FINLANDIA FOUNDATION SEATTLE CHAPTER “FILMS FROM FINLAND” 2020

January 22/24 Tavarataivas (My Stuff), 2013, 80 minutes, S.
What happens when a middle-class man decides to engage in a year-long experiment to buy nothing, put absolutely all his possessions in storage, and allow himself to take back one item per day?  This funny and surprisingly wise documentary by and about Petri Luukkainen will make viewers think.

February 26/February 28 Ikitie (Eternal Road), 2017, 99 minutes, K-16.
A Finnish immigrant in the United States returns to his home country during the Depression, only to be kidnapped and hounded into the Soviet Union by suspicious neighbors.  His efforts to get home are his eternal road.  Based on a novel by Antti Tuuri, this film is a multi-Jussi winner, including Best Picture.

March 25/27 Fire and Ice, 2006, 75 minutes, Unrated.
To commemorate the 80^th anniversary of the end of the Winter War, this stirring documentary by Ben Strout returns.  It was first shown in Seattle in May of 2006 as part of Strout’s first appearance as Finlandia Foundation Lecturer of the Year.

April 22/24 Ikuisesti Sinun (Forever Yours), 2011, 77 minutes, K-7.
This honest and riveting look at children in the child care system in Finland won a Jussi for Best Documentary.  Director and writer Mia Halme keeps her focus on a few children in problematic home conditions and in foster care, but the questions raised in the film are more universal.

May 27/29 Varjoja Paratiisissa (Shadows in Paradise), 1986, 71 minutes, K-13.
It was ten years ago that this Aki Kaurismäki gem was last shown as part of this series, so it is time to revisit the pleasures of this off-kilter romance between two lonely people — a supermarket clerk (Kati Outinen) and a garbage man (Matti Pellonpää).   Deservedly honored with Jussi for Best Picture.

June 24/26 Ompelijatar (Seamstress), 2015, 93 minutes, Unrated.
On September 20, 1943, Martta Koskinen, the seamstress of the title, was executed for high treason and espionage, after being convicted of wartime activities against the Finnish state and for the Soviet Union.  This Jussi-awarding-winning documentary explores the life of this last woman executed in Finland .