Markku Tuurna

The Northern Star

Documentary film about a woman for whom the sex symbol stamp was a life-long curse - and a gift. A film in which the life story of one woman shows the social atmosphere as the decades change - values and prejudices at their most exposed. A film about Anneli Sauli, Finland's last film star.

Colombia in My Arms

After 52 years of armed conflict the FARC guerrillas are about to hand over their arms in exchange for political participation and social inclusion of the poor. Ernesto is one of them. The much celebrated Colombian peace agreement throws Ernesto and the polarised society around him into chaos in which everyone is afraid of the future and their own survival.

Meet the Censors

From a Kafkaesque office for social media in Germany and on to Sudan, and to conversations with an Iranian Ayatollah, an Indian film censor and critical journalists in China. The Norwegian Håvard Fossum has travelled the world to understand what censorship is, and how censors work, both in theory and in practice.

The Storage 2

Rousku and Raninen are fleeing their unemployment by setting up a construction company. Occupational illiteracy is not an obstacle and accounting is fine when Rouskun's mate deals with things. The entrepreneurs know that the poor can be, but not artificial. But what's the point for the scratchy women? Especially when Rousku gets to look in the mirror again and find out what kind of father, such a daughter.

Sexy as Hell

When an accounting company moves, it’s CEO gets an opportunity to display her awesome management skills.

Kihniö

Director Saija Mäki-Nevala was born in Kihniö but moved away as soon as it became possible. The village road with few buildings, and faces that were all to familiar to her, wasn’t enough. The real life and the possibilities of achieving dreams seemed to be somewhere else. After 18 years she goes back to look at Kihniö. She observes the ex-home village with feelings between love and foreignness. Is Kihniö more than its inhabitants? Is Kihniö just a name for the roots which we can’t either choose or forget? This observational documentary is a portrait of silent village, but the main role still belongs to its people. They are proud of living in a safe place where they all know each other. The most important goals in life are to have a permanent job and to own a house. When they achieve those things and can have their family around, everything is just fine. You don’t need anything else.

Eila, Rampe and Baby Girl

Baby Girl, 30, a poet with a bachelor's degree in arts, is anguished because of her relationship with Pirkka, a relatively smart, young man. Baby Girl's parents, Eila and Rampe, do their best to become friends with Pirkka and his elegant mother. Through coincidence and error Eila occupies her summerhouse neighbors' empty luxury villa. When Pirkka's mother drops by, Eila lies that she and Rampe own the fancy house. The showing off and lying escalate when Eila's mother and sister show up. The real owners of the house, an upper-class couple, Thomas and Monica, are driven away to Eila and Rampe's modest cottage.

The Storage

Antero Rousku is a storeman in a paint store. His job requires raw muscle power, mixing paints and carrying house repair materials around to earn his daily bread. But the basic salary is not enough for Rousku. He also sells a lot of stuff on the side from the storeroom directly to Jylhäkorpi, a frequent visitor, bypassing company bookkeeping. Rousku's colleague in the cellar storeroom is Raninen whose life consists of work, quarreling with his wife, and lottery. Raninen wants to win the main prize but he wants to have the right numbers in exactly the order in which they appear from the lottery machine. Raninen is not the sharpest pencil in the pencil box. Rousku's freedom is threatened by his relationship to the saleswoman Karita. Rousku wants to keep a distance to the woman except in bed. Karita has decided otherwise.

Contract

Documentary about the nurses' strike in Finland on autumn 2007.

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.

The Handcuff King

It is winter in the mid-1970s in Tornio, a village near the northern border between Finland and Sweden. Esko is a boy with a lot of problems. He has succeeded in getting on the wrong side of his gang.

Kites Over Helsinki

Epic tale about two generations of men in a wealthy Finnish family, spanning from the 1960s all the way through the early 1990s. The father has achieved his position as director of the family business through marrying the heiress. Their eldest son Dani, hoped to succeed his father, succumbs to drugs while pursuing a career in rock music. Younger Riku grows up under the shadow of his more talented big brother and slowly drifts into the late 1980s, noticing then how many of his friends have managed to take advantage of the economic upswing.

Bad Luck Love

A shocking crime forces a man to re-evaluate his life, only to find that going straight is more complicated than he imagined. Ali is a low-level criminal who spends much of his spare time working out at a gym with his brother Pulu. Ali spends most of his day stoned on marijuana, while Pulu is known to drink cleaning products when he's run out of booze. Ali has fallen in love with Inka, a bright woman with a mind of her own, and her independent nature occasionally throws him into a fit of jealousy.