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The Old Oak

According to Ken Loach, his latest film encapsulates the overarching societal themes of the award-winning director’s entire career. When Syrian refugees are housed in a former mining town in England, emotions begin to boil over at the only remaining pub in the declining village, The Old Oak. The incoming refugees fleeing from war are seen as a threat by the locals, who already have plenty of their own problems. However, young Yara, who dreams of becoming a photographer, befriends the pub’s landlord, TJ. Slowly, people from different walks of life start finding their way to the same table.

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Varg

A story from the wilderness, where conditions of survival challenge the rules of modern society, Wolf is a contemporary drama set in northern Scandinavia. Klemens (Peter Stormare) and Nejla (Robin Lundberg) own a small herd of reindeer. Klemens lives in tune with nature and according to the rhythm dictated by his work. His young nephew, Nejla admires him and wants to follow in his footsteps. But neither his mother nor society will allow that to happen. The herd is attacked and they react without regard for the law. A well aimed stroke of the axe puts relationships to the test. What are the consequences and who will take the blame?

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The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry

Harold Fry is an ordinary man who has made mistakes in all the important aspects of life: as a husband, father, and friend. Now, well into his sixties, he resigns himself quietly to fading into the background of life. One day, Harold hears that his old friend Queenie is dying. Harold leaves home and walks to the post office to send her a letter. On a whim, Harold decides to continue walking all the way to Queenie’s hospice, which is 450 kilometers away.

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Bros

Two men perhaps possibly, probably, stumble towards love. Maybe. They are both really busy.

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Kerron sinulle kaiken

Maarit (played by Leea Klemola) is going through a major transition in life, as she recently underwent gender reassignment surgery and corrected her gender to female. However, Maarit must navigate the pitfalls of her past to move forward in life. She wants to reconcile with her ex-wife, build a relationship with her teenage daughter, and help other people. Maarit also longs to share the joys, sorrows, and her bed with someone. When Maarit meets Sami (played by Peter Franzén), who is struggling with a marital crisis, at the psychiatrist’s office, she believes she has found the right one.

Director:
Simo Halinen

Starring:
Leea Klemola
Peter Franzén
Ria Kataja
Emmi Nivala

The film was awarded the Jussi Award for Best Screenplay and Best Leading Actress.

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Väärät juuret

The father of the Kuura family, Mikko, has been diagnosed with a hereditary disease. He has not been able to come to terms with it or discuss it. As his condition worsens, his wife Mirjami has decided that it’s time to tell the children.

Sakari, Mikko’s son from a previous marriage, has been abroad for years. He has fled from his father and his demands to continue the family business. Pihla, the family’s 15-year-old daughter, wants to start her own independent life, and Lumi, the daughter adopted from China, begins a secret journey to find her own roots. Mikko’s illness brings the members of the Kuura family together under the same roof for the first time, forcing them to address questions of family continuity and to open up about long-standing issues within the family.

What will remain of us? Clothes wear out in a few years. Dishes are kept until the next move. Furniture breaks or goes out of style. A pile of memories – they last until no one remembers anymore.

Director:
Saara Saarela

Starring:
Milka Ahlroth
Pertti Sveholm
Silva Robbins
Niko Saarela

Note: No longer available on DVD or Blu-ray distribution.

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Ompelijatar

The movie tells the story of how the life of a poor, semi-deaf woman leads to an inevitable conclusion in early independent Finland. She was arrested as a member of the Red Guard women’s company in 1918 and sentenced to a prison camp. Since then, she has been marked as “classified as dangerous to society.” In the 1920s, she was actively involved in leftist youth associations in Helsinki, led a literary committee, and writes for organization newsletters.

The state police have all the rights to intervene in radical activities; the unity of the nation must be ensured by any means necessary. In the early 1930s, communist activities are banned by law, and accordingly, paranoia increases. The State Police monitor and report on the lives of thousands of people. The distinction between treason and heroism becomes blurred.

Martta Koskinen never makes a fuss about herself, but she is reported several times. She meets Hertta Kuusinen in prison, which leads her to the circles of the intelligentsia. She works diligently as a seamstress, among others for the writer Hella Wuolijoki. She always helps her juniors to the best of her abilities and during the Continuation War, she assists conscientious objectors, compromising her own modest standard of living.

She becomes a messenger for the underground resistance movement, whose activities are almost non-existent, largely due to the mutual squabbling of a small circle. She hides a leading communist figure, Hertta Kuusinen’s fiancé, Yrjö Leino. When caught, she refuses to reveal anything.

Martta Koskinen is seen as a traitor, a spy, an enemy collaborator. To some, she is a prisoner of conscience, a dissident, a pacifist.

“The Seamstress” is a human rights story from 70 years ago and at the same time a story of young Finland.

Director:
Ville Suhonen

Starring:
Vera Kiiskinen
Laura Birn
Elena Leeve
Pekka Milonoff

The film was awarded the Best Documentary Film Jussi Award.

Note: Not available on DVD or Blu-ray distribution.

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Anyone But You

Bea and Ben seem like the perfect couple, but after some hot first dates, something changes, and their relationship turns icy. When they unexpectedly run into each other again on the way to the same wedding in Australia, they have to act like any two mature adults: pretending to be a couple.

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Nimby

The events kick off when the urbanized Mervi takes her girlfriend Kati to the countryside to visit her parents for the first time. Mervi is worried that her parents will have a hard time accepting the couple – especially since Kati’s mother is Iranian and her father is German – but it turns out that Mervi herself has a lot more to digest once they arrive. The parents’ peculiar, open relationship, Mervi’s ex-boyfriend involved with neo-Nazis, her semi-religious godparents, and the conflicts arising from the refugees who have moved to the area don’t exactly make the visit easier.

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Monsterimies

The only official documentary film about Lordi, the Finnish national hero, a creative monster genius, who with his band won Finland its first Eurovision title. For the first time in the film, we get behind the scenes, where the band’s frontman Mr. Lordi, Tomi from Rovaniemi, has experienced great success and acceptance from the masses following the victory. Two years later, Lordi has become a commercial brand, but Tomi suffers from a total collapse and is unable to create anew. The pressure to succeed is immense from both fans and the general public.

Will Tomi manage to keep his monster band together and find the joy of childish creation crucial for a new Lordi album amidst difficulties? The film exclusively follows the challenging everyday life of the popular monster band behind the curtains and presents unique, previously unseen archive material from the inception of the monster dream in Tomi’s childhood years.

Tomi swears eternal loyalty to 80s heavy metal and never intends to grow up. The film is about the fervor of creation and the courage to be exactly what one believes in, even if the 1980s heavy metal monster is no longer the trendiest thing in the world.