Aarne Aatsinki

In the forests of Finnish Lapland, brothers Aarne and Lasse Aatsinki carry on the generations-old tradition of reindeer herding. These modern cowboys maintain an intricate bond with the environment that has allowed them to preserve their lifestyle in one of the harshest climates imaginable. Jessica Oreck’s intimate, gorgeously lensed documentary follows the brothers for a year, sharing in the hard work, daily rituals and small joys that make up life above the Arctic Circle.

Selling the Silence is a creative documentary film. It witnesses the rise and fall of one family of entrepreneurs, the Kuukkanen family from Salla, Lapland, side-by-side with the current changes in the values of our society. In combining private and personal family memories with ongoing changes in the scenery, the documentary asks: How to avoid irreversible changes in the nature when earning your living? Selling the Silence is a journey to the North, past and present. Sometimes the journey can be surprising, sometimes sad, sometimes absurd in a black Finnish way. When the film asks: ”What is the price of the wilderness?”, it is also a question of identity: Who you really are? What is your real nature?