Själö – Island of Souls

Lotta Petronella : 2020

Själö is an isolated island in the Baltic Sea, off the coast of Finland near Turku. Its name means island of souls. For centuries, a closed institution served as a final destination for socially transgressive women at Själö. Finally, in 1755, it was fully turned into an asylum and functioned as such until 1962. The outcast women were kept there in detention, to be observed, studied and measured – in much the same way as the surrounding nature is by scientists at the now converted Centre of Environmental Research of the University of Turku. While a young scientist is collecting samples around the island, the past emerges in the whispers of the unsent letters and empty rooms of the hospital, writing the unknown history of the nameless women. The space fills up with hidden memories as the invisible archives come alive. Whose stories are remembered and whose are forgotten? Lotta Petronella's documentary received the F:act Award Special Mention when it premiered at Copenhagen International Documentary Festival 2020.

Kelet

Susani Mahadura : 2020

20-year-old Kelet is a Finnish Somali trans woman living in Helsinki who dreams of becoming a model in Vogue magazine. Trans people, especially those of colour, continue to face disproportionate amounts of violence and discrimination all over the world, including Finland. Trans women of colour are in a clear minority when it comes to public visibility and are especially vulnerable, falling victim to transphobic hate crimes considerably more often than their white or male counterparts. They go through everyday life at the intersection of many different oppressive structures, as they are subjected to transphobia, racism and misogyny in addition to other forms of discrimination and alienation. The threat of violence, the difficulty of finding work, the lack of representation and supportive communities means that the need for works that include positive role models is immense, as is the urgency for change of societal attitudes. Through the story of one individual's exceptional life, Kelet seeks to highlight a number of issues that are of huge importance worldwide in the current political climate: LGBT and especially trans rights, racism, beauty standards and gendered norms in society. Susani Mahadura's documentary was winner of the Audience Award when it premiered at DocPoint Helsinki Documentary Film Festival 2020.

He ovat paenneet

J-P Valkeapää : 2014
They have Escaped

A boy and a girl meet at a detention centre for problematic youth. The boy has come to serve his obligatory civilian service. The girl is constantly in trouble, with a fire inside her and a lust for life that can't be quashed or controlled. The boy becomes infatuated with the girl. He is a quiet one, but there is a fire inside him as well. Rules, laws, punishment: the shackles can be broken. One day they steal a car and run away together. Thus begins one long escape, without end. A cinematic fairy tale in which the main characters embark on a journey overland, through the woods and across the waters. Towards their childhood, towards their dreams and towards their selfhoods. Banal landscapes, hallucinations, and dreams during both day and night make up the worlds of the film. All the worlds are equally real. J-P Valkeapää's second feature premiered at Venice Days 2014.

A Spell to Ward Off the Darkness

Ben Rivers & Ben Russell : 2013

Following the journey of a person's spirit or essence, rather than character, we experience three moments of existence. We follow an unnamed man through three seemingly disparate moments in his life. With little explanation, we join him in the midst of a 15-person collective on a small Estonian island; in isolation in the majestic wilderness of Northern Finland; and during a concert as the singer and guitarist of a black metal band in Norway. Marked by loneliness, ecstatic beauty and an optimism of the darkest sort, these three moments signal a radical proposition for the creation of utopia in the present. A hybrid document of the past, present, and future. Experimental and visionary filmmakers Ben Rivers and Ben Russell's collaborative feature premiered at Locarno Film Festival 2013.

Silmäterä

Jan Forsström : 2013
The Princess of Egypt

Marja, 25, has built her life around her 7-year-old daughter Julia. Marja works at night so she can spend the days with Julia, playing and telling an ongoing fairytale about the princess of Egypt and her mother. The harmony is broken when they meet Kamaran, an Iranian immigrant and successful businessman, who suspects that he is Julia's father: Marja and Kamaran had a short fling years back, and afterwards Marja never told Kamaran about the pregnancy. Now Kamaran wants to get in contact with his presumed daughter. Together with his wife and brother, he starts to pressure Marja and she fears they'll try to kidnap Julia. Marja becomes more and more possessive, overwhelmed by the fear of losing Julia and ready for anything, just to make sure that her daughter will not be taken away from her. Inspired by true events, Jan Forsström's feature directorial debut is a touching drama about insecurity, fear and motherly love. His film received its international premiere at Mannheim-Heidelberg International Film Festival 2013, and was the recipient of the Banca Popolare di Bergamo award at Bergamo Film Meeting 2014.

Syvälle salattu

Joona Tena : 2011
Body of Water

Julia Mannerla is a young, successful lawyer whose life is a balancing act between motherhood and career. Divorce and battles for custody of her son have added to her complicated and hectic life. For many years she has been in conflict with her father, believing him to be partially responsible for her mother's mental illness and subsequent committal to an institution. Taking her son with her, she returns to her childhood hometown to assist a team of environmental activists in their struggle against exploitation of the area's natural resources. But in the middle of the Finnish woods there is a small, dark lake cloaked in superstition. In the little town Julia is not welcomed by the inhospitable locals, and the old house by the lake where she stays, seems to have a life of its own. Beginning to doubt her sanity, she gradually uncovers an unpleasant family secret hidden within the house. As myths and old superstitions float to the surface in this psychological thriller, Julia is forced to confront the greed of the locals and their trust in the spirit believed to be attached to the lake.

Lovers of the Arctic Circle

Los Amantes del Círculo Polar
a film by Julio Medem

A passionate and secret love story narrated by Ana and Otto, from the age of eight until the age of twenty-five. The story begins in 1980, when after school a girl and a boy start to run for different reasons. From that afternoon the lives of Ana and Otto will be intertwined in a single circle that will begin to close seventeen years later, in Finland, on the very edge of the Arctic Circle.

Ana is running away from her mother, denying that her father has died in a car crash. Otto is chasing a football kicked by another boy after school. As they encounter each other with a stare that begins their strange relationship, Ana sees the spirit of her dead father in Otto. At the same moment Otto falls in love with Ana, and she knows it will be forever. At that moment both project a desire for love, the girl for her father and the boy for his mother, and they are both there for each other.

But all things are transient, even love, and Otto's father and mother separate. By chance again, the two children are brought closer still when Olga, Ana's mother and Álvaro, Otto's father meet and a relationship begins. Both parents encourage their children to be like brother and sister but this is not what Ana and Otto want, and the feelings they share, as they become lovers, have to remain hidden and secret.

Ana relates to her life as a string of chance events. Otto sees life as running in a circle – one begins at a certain part of the circle and at the end one reaches the point at which one began. Throughout the film the narrative switches between the two characters: following the perspective of each in flashbacks and current events; illuminating thoughts and motivations; exploring what the events in each life mean to the character. The connections are intricate and complex, the visual storytelling compelling. The film sets forth the premise that random chance is somehow organised – it is chance, but with a destiny, a kind of intention or will.

A stunning, beautiful and unique film about love, our choices in life, and the power of our emotions. It is also a treatise on the nature of fate and coincidence, its recurring metaphors exploring the connections in a cyclic rhythm of destiny.