Cinematic Guide to Finland
Cinema of Finland isn't the most internationally prestigious or even that well known outside of Finland. There is of course reason for that, one being that most of the films made before roughly the 1960's were mediocre melodramas or slapstick like cuplé films with cheap laughs. There were of course few exceptions to this, but most of the time too few to mention.
This is list compiled with the aim to provide some insight for foreigners into the cinema and culture of Finland. I've tried to stick to the better films that are actually worth seeing, but there's also couple of worse ones, but that are essential to understanding Finland and Finnish people. Like it or not.
Most of these will be quite if not impossible to find on DVD, but you can always try. Films of Aki and Mika Kaurismäki are the most obvious exceptions to this of course. Note that I also haven't included Finnish films that might be more known, but that don't deliver anything of the Finnish culture per se.
Olkaa hyvä (You are welcome in Finnish).
This is list compiled with the aim to provide some insight for foreigners into the cinema and culture of Finland. I've tried to stick to the better films that are actually worth seeing, but there's also couple of worse ones, but that are essential to understanding Finland and Finnish people. Like it or not.
Most of these will be quite if not impossible to find on DVD, but you can always try. Films of Aki and Mika Kaurismäki are the most obvious exceptions to this of course. Note that I also haven't included Finnish films that might be more known, but that don't deliver anything of the Finnish culture per se.
Olkaa hyvä (You are welcome in Finnish).
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- DirectorAki KaurismäkiStarsMarkku PeltolaKati OutinenAnnikki TähtiM arrives in Helsinki only to be viciously attacked by thugs and pronounced dead by medics. He revives but with no memory of his past or his identity. He rebuilds his life from scratch, but the past inevitably catches up with him.
- DirectorAki KaurismäkiStarsTuro PajalaSusanna HaavistoMatti PellonpääA Finnish man goes to the city to find a job after the mine where he worked is closed and his father commits suicide.
- DirectorEdvin LaineStarsKosti KlemeläHeikki SavolainenReino TolvanenThe tale of a platoon of soldiers during the Continuation War. Based on Väinö Linna's book of the same name.
- DirectorKlaus HäröStarsTopi MajaniemiMarjaana MaijalaMaria LundqvistDuring World War II, more than 70,000 Finnish children were evacuated to neutral Sweden to avoid the conflict. From the award-winning Klaus Härö (Elina: As If I Wasn't There (2002)), "Mother of Mine" tackles that painful patch of history in a tale of 9-year-old Eero, a child who increasingly feels abandoned by his biological Finnish mother and yet not attached to his Swedish surrogate mom. When he is returned to Finland, his confusion intensifies.
- DirectorAntti-Jussi AnnilaStarsVille VirtanenTommi EronenViktor KlimenkoAs a 25-year war between Russia and Sweden concludes, two brothers who are part of an effort to outline new border accords become undone by their actions, and their mistreatment of a young woman during their journey.
- DirectorPekka ParikkaStarsTaneli MäkeläVesa VierikkoTimo TorikkaIn 1939, two Finnish brothers are conscripted in the army to fight in the war between Finland and the Soviet Union.
- DirectorAki KaurismäkiStarsKati OutinenKari VäänänenElina SaloThe recession hits a couple in Helsinki.
- DirectorAki KaurismäkiStarsJanne HyytiäinenMaria JärvenhelmiMaria HeiskanenIn Helsinki, a lonely night watchman is caught up in a series of misadventures with a femme fatale and a crooked businessman.
- DirectorAki KaurismäkiStarsTimo EränköKari HeiskanenAsmo HurulaAn exodus to a better life in Eira.
- DirectorAki KaurismäkiStarsMatti PellonpääKati OutinenSakari KuosmanenAn episode in the life of Nikander, a garbage man, involving the death of a coworker, a love affair and much more.
- DirectorTapio PiirainenStarsKai LehtinenOiva LohtanderMari RantasilaA hard-nosed hit man Raid returns to Finland and is unofficially asked to investigate the arson case involving his old flame Tarja.
