Videoteca

location_onHelsinkipublicFI

Children of War and Peace 2024
For the first time in its history, Finland became an autonomous state when it broke away from a crumbling Russian empire in 1917. Witnessing the upheaval of the First World War and all too aware of the threat posed both outside and within its borders, the newly installed government initiated harsh and draconian policies for its younger generation. All children and youths were drilled in the importance of discipline, rectitude and nationalism. With no exceptions.

I Smell a Mouse 2023
A documentary puppet animation about Iiti’s (28) moving in day. As if a sign from the universe for her poor life choices, there seems to be a nightmarish mouse lurking in the shadows of her new home. Iiti has to get rid of the mouse by whatever means necessary. She arms herself with mouse traps, lethal spray and even an ultrasonic repellant. But the nasty mouse problem just escalates and ultimately leads Iiti to a strange coincidence. Could Iiti be a mouse herself?

How to Fix the World 2023 star_border 4
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.

Strangers in the Dark 2023
Strangers in the Dark is an experimental film about how light pollution makes a glow-worm’s love life a living hell. Combining different techniques from animation to archive material the film follows glow-worm’s attempts to find a partner in an environment that is no longer dark at night. The story about light and darkness moves from the scale of planetary to microscopic, from the calmness of nature to a hectic city and from artificial light to the green shimmer of a glow-worm’s behind.

Life of Ivanna 2021 star_border 6.7
A sensitive and intimate portrait of Ivanna, a nomadic reindeer herder in the Russian Arctic and mother of five small kids. Ivanna is forced to leave the traditional way of life and emigrate to the city, following her own dreams, due to the quickly deteriorating conditions of life in the tundra. We follow her life for several years.

School of Hope 2020 star_border 6
In the vast expanse of desert East of Atlas Mountains in Morocco, seasonal rain and snow once supported livestock, but now the drought seems to never end. Hardly a blade of grass can be seen, and families travel miles on foot to get water from a muddy hole in the ground. Yet the children willingly ride donkeys and bicycles or walk for miles across rocks to a "school of hope" built of clay. Following both the students and the teachers in the Oulad Boukais Tribe's community school for over three years, SCHOOL OF HOPE shows students Mohamed, Miloud, Fatima, and their classmates, responding with childish glee to the school's altruistic young teacher, Mohamed. Each child faces individual obstacles - supporting their aging parents; avoiding restrictions from relatives based on traditional gender roles - while their young teacher makes do in a house with no electricity or water.

Manning Up 2019
At 37 years old, James Lórien MacDonald begins testosterone treatments as he transitions from female to male.

Typhoon Mama 2019
Director Lou Strömberg’s Filipino stepmother Yolanda is living in Sweden. She is being pressured for money by her sons back home who believe she lives in luxury. In reality Yolanda is working as a hotel cleaner. She struggles hard to provide a future for her sons. Being caught between two worlds doesn’t exactly make things easier.

Northern Travelogues 2019
In 1917 Finnish explorer Sakari Pälsi travelled to Northeastern Siberia carrying a cinematograph and 13,000 feet of film with him. The journey produced a unique documentary film and a travelogue. A hundred years later director Kira Jääskeläinen returns to the Bering Strait in Pälsi's footsteps. Combining old and new film footage, Pälsi's notes and the stories of the local indigenous peoples, the film highlights the story of the Chukchi and Siberian Eskimos from bygone days till today.

Moon Child 2018 star_border 6
A movie about two women who are mothers to the same child, and a child who belongs to two different worlds.

Fatei and the Sea 2018 star_border 6.2
The action in the film takes place in the Far East, on an uninhabited island called Rikord in the Peter the Great Gulf of the Sea of Japan. The lead character, called Fatei after his father, and his family have their own marine farm where they harvest delicacies from the sea. In amazing images of the underwater world and land-scapes of the Primorsky (Maritime) Territory of the Russian Far East, the film Fatei and the Sea tells the story of a little man whose life is inseparable from the big world around him.

The Illuminators 2017
Filmmaker Antti Haase takes us on a personal journey, learning about his fathers’ legacy. Baltic German engineer Gunnar Haase, initially a refugee, arrived in Finnish Lapland in 1945 to repair the destruction left by the Germans. Antti’s father Hannu continued grandfather Gunnar’s mission to bring electricity to Lapland – the powerlines finally reaching the very last Lapland home on the 23th July,1987. Rural electrification was an enormous undertaking; it brought modern life and equality to people still living in the harsh nature. And while the undertaking took a heavy toll, it also illuminated the way forward. The Illuminators is an inspiring story about courage and social progress as well as sons following in their father’s footsteps.

Nokia Mobile: We Were Connecting People 2017 star_border 6.8
Once upon a time there was a large Finnish company called Nokia that manufactured the world’s best and most innovative mobile phones. Nokia’s annual budget was larger than that of the Government of Finland and their phones spread everywhere and changed the whole culture of communication. But then something changed. Film portrays the rise and fall of Nokia and the Finnish mobile phone industry. Nokia engineers, designers and managers tell their story about the creation, success and downfall of the Finnish mobile phone.

Lauluja utopiasta 2017 star_border 8
The story of Agit Prop, communist band established in 1970.

Seamstress 2015 star_border 7.2
A documentary film about Martta Koskinen, the last executed woman in Finland during the war in 1943. Martta was a Seamstress who lived in Helsinki during the Second World War. She was one of the post-civil war (in 1918) generation for whom the war had meant a disappointment in the system and failure in unity of the Finnish nation. The legacy of the civil war had left systems of persecution in place for those with socialist ideals. Martta and her fellow revolutionaries were determined to continue the resistance movement although they knew that at worst it could cost their lives. Martta was imprisoned twice before she was shot. She was an idealist, whose seemingly harmless, naive beliefs in peace and justice were the most dangerous traits a person could have at the time.

Temples of Dreams 2015 star_border 6.3
Documentary about Finnish film theaters - about their past, disappearance and future. And at the same time universal story how cinema is undeniably connected with life.

Men's Choice 2014
Many men in the world in order to support their families have to leave families. Our characters go J the North as shift w3ockers and produce gas. Dimity is ambitious engineer in the middle of his career. Alex is a plumber. He does not pump gas, he pinups feces, but he's old polar wolf. Andrew3, young guy, comes to the North for the first time. Each of our protagonists has his challenges and problems and family story lines. Each of them makes his mean's choice and pay for it. Their stories develop in front of our eyes.

Monsterman 2014 star_border 5.6
A film about the monster of Lapland, Mr. Lordi, who after winning the Eurovision Song Contest loses everything, almost everything.

Voice of Sokurov 2014 star_border 6.5
Five years in the making, based on six lengthy interviews filmed on six different locations in Saint Petersburg, we meet an outspoken artist who covers here his entire life and prolific career. The locations were Sokurov’s own favourites, where he felt at home.

Wonder World of Ice 2014
A group of Chinese sculptors arrive to build an exotic experience park in the middle of Finnish Lapland. Among them Huang Sheng a young Chinese student, who brings with him his dreams. Every day he dresses up as panda to attract tourists and as he wanders around in his panda outfit, Huang is led to reflect on the differences between the Finnish and the Chinese society - and the status of the Chinese in this modern world.

Show more expand_more