IFFR 2012

Peter von Bagh

The dance pavilion considered as the centre of social life, with the Finnish tango as the key to the collective unconscious - the dream life of the nation. One of the few honest monuments to popular culture. Simply lovely, and genuinely moving.

Signals: Peter von Bagh

Blue Sky - Journey Into the Land of Memories

Portrait of a real-life swindler - played by himself! Von Bagh's feature debut: a weird 'n wild mix of fact and fiction, documentary scenes and exuberant reconstructions of purportedly true-life events, full of lewd humour and driven by a good-natured humanism. A true discovery!

The Count

A hundred years after the great 19th-century German philosopher's demise, ordinary people from some 20 nations talk about his legacy. To the people, Marx is still alive. Screened before Sodankylä Forever: The Century of Cinema.

A Day at Karl Marx's Grave

A brief essay on time triggered by a hostage crisis drowned in blood. A fine cinematic exercise in philosophy. Screened before A Time of Roses.

Drama of Time

Mikko Niskanen

A poor farmer tries to get by, but fails. Blood is shed, not out of malice, but simple desperation. A raw exposé on human degradation and deprivation. A work of Zola-esque violence and grandeur, shown here in its ultra-rare, 5h+ original version. The greatest Finnish film ever.

Eight Deadly Shots

Helsinki vu par Peter von Bagh: a vision of Finland's capital through the ages, created with pictures and sounds from myriads of films, newsreels and songs. A stunning achievement - an epic of time regained and lost again.

Helsinki, Forever

Sights and tunes from postwar Finland interspersed with quotes from Mika Waltari's classic Sinuhe egyptiläinen (1945). An astonishing exercise in reading history - in more than one sense. Screened before Blue Sky - Journey Into the Land of Memories.

Land of the Pharaohs

A plunge into the last months of Finland's WWII in all its tired gruesomeness. A fugue of dour, sad, doubt-ridden, sorrow-filled faces, confessions and oratorical detours, an in memoriam of a time and people gone by. A masterpiece of AV oral history.

The Last Summer 1944

Elina Katainen

Iikka Vehkalahti

Otto Wille Kuusinen - communist, traitor, political survivor, is one of the most disputed characters of Finnish history. Von Bagh's most journalistic work: a study of common corruption, the smashing of one human being's soul.

Man in the Shadows

Olavi Virta, Finnish tango's greatest voice, as an old, lost and lonely man. Time as the great leveller in all its morose unforgivingness. Screened before Paavo Nurmi - The Man and His Times.

Olavi Virta

Markku Koski

Paavo Nurmi is a sports legend, a name people know to this day. For Finland, Nurmi was an ideal, an axiom of the nation's spirit - which includes his failings as well. A rigorously composed high mass for an icon maudit.

Paavo Nurmi - The Man and His Times

Pertti Maisala

Bresson topsy-turvy: the desolate rich put money into the pockets of the needy. Hilarious, and politically perversely poignant. Screened before The Count.

Pockpicket - Recollections of a Helsinki Bourgeois Youth

Yrjö Norta

A musical comedy about a singing cabby and a singing tourist guide in Helsinki which, if viewed with discernment, presents all of Finland's contradictions and problems in its most troubled moment. An X-ray of an era - and a true Von Bagh favourite.

SF - Paraati

Since 1969, masters of cinema have shown their films at the legendary Midnight Sun Film Festival and talked about their art. With choice moments from several hundred hours of these talks, Von Bagh created a heavenly symposium on cinema as the most decent way to walk the earth.

Sodankylä Forever: The Century of Cinema

A century of development, starting in the era of Finland's nascent nationalism, when the country still belonged to Tsarist Russia, ending in the heydays of post-WWII liberalism, when it was hip to be Scandinavian among the moderate Euro-left. A meditation on memory and heritage.

Splinters - A Century of an Artistic Family

Portrait of a genius as a troubled human being trying his best to find a way through life. A documentary about a too- little- known master of world cinema; an epic sketch of the typical 20th century person's struggles and doubts. Also see: Eight Deadly Shots.

The Story of Mikko Niskanen

Risto Jarva

In 2012, a historian/artist tries to recreate the life of a loose woman from the 1970s - and gets lost in a hall of mirrors of his own creation. Quite frightening to see this film now: back in 1969, it was a dystopia - now, it's daily life as we know it. An under-appreciated gem!

A Time of Roses

In 1939, Finland was preparing for a 1940 Helsinki Olympics that wouldn't happen, as well as for a war that indeed would. A collage of a moment in time filled with nothing but extremes. A profound meditation on doubt, sorrow and hope against all odds.

The Year 1939

In 1952, Helsinki finally hosted the Summer Olympics, which marked the beginning of the nation's postwar regeneration. It was a good year for many things. A masterpiece of cinematic collage, with a surprising flow and cheerfulness.

IFFR 2025
30 Jan – 9 Feb 2025