Oskari Pastila

Basket Case

An inward little town in Finland transforms into a melting pot of nationalities, religions and cultures when Finnish Basketball Federation opens the borders for foreign players. The Board of a local team puts all their eggs in the new season trebling their budget. Unknowingly it hires an uneasy twosome as the new manager and new coach for the team. The airlift from America, Europe and even Africa hauls in player after player when the coach burns the money that never realizes. The tragicomic efforts of the manager to gather the unrealistic budget and even to find a washing-machine for the players evolve into an anatomy of inflamed working environment. The manager's power-struggle with the coach has a bitter end where there's only space for one of them in the town. The player-candidates come with high hopes and end up being the pawns in the game. Their life among the locals create absurd encounters that originate from all walks of life.

Burn the Ginger

Burn the Ginger is a story about the rise and fall of an Australian immigrant in the “World’s Happiest Country”. After becoming the golden boy of the academic, political and business elites sent to promote the Brand Finland abroad, he is thrown away like a wet rag in time of adversity and gets to experience the praised safety networks of the mythical Nordic welfare state firsthand.

Hockey Dreams

As the host country for the 2018 Winter Olympics, South Korea’s national ice hockey team was automatically given a spot in the Olympic hockey tournament. The team would play at the highest level for the first time, facing the top countries in the sport. The skill gap between them and their opponents was huge, as South Korea had just 180 professional hockey players. Failure and defeat weren’t acceptable results, as losing face is considered the worst thing that could happen in Korean culture. But how to avoid humiliation, when defeat seems certain?