Finland on the big screen
The annual Finnish film festival will show Russian audiences more than just fishermen and reindeer breeders. By Elmira Alieva
The St. Petersburg Times
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For The St. Petersburg Times
This year’s festival opens with The House of Branching Love (above.)
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An annual festival of Finnish cinema returns to the city for the 20th time this weekend, presenting the best Finnish movies of the season. The history of the week of Finnish cinema in St. Petersburg began twenty years ago, when Scandinavian cinematography was unfamiliar to Russian viewers. Since then, the festival, which is organized by the General Consulate of Finland along with radio Europa Plus, has been held every year to showcase the best innovations of Finnish cinema created during the season. “As usual, the festival program in 2009 includes seven films that were carefully selected in Helsinki,” said Alexei Dunayevsky, the festival’s organizer. “The selection of films is something of which we are very proud. Usually the committee responsible for the films’ selection consists of one Russian and one Finnish representative. We watch about 20 to 25 movies and choose those that in our opinion will be the most interesting and comprehensible for Russian viewers, because some of the movies — especially comedies — could be too exotic for our viewers,” he explained. This year, every genre of Finnish cinematography except for horror films is to be screened at the festival. There will be comedies, crime dramas, melodramas, teen movies, historical costume dramas and one Christmas fairytale that won great acclaim in cinemas in Finland, and which were presented at international film festivals in 2009. The program includes works by well-known Finnish film directors such as Mika Kaurism?ki, Aleksi M?kel? and Klaus Hyare. The festival will open with Mika Kaurism?ki’s The House of Branching Love, a tale of divorce described in a humoristic and satirical manner. The opening ceremony will be attended by Finnish cinematographers and actors. “Finnish cinema has changed radically during the last few decades,” said Dunayevsky. “When we started our festival, the viewers didn’t understand what was screened. There were stories that were interesting and understandable only for the Finns, such as long dialogues in nature, village stories, stories about weddings, fishermen and reindeer breeders. Since then there has been a real breakthrough in Finnish cinematography; it has become international and much more comprehensible. “Today one of the most popular topics in Finnish films is young people, their problems, relations between parents and children, and the criminalization of youth,” Dunayevsky continued. “However, we shouldn’t say that cinematography is a direct reflection of the trends in a society. For instance, the popular film director Aleksi M?kel? specializes in the crime genre. But when we watch his movies, we shouldn’t think that Finland is a very criminal country.” One of the festival’s traditions is to screen a children’s movie. This year, it will be “Christmas Story” by Juha Wuolijoki. This is based on a true story about a boy who lost his parents and became a son of the village he lived in, moving from one family to another. Later the boy becomes a real Santa Claus, making his own toys to leave secretly on the doorsteps of houses in the village. “This is a story for all the family,” said Dunayevsky. “The Finns are in fact world leaders in producing children’s films; they spend more on children’s movies than many other countries,” he said. “We’ve had different moments in our festival’s history. We’ve seen both indifference and misunderstanding, and delight in anticipation of future festivals. The audiences who used to smile ironically when they heard the phrase ‘Finnish cinema’ have disappeared. Finnish cinematography has changed, and viewers have changed. Now there are many aficionados who look forward to attending our festival every November,” said Dunayevsky. The annual Finnish film festival opens Friday and runs through Wednesday at Rodina Cinema, Karavannaya Ulitsa 12. Tel: 571 6131. M: Nevsky Prospekt. A full program is available at www.rodinakino.ru/events/khkh-nedelya-kino-finlyandii
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