Mari Rantasila

Fish River Anthology

The supermarket is nearing its closing time, and the last customers are queuing for their turn at the fish counter. The agonizing wait offers a chance for existential reflection and a little song.

Bordertown: The Mural Murders

A mural painted with blood is found on the wall of Pasila train station, which depicts Finland's best-known serial killer Lasse Maasalo. The text in the mural, “Making the world a better place”, is linked to a voting circulating in social media, where people can vote for persons that world would be a better place without. Soon the first body is found and Sorjonen must find the person who has named himself as The Judge.

Carrier

Janika takes advantage of her pregnancy by smuggling amphetamine from Tallinn to Helsinki with her brother.

Nimby: Not In My Backyard

Mervi is a gay girl living in the hipster quarters of Helsinki. She has been together with Kata for a year, and now they are encouraged by the circumstances to come out from closet. When they do, Mervi realises that she is not the only one in her family with secrets – her parents have been living in an open-bisexual-swinger-relationship for 20 years. On the other hand Kata is pretty surprised that she might be living with a hetero girl that once was dating a neo-nazi. And the ex-boy friend cannot swallow that Mervi is now with a person both of wrong color, and sex. The real threat appears when Kata’s parents arrive from Berlin and the local skinhead chief finds out that a black muslim celebrity politician has arrived to town.

Pony and Birdboy

Pony and Birdboy tells a story of seven-year-old girl Pony, who doesn’t want to go to school, and big-mouthed Birdboy who has solution to all possible problems. Humoristic family-film Pony and Birdboy is partly based on Veera Salmi’s popular children’s book The Book of Pony and Birdboy, which rich humor and anarchist hustle have brought the book as a favorite of children.

Linnan juhlat

In 2017 Finland celebrates 100 years of independence. The famous philosopher Bruno is curing his writers' block in Lapland, when he gets an invitation to the President's Grand Ball in Helsinki. The railway systems are frozen and he misses the only plane, but the Laplander Jallu agrees to drive him 1200 km (745 miles) south.

Wonderland

Recently divorced Helena is getting anxious about spending christmas alone. Her best friend invites her to spend old time christmas on a farm - only place they can afford.

The Log

The female director wants full frontal nudity from her male lead, but the actor has a big problem with it.

The Mine

A young and ambitious civil servant Jussi finds himself being in charge of the environmental permit of a huge nickel and uranium mine in Northern Finland. The Talvivaara mine, led by a charismatic globe trotting visioner Pekka Perä is introducing an entirely new method of collecting minerals whilst creating jobs in one of the poorest areas in Scandinavia. Jussi slowly discovers that he has been led astray by several people and that the new method has serious downsides he did not forsee. The mine is causing environmental hazards that are being hushed down. A new application for another permit is brough to his table by the same mine. Along with the application comes an interesting job offer and a chance of a new beginning. Jussi has to decide whether he will play along and if so, with whom.

Absolution

Kiia and Lauri, speeding toward the hospital overnight. Kiia in pain, holding the wheel with one hand and another in his stomach - the birth has started ahead of schedule. Surprisingly, the vehicle collides with something. Kiia fright and brakes, the car swerves before coming to a stop. Lauri rises to the car to check the situation and says he did not see anything. Kiia give birth to a healthy child in the hospital and befriends Hannah with. Hanna's husband has been in the same region hit by a car and drove onto the driver fled from the scene.

Lovemilla

Aimo and Milla live together at her alcoholics-turned-zombies parents' place, while saving money to move out. Due to his lack of self confidence, Aimo wastes their savings to turbo-boost his muscles, and eventually to turn himself into a robot. Milla doesn't like this new Aimo and leaves him. Aimo's heartache leads him to give up his heart for a metal one, one that doesn't hurt. Milla decides to steal Aimo heart: after all, a woman needs to have a man's heart. Lovemilla is an anarchic comedy trip, a story about love, robots and bodybuilding.

The Two and Only

Hanna is a 30 something single woman from Helsinki. She has a good job and great friends and has almost given up on finding the Mr. Right. One night, Hanna meets Markus, a dark stranger who sweeps her off her feet.

That Special Summer

The year is 1984. It's summer, and the rebellious 12-year-old girl Kid wants to stay in Gothenburg, but her mother has other plans. Kid discovers that summer vacation in Finland isn't as bad as first feared. In a few hot weeks she discovers her dawning sexuality, and experience her first crush.

