tuomas Summanen}

Script: Mikko Reitala

Cinematography_{: Arno Launos}

Editing: Jyrki Levä

Sound design_{: Erno Kumpulainen}

Music: DJ Slow

Costumes: Minni Härkönen

Cast_{: Risto Kaskilahti,}

Aku Hirviniemi, Krista Kosonen, Elena Leeve, Jaakko Saariluoma, Jarkko Niemi

Producer_{: Samuli Norhomaa,}

Olli Haikka

Yellow Film & TV

Risto, a beloved actor, becomes quadriplegic in a work-related accident. He receives a substantial amount of money as compensation and tons of sympathy from the people. Suddenly he has money for everything his young and beautiful wife has always wanted. Consequently, his wife quits her boring job and becomes an artist.

Risto’s obsessive second cousin also wants to dip into the pot. As an aspiring actor he will do anything to benefi t from Risto. Risto’s twenty-something son also adds to the mess by having fallen in love with his stepmother. But this is just the beginning. A surprising twist of events takes place when Risto notices he’s starting to recover. A beloved actor is recovering, but how can he tell the media? Will he have to play the role of a paralyzed man for the rest of his life in order not to lose everything? Will this be his biggest role and one he will never get rid of?

Tuomas Summanen

Tuomas Summanen has a long and wide-ranging career in TV entertainment. He has developed, directed and produced dozens of award-winning TV shows for various channels. Risto is his fi rst feature fi lm and a number of the actors in the fi lm are familiar from his TV shows.

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Road North

[

T i e p o h j o i s e e n

]

DCP, 35mm, HDcam, Digibeta | 1:2,35 | Dolby Digital | ~105’ | Premiere: August 2012

Director, producer_{: Mika Kaurismäki}

Script: Sami Keski-Vähälä,

Mika Kaurismäki

Cinematography: Jari Mutikainen

Editing_{: Jukka Nykänen}

Sound design: Joonas Jyrälä

Music:_{Kaihon Karavaani etc.}

Set design: Sasu Joutsi

Costumes_{: Riitta-Maria Vehman}

Cast: Vesa-Matti Loiri,

Samuli Edelmann, Peter Franzen, Mari Perankoski, Irina Björklund, Elina Knihtilä, Ada Kukkonen, Rea Mauranen

Marianna Films Oy

Financing TV companies_{: Nelonen}

Distributor in Finland: FS Film Oy

International sales: _The_{Yellow Affair}

Timo is an esteemed concert pianist whose personal life is on the rocks. One day Timo fi nds an older shabby-looking man at his door. The man, Leo, turns out to be his father, who left the country when Timo was three

–

and hasn’t been in touch in thirty-fi ve years. Leo, an eternal trickster with a positive outlook on life, had to leave his homeland thanks to a series of messy en-tanglements. Now he’s come back to hand over a rather mysterious legacy to his son and answer questions regarding the past. To do this, the two will have to embark on a trip together and hit the road north.

Mika Kaurismäki

Mika Kaurismäki’s fi rst fi lm The Liar (1980) marked the beginning of cinema for the Kaurismäki brothers and started new era in Finnish cinema. His work includes, e.g. the fi ctional fi lms The Worthless (1982), LA Without a Map

(1998), The House of Branching Love (2009) and the docu-mentaries Tigrero – A Film That Was Never Made (1994, with Samuel Fuller and Jim Jarmusch), and Brasileirinho

(2005). His latest documentary Mama Afrika premiered in Panorama series at Berlinale in 2011.

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FINNISH FEA

TURE FILMS 2012

Sakari Kirjavainen

Sakari Kirjavainen (b. 1960) is a versatile Finnish fi lm director. Kirjavainen started his career in the beginning of the 1980s. He received the Risto Jarva award for his short feature, Whale Oil Lamp.

He made his fi rst full length feature, Who Asks For Fire, in 2001 and the fi lm was later recognized as a cult classic. Sakari Kirja-vainen has a degree in fi lm directing and screenwriting. He has directed features, television series, radio plays, theater pieces and written two novels. In 2009 he was awarded for his radio series, Under the Northern Star.

Silence

[

H i l j a i s u u s

]

Director: Sakari Kirjavainen

Script: Esko Salervo

Cinematography: Petri Rossi

Editing: Jukka Nykänen

Sound design: Olli Huhtanen,

Pietari Koskinen

Music: Timo Hietala

Set design: Jukka Uusitalo

Costumes: Janne Karjalainen

Cast: Joonas Saartamo, Lauri Tilkanen, Joanna Haartti, Terhi Suorlahti, Sinikka Mokkila ja Ilkka Heiskanen

Producer: Alf Hemming and Petri Rossi

Production company: Cine Works Oy

Production support:

YLE Co-Productions

The Walt Disney Company Nordic

It is the Second World War. In Finland at the Russian front is an evacuation center where dead soldiers are gathered to be sent home.

