Blue Sky – Journey Into the Land of Memories

Finland is the greatest tango nation on this planet, save Argentina. The dance pavilion is accordingly a key place in communal life. To quote Von Bagh: It is ‘at the nexus of nature and civilization, town and country, dream and reality. Tenderness, toughness, seriousness bordering on moroseness, and joy derived from a flask ingeniously concealed in a jacket or a trouser pocket. Tensions coming to a dramatic head in the sense of smell: perfume, tobacco, spirits and beer sanitised with breath mints, and sweat.’
Blue Sky – Journey Into the Land of Memories was made in praise of that locus’s common magic and its heart, the iskelmä (Finnish schmaltzy song). The film itself resembles a popular song, and if at the end one doesn’t walk out enchanted and willing to immediately fall in love for all the pain it will bring – then surely one is just too stunned by its formal virtuosity.