A story of a priest, who considers himself as a rebel is suddenly asked to run for bishop of Turku.
In 1982 the guilt-ridden 18-year-old Rupert tries to remember and understand the events of the past amidst the chaos of the present.
Helsinki, Forever is a montage film about the city of Helsinki by the award-winning Finnish film director and academic Peter von Bagh. The film draws a portrait of Helsinki and also acts as an essay on Finnish culture in a wider sense. It shows Helsinki as captured by leading Finnish feature film and documentary makers over a period of one hundred years.
Viltteri, a balding guy in his thirties living in rural northern Finland, is hopelessly clueless about his new role as a married man and the father of a newborn son. A perfect escape from family responsibilities is having to get his old Hillman Minx repaired and inspected for road-worthiness, with a little help from an eccentric bunch of friends who never seem to have grown up either.
Anders flees his drug debts to his former home village. Once there, he must come to terms with his past.
Autumn in Estonia, where six people live, six solitudes, prisoners of the monotonous architecture of Soviet-era concrete buildings, in search of human companionship, of love, of a ray of light in an ocean of gray.
When a schoolteacher is sacked, he projects his bad mood at his troubled teenage son. The son, in turn, buys a CD player from a pawnshop with counterfeit money. This starts a chain reaction of misery as every victim projects his problems on to another person.
Eero Tyrni, a reporter for Iltapäivä newspaper, is in Austria doing a story on ski jumper Teemu Kimpilä. Kimpilä's jumps fail and he disappears from the scene. Left behind are his third wife Sari, his sponsors, the Ski Association, and the Finnish people. Tyrni is tasked with finding out where Kimpilä disappeared to.
There is civil war in Finland between "Whites" and "Reds". A woman soldier of the Reds is captured by the Whites. She is ordered to be executed. A lieutenant is enforced into a homosexual relationship with his commanding officer to save the Red female with whom he is infatuated.
Rome, Paris and Helsinki right after the Madrid bombings. Three stories about people who, for different reasons, are afraid of others – the eponymous "thy neighbor." A humanity full of differences, but at the same time, with very similar feelings. So similar that their stories appear almost parallel and complementary.
A Finnish adaptation of Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky.
Aspiring young comedian Hepi rides a moped and sleeps in cars left at a garage for repair. He joins a group of older but equally bad comedians trying to capture and sell their art on videotape. Hepi charms a girl working in the Zoological Museum with his imitations of bird sounds. Alienated look at the frustrations of show business, as presented by a cast of popular Finnish TV comedians with their absurd dialogue and eccentric inside jokes.
Half-senile Ossi and his wife travel to celebrate Ossi's 75th birthday at an old people's home where most of their friends are already staying. Just before the festivities Ossi suddenly disappears and goes on tour to 'make an inventory of his life'. He checks into a hotel, poses as a publishing director to lure an aspiring female novelist, next travels to bother his old mistress and her new husband with his surprise visit and obnoxious comments, then goes to see his son for the first time in 34 years just to receive an even colder treatment. Meanwhile, his equally demented wife goes looking for him with a local policeman.
Based on the Bertolt Brecht play, the movie follows the farmer Puntila, who when he's sober is a real pig but whenever he gets drunk becomes very generous. Puntila is trying to get his daughter to get married, but the problem is that his drunk self wants her to marry another man than his sober personality wants.
A political drama set in the fictional country of Illyria between 1943 and 1945, the story is about the assassination of a leading politician. The country, an ally of Nazi Germany, is on the verge of being annexed to the Eastern Bloc. Kaurismäki's TV adaptation of Jean-Paul Sartre's play Les Mains Sales (Dirty Hands) tells the story of Hugo (Matti Pellonpää) who has just been released from prison. Before going to prison, he has worked as a journalist at his party's newspaper. This timid journalist, who uses the pseudonym Raskolnikov, wants to advance in his career and gets his chance when Hoederer (Sulevi Peltola), the leader of the party, has to be eliminated.
Kuningasjätkä is set in North Karelia in the mid-1950s and depicts the summer of 10-year-old Topi at the boating site with his widowed father Tenho.
When their bootlegging father ends up in jail, four twenty-something brothers need money to pay his debts to local crooks. Next, their 9-year-old half-sister is dumped on their doorstep by her prostitute mother. A karaoke set helps reveal that the little girl is quite a singer, just as a talent contest for children is coming up on national television offering more than enough money to the winner.