Silence is the story of Eino, the dim-witted son of a man whose job is to wash the dead bodies.

Eino joins the war with his simple soul full of heroic ideals. Life in the small community turns out to be more complicated than the war itself and the evacuation center is spiced up by the charac-ters that run it; Chaplain Hiltunen, crazy about his numbers and charts; Korpikangas, a former medical student straight from a mental institution; Miina, an old cupper woman; and two young “Lottas” (female volunteers), Jaana with a hard shell and Siiri with an open heart.

Most important to Eino, however, is his lifelong friend Antti, for whom his jäger father has arranged an innocuous job at the center. Antti is a charming rogue who who tricks Eino into doing all his work while he himself concentrates on wooing the ladies and trading illegally across the front line.

35mm | 1:2,35 cinemascope | Dolby | 90’ | Released: December 9, 2011

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FINNISH FEA

TURE FILMS 2012

Ville Jankeri

Ville Jankeri (b. 1976) graduated as Film Director MA from The National Film and Television School in the UK. He has directed short fi lms in the UK, Germany and Finland. In 2008 he was chosen to prepare a short fi lm for The Berlin Today Contest at the Berlinale Film Festival. Sixpack is his fi rst feature fi lm.

Sixpack

[

P u s s i k a l j a e l o k u v a

]

35mm, digital print | 1:1,85 | Dolby Digital | 82’ | Released: September 2011

Director: Ville Jankeri

Script_{: Ville Jankeri,}

Mikko Rimminen

Cinematography_{: Jarkko T. Laine}

Editing: Harri Ylönen

Sound design_{: Janne Jankeri}

Music: Marko Nyberg

Set design_{: Markku Pätilä}

Costumes: Karoliina Koiso-Kanttila

Cast_{: Eero Milonoff,}

Jussi Nikkilä, Ylermi Rajamaa

Producer_{: Lasse Saarinen,}

Rimbo Salomaa

Production company_{: Kinotar Oy}

Production support:

Financing TV company:

Channel Four Finland

Nordisk Film Oy

Marshall can’t sleep and he feels isolated from the world. His friends, Pasty and Henninen, lure him out of his dusty fl at to spend a hot summer day roaming the parks, streets and beer terraces of lively downtown Helsinki. Throughout the day they meet a variety of people from young girls to humourless cops. As night falls on a day that started with the morning sun, a heavy rain descends on the city washing away all hope. But soon the sun rises again signalling a time to take a good, hard look at friendship.

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Stars Above

[

T ä h t i t a i v a s t a l o n y l l ä

]

DCP, DigiBeta, DVD | 1:1,85 | Dolby Digital | 105’ | Premiere: February 2, 2012

Director, script: Saara Cantell

Cinematography_{: Marita Hällfors}

Editing: Saevar Gudmundsson

Sound design_{: Pietari Koskinen}

Music: Sid Hille

Set design_{: Pirjo Rossi}

Costumes: Auli Turtiainen

Cast_{: Elín Petersdóttir, Meri Nenonen,}

Irina Björklund

Producer_{: Outi Rousu & Ella Piesala}

Production company: Pystymetsä Oy

Co-producers_{: Snorri Thorisson,}

Pegasus Pictures

The Finnish Film Foundation, Icelandic Film Centre

Distributor in Finland_:

Nordisk Film Oy

Stars Above is a story about how mothers’ choices and hidden secrets affect their daughters’ lives.

Three women: Salla, Tuulikki and Saima. Three time periods: the present day, 1978 and 1942. The setting is an old family farm. And the stars above them are the same.

Sallahas been living in Sweden for many years. When her mother dies, she moves back to the family farm where she used to spend her childhood summers. Her hermit life is interrupted by Ville, who breaks through the thick walls Salla’s built around herself.

Tuulikki moves to the farm with her small daughter. Her plans for the future include raising sheep and starting a family with Seppo, the man of her dreams. But when he fi nally arrives, noth-ing goes accordnoth-ing to her fantasies.

Saima is married and childless. Her husband is fi ghting in the war while she runs both the farm and the village school. War casualties are brought to the farm and she fi nds a soul mate in Toivo, a quiet but well-read man. Can individuals follow their feelings in a tight-knit village com-munity?