- DirectorAleksandr PtushkoStarsUrho SomersalmiAnna OrochkoIvan VoronovThe evil witch Louhi kidnaps Lemminkäinen's sister to build for her a Sampo, a device that creates salt, grain, and gold. When Lemminkäinen fails to recover the Sampo, Louhi steals the sun, plunging the world into frozen darkness.
- DirectorRauni MollbergStarsMaritta ViitamäkiPauli JauhojärviAimo SaukkoA young woman has an intense affair with a womanizing reindeer herdsman.
- DirectorAki KaurismäkiStarsKati OutinenElina SaloEsko NikkariA woman's terribly dull life is upended by a one-night stand pregnancy, causing her to seek retribution.
- DirectorAleksi MäkeläStarsSamuli EdelmannPeter FranzénKari HietalahtiProfessional criminals in Finland from 1966 to 1979.
- DirectorMika KaurismäkiStarsSilu SeppäläMarjo LeinonenMatti PellonpääAntti "Zombie" Autiomaa does two things well: play the bass guitar and drink. After several months' sleeping on the streets of Istanbul, he returns to Helsinki where he's called into the army but discharged on mental health grounds after adding turpentine to the officers' soup. Zombie lives bleary-eyed in an apartment off his parents' house where his lonely, unemployed father suffers from heart disease. His girl-friend Marjo has taken up with a hairdresser but comes back to Zombie. His friend Harri hires him as a roadie for his band "Harry and the Mulefukkers" then gives him a chance as a bass player. He has his girl and he has a gig, but can Zombie put the bottle down?
- DirectorAki KaurismäkiStarsMarkku ToikkaAino SeppoEsko NikkariA slaughterhouse worker and former law student, takes vengeance on the man who killed his fiancée in a hit and run accident.
- DirectorErik BlombergStarsMirjami KuosmanenKalervo NissiläÅke LindmanA newlywed woman goes to the local shaman to get some help with her love life, but instead she gets turned into a white reindeer vampire.
- DirectorAki KaurismäkiStarsSakari KuosmanenKati OutinenAndré WilmsA farmer's wife is seduced into running away from her stolid older husband by a city slicker, who enslaves her in a brothel.
- DirectorAki KaurismäkiStarsKati OutinenMatti PellonpääKirsi TykkyläinenLugubrious Finns Valto and Reino take to the road in search of coffee and vodka, without which their lives are not worth living. But their reveries are interrupted by the arrival of garrulous Russian Klaudia and Estonian Tatiana - who are clearly interested in the two men, despite the language barrier. But what are the chances of getting a response from men who prefer staring at vodka bottles to talking?
- DirectorAki KaurismäkiStarsPirkka-Pekka PeteliusEsko SalminenKati OutinenPlayboy Hamlet sees the ghost of his father, a paper baron in today's Finland.
- DirectorMatti KassilaStarsJoel RinneElina PohjanpääMatti RaninA closed room mystery begins when an infamous tycoon is found dead in his bath tub. The famous police lieutenant Palmu is summoned to investigate.
- DirectorRisto JarvaStarsAntti LitjaKauko HelovirtaMarkku HuhtamoYoung advertising executive Vatanen suddenly quits his job and his whole life in Helsinki, and decides to spend a while in the Finnish wilderness. A wounded hare hit by a car becomes his travel companion. Together they find reclusion in the Finnish Lapland, soon to be disturbed by a noisy group of foreign tourists and their pretentious Finnish hosts. When the hare gets ill and needs to see a vet, Vatanen must return to the city and finally face the choice between his new and former life.
- DirectorMarkku PölönenStarsMartti SuosaloHenrika AnderssonMatti VarjoPekka returns to his native village to attend a wedding. The village has lost its younger generations, and the movie tells the story of the last wedding in the village.
- DirectorMarkku PölönenStarsJanne ReinikainenKaroliina BlackburnPeter FranzénThe life of Rauli "Badding" Somerjoki, a Finnish singer.