Detective Karisto releases Auno 'Räpsy' Pirilä from prison, who in turn has to calve his childhood friend Börje from criminal activities. Alcoholic Dolly takes Räpsy to live in Kallio, Helsinki, and hopes to move to Paris with her in the spring.
A small gas station is held in the grip of a sinister trio of men until a rugged stranger, acting as the protector of truckers, appears on the scene. He puts the villains in order. At the same time, a legend of wonder is born, and the gas station begins to attract the crippled and burdened, awaiting healing
Esa is a small time crook who has been precisely released from prison. He starts to make money by mugging people. One day psychiatrist Lindström rings Esa's doorbell. He has a very strange request: he wants Esa to maltreat him. Esa accepts this request, but he is not aware of Lindström's bad intentions.
A Finnish dramedy about an 11-year-old boy dealing with the loss of his parents.
A young man finds himself in conflict with military order and purpose.
The story of the seven Jukola brothers in 19th century Finland.
Acclaimed Finnish director Rauni Mollberg made several scandalous yet widely appreciated films. Former co-worker Veikko Aaltonen’s eye-opening documentary The Dinosaur looks at the relentless, often disturbing directing techniques behind Mollberg’s art and success.
Jussi, a student admired by all women, is inadvertently selected to represent both left-wing and right-wing parties in the parliamentary elections. All Jussi cares about is the beautiful, blonde Irmeli.
A boy dreams to become like his ski jumping idol Jari Puikkonen. However, his parents are worried because he neglects the school. One day while going on practice, he rescues a baby left in a car with no parking brake hooked back up. The baby happens to be Puikkonen's son.
The twin sisters Helena and Irene are born in Helsinki during World War II. A few months later their mother, Sirkka, leaves the girls in the care of their grandmother, an old communist, and runs away with a German soldier. Their life under the protection of their grandmother and the teachings of communism ends first with the death of Stalin, then with that of their grandmother. The girls are eight years old when they are put in an orphanage. Their mother shows up at the orphanage in the company of Ramon, a Spanish trapeze artist. They are on a talent search for a German circus. Ramon trains the reluctant Irene during circus tours in Central Europe. She becomes the trapeze star of the circus. The hard work soon exhausts Irene and she falls from height, as if on purpose. Helena has secretly learned the art of fire-eating. Now she is burdened with both her mother and her sister. The violent life, however, separates the three from each other. In the present-day Helsinki the middle-aged...
A young girl and her two friends from the exceptionally strange land of Oddsville make plans to celebrate Christmas together, but when she is late to pick them up from the train station, the pair wander out on their own leading to a delightful series of hilarious mishaps, inventions, and flights of fancy - until they find their little friend, who finally shows them the true meaning of Christmas.
The very first American-style Post Office robbery in Finland. In the midst of the 60's a gangster quartet led by Hilarius Ruokonen splits up and go into hiding after the heist.
When her sister is mugged and raped, Oili, a young female forensic dentist, meets a group of abused women who have taken matters to their own hands to make the living in fear and just letting it happen stop.
Manical portrait of a small businessman.
A mid-level manager who develops an aversion to being a good person questions his morality as he faces the challenges of middle age and loses control of his life.
A criminal investigator arrives to investigate the murder of Annikki Niemi in a village whose residents remain silent about the killing. Local boss Onni Pukari and his shady associates try to prevent the investigator from finding the murderer.
The Grump prepares to die – everything is done and his wife is dead. He’s making his own coffin when the life walks in, all of a sudden. The granddaughter needs the stubbornness and wisdom of her grandpa. In return, The Grump gets a meaning for his life – and a big secret.
In the closed community of a reform school for teenagers, the principal's daughter is found sexually molested. The schoolgirls seem to know more than they are willing to tell.
In a comedy set in Rovaniemi, the parish’s housekeeper Kristiina Pahka falls in love with Marsipaani Räikkonen, even though he knows that the man is a petty criminal. Under the leadership of hard-hitting Inspector Rautapää, the city’s police force will have to investigate many kinds of crimes, of which Marsipaani’s close friends know one or another.
A shocking crime forces a man to re-evaluate his life, only to find that going straight is more complicated than he imagined. Ali is a low-level criminal who spends much of his spare time working out at a gym with his brother Pulu. Ali spends most of his day stoned on marijuana, while Pulu is known to drink cleaning products when he's run out of booze. Ali has fallen in love with Inka, a bright woman with a mind of her own, and her independent nature occasionally throws him into a fit of jealousy.
