Finland from East to West

A newspaper clip of a 30-year-old movie makes our middle-aged protagonist in the middle of his peak years to look for his best childhood friend. The journey leads him back to his teenage years in the 1990s depression, over-generational substance abuse and past encounters. This partly essayistic, autobiographical documentary tells the story of friendship and generational experiences while also pondering on the causes and effects of destinies in the judgmental atmosphere of our society.

Forever Yours is a film about children who have been taken into custody. Through the children, their biological parents and foster parents, the film depicts love in everyday life. The film explores the invisible bond between a child and a biological parent. Even when a child is taken into custody, the yearning for closeness to the biological parents and need for their approval never seems to disappear. This longing is a form of loneliness that the foster parents struggle to overcome. The film describes the entire foster care process: a child being brought into a shelter home, a teenager’s everyday life in a foster family, and siblings preparing to return to their biological mother, after five years in a foster family.

Markku built a house for his family with his own bare hands like a strong man is supposed to do. He worked hard from dawn to dusk, so that his seven children would have a roof above their heads. Unfortunately, the task ended up being too hard and Markku burnt out. One day, he left his family and disappeared abroad. The filmmaker travels to his childhood home to face his father, who he never got to know properly. Together they build a steel gate in front of the unfinished house, and try to create a relationship between each other.

When a minor German prince becomes an unlikely king candidate, the assignment to teach him the language of his future subjects seems purely formal at first. But as the offbeat candidate is elected king, the pupil and his tutor find themselves in the midst of ugly political intrigue. Ultimately, both of them have to give up their life dreams in order to save a nation from ruin.

The film follows two years of the extremely endangered arctic fox's attempt to return to Finnish nature as a breeding species, as well as the people who try to save the species. Kimmo Ohtonen's tireless toil is finally rewarded, when he manages to capture for the first time in Finland the journey of an arctic fox family in almost 30 years, from the start of romance to raising pups. This is the first time that the reproduction of an arctic fox has been recorded on video. There is a unique journey in the foothills of the North, culminating in a historic event.

The old bus "Tired Theodore" came into service in 1954 and operated for long periods along the line Lumparland - Mariehamn. One summer day a number of older people had gathered for a bus ride along the winding country roads in Lumparland, and to relive old memories. At the same time one of the locals, Putte Karlsson, took up a large project: rebuilding the old mill in Lumparby. The mill was owned by his grandfather, skipper and farmer in the village. Sawmills previously existed in many villages in Åland Islands but today they are no longer in use. It is a big challenge and many are skeptical that Putte will put everything to work.

September of 1944, a few days before Finland went out of the Second World War. A chained to a rock Finnish sniper-kamikadze Veikko managed to set himself free. Ivan, a captain of the Soviet Army, arrested by the Front Secret Police 'Smersh', has a narrow escape. They are soldiers of the two enemy armies. A Lapp woman Anni gives a shelter to both of them at her farm. For Anni they are not enemies, but just men.

Burn the Ginger is a story about the rise and fall of an Australian immigrant in the “World’s Happiest Country”. After becoming the golden boy of the academic, political and business elites sent to promote the Brand Finland abroad, he is thrown away like a wet rag in time of adversity and gets to experience the praised safety networks of the mythical Nordic welfare state firsthand.

Documentary about Finnish Jews during WWII and their unique position as German allies.

How to Fix the World? is a comprehensive and informative documentary about direct action in the 1990s and 2000s, directed by Jouko Aaltonen. In the documentary, anarchists, climate activists, and squatters openly describe their experiences and link them to mainstream phenomena in society. A wide range of archive material sheds a light on the history of direct action and activism in the Finnish society.

The concept of machine-made knit was known as early as the 1850s, but it was only during the 1920s that the quality of the material had improved. When the plant known as "Atlas" was introduced in 1931, the shop windows drew a lot of attention, and Aho & Soldan was ordered to make a promotional film. In this well-paced film, we see the jersey production step by step.

A poem about the poetic pursuit that in a harmonious way longs for death to occur. Life's desires and worries have done much harm to the poetic self and the person sees death as a help to loosen a large weight from their shoulders.

A documentary from Erkki Karu, one of the earliest pioneers of Finnish cinema: This government-produced propaganda film introduces the nature, sports, military, agriculture and capital of Finland.

A story about 10-year-old Ruth and her life in Jakobstad in the years 1917-1918, during the Finnish Civil War. Based on a novel by Anna Bondestam.

When filmmaker Mari Soppela took her children and husband to live for a year on a sacred mountain in her native Finland, she was fulfilling a lifelong dream to share the arctic wilderness of her childhood with her family. But when years later her children turn the camera onto her, she is forced to confront her motivation for filming their lives in this searching and searingly honest cinematic exploration of identity, belonging and motherhood. Filmed over the course of 27 years, Mother Land challenges us all to examine the landscapes we carry within us and the narratives we create to make sense of our lives.

Known as one of Finland’s most prominent rock institutions, Tavastia club celebrated half a century of being in the business, whilst withstanding the challenges of a global pandemic. In this rockumentary, director Antti Kuivalainen takes us through the history of Tavastia, as the club which brought rock ‘n’ roll to Finland.

This Finlandia Survey compilation ranges from 1949 to 1961, and in it we get to see glimpses of news from both local matches and early international matches. The brave Finns play against the infamous Soviet Red Machine, Canada, and a team of journalists.

The subject of this eventful documentary film is the ice hockey team of the HIFK multi-sport association, based in Helsinki. The team overwhelmed its opponents and easily won the Finnish Championship season of 1968–1969. The Players is not a conventional sports documentary, but a skilfully executed, musical experiment in form and rhythm.

This documentary by the Finnish Broadcasting Company covers the Finnish national ice hockey team preparing for the spring 1974 World Championships. The film crew is there at meetings, training sessions, tactical meetings and also visits the infirmary. Along with the coaches Kalevi Numminen, Raimo Määttänen and the team leader Teuvo Peltola we also see glimpses of Heikki Riihiranta, Juhani Tamminen, Lasse Oksanen, Stig Wetzell and Veli-Pekka Ketola.

The Tampere-based VipVision production company recorded the scenes of jubilation at the Tampere Central Square in the spring of 1995 when the Finnish national ice hockey team celebrated after winning the World Championships. The fight song Den glider in rings out more than once, and Pate Mustajärvi works the crowd into a singing frenzy.