Legend of the Lake Bodom

The Legend of Bodom is a figment of the imagination, but it takes place in a land that once existed - between East and West, on the front lines of the Cold War. It is Pentecost morning in 1960. Three young people are found murdered on the shores of Lake Bodom.

For the Living and the Dead

An ordinary suburban family is shattered when their youngest son is killed in an accidental fire while locked inside the family's car on their yard. Mother Marja can't stop crying, father Jaakko can't cry at all but blames himself for the fire. Their remaining son Timo develops problems at school because of his constant worries about his parents' safety. In their grief, Marja and her sister Leena have to confront an old family secret, their little sister's accidental death for which Leena has quietly blamed herself through decades.

Miehen sydän

Harri, a usually calm middle-aged man, loses his temper at a bar. His behavior towards the bartender Raija weighs on his mind, so he returns to make things up to her. This ends up being the catalyst for an unlikely and unwitting relationship between the two.

Nyrölä 3

Summer night, fraying country idyll, motorcycle gang and a murder.

Raid

Raid is a mysterious drifter and ex-criminal who comes and goes as he pleases. He has been away from the country for an extended period of time but learns on his return that his ex-girlfriend Tarja has presumably died in a fire that he soon discovers was a larceny. He is also contacted by inspector Jansson, who he knows from the past regarding the murder of a protestor. Raid begins his investigation and soon finds that there's more to the cases than meets the eye.

Lakeuden kutsu

Businessman Erkki Hakala returns to Ostrobothnia after years in Florida and buys a metal workshop in Jalasjärvi from the unknown Partanen brothers with his business partner Taisto Matsomppi. Erkki misses his wife Kaisu, who back in the day stayed in Finland, and his child, but will the man be forgiven for years of absence?

A Respectable Tragedy

In the 1930s, middle-aged museum curator Tauno Saarinen yearns for a young beautiful maid and writes a lengthy confession about his feelings which he gives his wife Elisabet to read. Elisabet shows the writings to her husband's sister Naimi, an art critic who tries to reconcile with her ex-husband despite a spiteful mother-in-law. Meanwhile, things gets worse between Tauno and Elisabet when the young maid, seduced by Tauno, becomes pregnant. Based on a novel by Helvi Hämäläinen, first published in 1941 but partly censored until 1995 because allegedly based on true incidents involving well-known people.

Sotapoika

During the Continuation War, mother Kaarina and son Erkki live at home in a small town while father has been sent to the front. One day the family's life is turned upside down when the father returns home as a deserter from the front .

Goodbye, Trainmen

Small-town boys Vähy and Hapa are best friends who swear an eternal blood oath. As they grow up, however, their paths drift apart and they both find themselves searching for their place in the world.

Paradise America

Finnish friends escape taxes to Florida.

Hamlet Goes Business

When Hamlet discovers his father’s deceased body, he finds himself pulled into a power struggle as his scheming uncle attempts to secure a monopoly on the Scandinavian rubber duck industry. Will Hamlet avenge his father? Will he become the king of rubber ducks? Does any of it really matter?

Macbeth

A Finnish film version of Macbeth. Macbeth, the Thane of Glamis, receives a prophecy from a trio of witches that one day he will become King of Scotland. Consumed by ambition and spurred to action by his wife, Macbeth murders his king and takes the throne for himself.

Shadows in Paradise

Nikander, a rubbish collector and would-be entrepreneur, finds his plans for success dashed when his business associate dies. One evening, he meets Ilona, a down-on-her-luck cashier, in a local supermarket. Falteringly, a bond begins to develop between them.

Calamari Union

A group of men all called Frank—except for one named Pekka—have had enough of life in their working-class neighborhood, so they set off for a better existence in the magical seaside district of Eira. But the way is long, and the group face many hurdles including stray dogs and defunct streetlights.

Starring: Jouko Turkka

The controversial Jouko Turkka, actor, writer, teacher and stage director. With his mostly devoted students at the Theatre Academy/University of the Arts Helsinki, Finland. Where he was appointed professor of stage production 1981-1984.

Apinan vuosi

A young student seeks direction in his life to counterbalance the studies through female adventures.

A Light That Never Goes Out

Pauli, a 27-year-old former flutist, moves back in with his parents in a small town after his attempted suicide. He meets his old childhood friend Iiris, who tries to persuade him to play extreme experimental music with her. Previously used to flawless perfection, Pauli begins to find hope and solace in strange sonic experiments and a new kind of friendship.