Matti Kassila

Temples of Dreams

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.

When the Heavens Fall…

A psychotherapist's life is wrecked when her private life is exposed in a sensation magazine.

Vodkaa, komisario Palmu

A TV reporter is murdered when he is eavesdropping on a secret Finnish-Soviet conference. The National Broadcasting Corporation enlists the help of police lieutenant Palmu, who comes out of retirement for this case. However, some have their doubts about the loyalities of Palmu, seeing that he was spotted in a diplomatic soiree in Moscow just a few weeks before the murder.

Here, Beneath the North Star

Täällä Pohjantähden alla is based on the book with the same title. It is a story of the little village. The movie starts in the 1890's and it ends to the Finnish civil war in 1918. Story concentrates around a tenant farmer family, although it gives us a good look at the society at whole. While the class struggle depends, people of the village are driven to bloody civil war.

Tähdet kertovat, komisario Palmu

A man's body is found on Tähtitorninmäki in Helsinki. Palmu starts to investigate the case, but the scandalous newspaper story causes problems for the police.

The Harvest Month

The title of the Finnish film Elokuu translates to August. Directed by Matti Kassila, one of Finland's premiere filmmakers, Elokuu was adapted from a novel by Nobel prize winning finnish author F.E. Sillanpää. Simply put, the story concerns the decline and fall of a once-proud family, thanks to the alcoholism of its paterfamilias. Toivo Makela delivers a powerfully effective performance as the inebriated protagonist, avoiding the usual "drunken" cliches. The overlong running time, coupled with the downbeat nature of the subject, limited the film's worldwide appeal.

Isän vanha ja uusi

An architect, who has recently married a new, younger wife, tries to re-connect with his ex-wife, who is being courted by another man.

Scarlet Week

After a weekend of dancing and camping on a recreation island near the city, a young factory worker decides to stay and cut work for a day. Walking around the now deserted island, he meets a beautiful woman camping alone and sunbathing in the nude on the beach. A hot romance flares up between the worker and the more upper-class married lady, lasting through the light-filled nights of the whole summer week until the woman's much older husband returns to the island the next weekend.

Radio tekee murron

Eager young radio reporter Teräsvuori stages a one-man burglary into the Helsinki Art Museum, recorded on tape for a later broadcast by his friend Laakso. Things go awry when a gang of real criminals overhear their plans and book their heist to coincide. Teräsvuori gets caught but escapes from police custody to start his private investigations together with female radio colleague Eila.

Ruma Elsa

The boyish, temperamental chemistry student Elsa Kassel disapproves of her mother and sisters running after men, but when she hears that she's referred to as "ugly Elsa", she takes on a transformation. The new, charming Elsa tests her attractiveness on men and causes confusion all the way to her mother's new groom, Professor Harjula.

Ruusu ja kulkuri

The story of Finnish singer Abraham 'Aappo' Ojanperä, who was born in the late 1850s. On his journey from a crier boy from Liminga to an international singing star, Aappo never forgets his first love Katri, who faithfully waits in Liminga for his return.