Saara Cantell

Saara Cantell (b. 1968) is a freelance director and screenwriter from Helsinki. She has written and directed short fi lms, radio plays and TV series. Her previous feature fi lms are Unna and Nuuk_{(2006) and}Heartbeats _(2009),

of which the latter has received several awards. In spring 2011 Saara Cantell got her Doctor of Arts degree with her dissertation on the narrative storytelling strategies in short fi ction fi lm. M il la v on K on ow

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FINNISH FEA

TURE FILMS 2012

Taru Mäkelä

Taru Mäkelä (b. 1959) is an established Finnish fi lm director. After comedies and light entertainment she made a trilogy of very serious war-time documentaries touching on a lot of political and emotional taboos. Her fi rst feature fi lm, Little Sister_{, won}

the Finland Prize for year 2000. Aside from fi lm and television Taru Mäkelä also directs theatre and radio plays.

The Storage

[

V a r a s t o

]

DCP, 35mm | 16:9, 1:1,85 | Dolby Digital | 85’ |

Released: December 30, 2011

Antero Rousku works as a warehouseman at a paint shop. His work is of the raw muscle variety, where he mixes paint and carries renovation materials from one place to another in order to make ends meet. Rousku, however, is not content with merely making ends meet. Instead, he sells his employer’s wares under the table to Jylhäkorpi, who frequents the shop. Jylhäkorpi is a devout and outspoken communist given to unscrupulous stealing in spite of his ideology, or, perhaps, because of it.

Rousku’s work mate in the cellar of the warehouse is run-of-the-mill working-class guy Raninen, whose life consists of work and arguing with his wife. In playing the lottery, Raninen not only wants to win but wants to get the winning numbers in precisely the order they come spinning out of the lottery machine. Not the sharpest pencil in the box, therefore, our Raninen…

Rousku’s freedom is threatened by a relationship with Karita, the sales girl at the paint shop. Rousku wants to keep the woman at arm’s length except, of course, when in her bed. Karita, how-ever, has decided otherwise, and the noose tightens around Rousku’s neck when Karita announc-es that she’s pregnant.

Director: Taru Mäkelä

Script_{: Veli-Pekka Hänninen,}

based on Arto Salminen’s novel

Cinematography_{: Jouko Seppälä}f.s.c.

Editing: Tuuli Kuittinen

Sound design_{: Kyösti Väntänen}

Music: Rauol Björkenheim

Set design_{: Tiina Paavilainen}

Costumes: Merja Väisänen

Cast_{: Kari-Pekka Toivonen,}

Minttu Mustakallio, Aku Hirviniemi, Esko Salminen, Juha Muje,

Vesa Vierikko

Producer_{: Markku Tuurna,}

responsible producers Taru Mäkelä and Jouko Seppälä

Production company: Kinosto, Ltd.

Co-producers_{: Filmimaa Oy}

Production support:

Financing TV companies: MTV 3

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FINNISH FEA

TURE FILMS 2012

Things We Do for Love

[

K a i k e l l a r a k k a u d e l l a

]

Digital Cinema | 16:9 | Dolby Surround | ~90’ | Premiere: December 2012

Director_{: Matti Ijäs}

Script: Heikki Vuento, Matti Ijäs,

J-P Passi, Auli Mantila

Cinematography: Rauno Ronkainen

Editing_{: Jorma Höri}

Sound design: Kössi Väntänen

Costumes: Sari Suominen

Cast_{: Krista Kosonen,}

Sampo Sarkola, Tommi Korpela, Hannu-Pekka Björkman

Producers: Auli Mantila,

Jussi Rantamäki Production company: Elokuvayhtiö Oy Aamu Ab Co-production company: SweetFilms A/S Production support:

The Finnish Film Foundation, NFTF, FilmCamp

YLE TV1, SVT

Distribution in Finland_{: Disney Nordic}

Toivo Vaarala is a shy postcard-photographer on a shooting trip in Lapland. One day he acciden-tally crashes the car of a local woman, Ansa.

Without her car the woman is helpless; the roof of her house is leaking and she still has to fi x it before the winter. Plus she should have already been on her way to Norway for work. Vaarala is obliged to help her. And in so doing, he falls in love with this restless, attractive woman. But the timing couldn’t possibly be worse.

Ansa’s ex-husband, Ismo Sonka, has just returned. He has served four years in prison for kill-ing an innocent man out of jealousy for Ansa. And durkill-ing those years, Ansa has borrowed huge sums of money from Ismo’s brother, Martti Raate, who is secretly in love with her. The clock is ticking and the time for pay-back has come – but Ansa doesn’t know it yet.

And Toivo Vaarala, this well-meaning, good-hearted man is totally unaware of what is soon coming. As he fi xes the roof and plans for the future – he fi nds himself caught up in the turmoil of all the things we do for love.

Matti Ijäs

Matti Ijäs (b. 1950) has directed a total of 31 feature and tv fi lms, including Dolly and Her Lover (1990, Göteborg IFF Grand Prix), White

Marble (1998, Prix Italia Best Fiction)

and Blindfolded_{(1999, Mar del Plata}

FF FIPRESCI Prize for Best Film and

Special Jury Award). Mat

ti

I

jä

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