Tundra of Lapland, Finland. Rupi, a young man who fills his days dealing and drinking, works in a mine hoping to raise enough money to escape the desolate village where he lives.
A midnight freight train collides with a mysteriously abandoned truck at Rajamäki station, derailing and revealing that its cargo manifests were falsified. Investigation secretary Ari Nykänen uncovers a scheme smuggling explosives out of the country, with evidence pointing to collusion among senior VR executives.
Outcast by his co-workers and living alone, Koistinen is a security guard who works the night shift in a luxury shopping mall in Helsinki. But when icy blonde Mirja approaches him, the lonely Koistinen falls helplessly for her, unaware she is manipulating him for her criminal boyfriend.
Arriving in Helsinki, a nameless man is beaten within an inch of his life by thugs, miraculously recovering only to find that he has completely lost his memory. Back on the streets, he attempts to begin again from zero, befriending a moody dog and becoming besotted with a Salvation Army volunteer.
The relationship between a father and his son is an infinite story with very few words. Silence is golden when it comes to expressing emotions.
An arctic comedy about the childlike, sincere Kauko and his desire to grow up. It is a story about two brothers who accidentally end up in each other's pants. In the Lapland summer night, they encounter lovers, petty criminals, and Kauko, who is learning the ABCs of love.
In a multicultural suburb of Helsinki, a bullied Russian immigrant decides to fight back, a young woman dreams of superstardom at any cost, and a junkie couple schemes their way out of debt.
Recollections of a Helsinki Bourgeois
Olli Ruusunen attended a special training course in the US, where his brain capacity has been developed to the extreme.
A restaurateur befriends a Syrian refugee who has recently arrived in Finland.
The ever-poker-faced Ilona loses her job as a restaurant hostess, as her tram driver husband, Lauri, also finds himself out of work. Together they must hit the streets of Helsinki, facing up to hardship and humiliation in their quest for survival, guided through the gloom by a ray of hope.
A stubbornly traditional eighty-year-old farmer - whose social attitudes verge on the prehistoric - raises hell when he is forced to move in with his sadsack, city-dwelling son and domineering daughter-in-law.
Dreams perimeter Matti Ijäksen has written and directed, praised to the skies domestic film, which is in addition to starring always convincing trace Knocking Petteri Summanen and Sulevi Peltola. It is therefore goes without saying that expectations were high in its case. But how it happened? Dreams own peripheral clearly some form of casing, which does not let therein, but hits the deck of the cut made without the kehääkin - Joint events yhteenparsimisen means.
Two 9-year-old boys, Jontti and Länki, grow up in a Finnish seaside town in the 1960s. Länki's biggest dream is to run away on a ship to the sea where his father is rumoured to have died. Jontti too must discover that his father is not what he appears to be. When his dad moves away with another woman, Jontti is determined to win him back.
The film tells about members of Finnish women's Lotta Service during the Second World War through the eyes of three young women.
Akseli Koskela returns from prison and tries to learn living again. He's not allowed to take part in politics anymore, but he sees a lot of injustice around him. He raises a family with his wife Elina while another war is around the corner...
Ricky Rapper and Nighthawk Ricky find a buried treasure while digging for worms. Archaeological excavations begin at the site, and when a valuable iron-age ring vanishes, it becomes apparent that there's a site-robbing "nighthawk" at work here.
An ageing wrestler and circus strongman is put in an institution located somewhere in a world of its own.
A middle-aged woman wants a child and starts to look for a suitable father when she doesn't succeed in the plan with her husband.
On the trail of a woman, Vares finds himself caught up with underworld characters who are on the trail of hidden millions.
It is winter in the mid-1970s in Tornio, a village near the northern border between Finland and Sweden. Esko is a boy with a lot of problems. He has succeeded in getting on the wrong side of his gang.
A comedy about lecturer Sakkas, who devotes himself to history in order to find meaning in the world. What happens when a man's frozen heart begins to thaw?
Juupio is a small town losing population somewhere in Finland. Town Manager Koskinen is facing a tough situation: the people in Juupio are old and the financial situation is tight. A consolidation of municipalities with Pyhälä seems like the only option. It would take a miracle to save Juupio.