Saija Mäki-Nevala

Nursing

The dance film about burnout is based on the experiences of dance artist Hanna Heino as a COVID nurse in the spring of 2020. We are connected to other beings through touch and the air we breathe. How can one overcome and find physical and mental connection in the midst of a pandemic?

They Go Gentle Into That Night Work

They Go Gentle Into That Night Work is a dreamlike essay revolving around a train driver, a metalworker, and a mailman’s average night. The nightfalls’s meditative and repetitive routines create a monotonous, yet simultaneously poetic atmosphere in this hypnotic experience. The slow-paced storytelling combined with the experimental soundscape paints a harsh, yet romantic, picture of the ever-revolving night lives of the trio.

Still Into You

Documentary film about love, relationships and sexuality of elderly men and women. Five couples show how intimacy is still strong even though age and body has changed.

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.

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.

Driver

When romance develops between a driver at the racecourse and his pupil, he has to choose: her, or his wife? But decision-making is not his strong point.

Sininen uni

A short film about Jami, who have traveled to Pattaya 17 times. This time he takes his son to trip with him.

Sixpack

Sixpack is a positive story on the outskirts of society. The story takes place in Helsinki on rock and following the advent of exclusion of the story regarding one of summer days. The film's protagonist, Marshal, is stuck in a shabby home. Lihi and Henninen attract the Marshal out and tired of opposition after the Marshal finds them to spend a hot summer day in the park in the world with amazement. The trio crash -day pass to the young, rutjakkeisiin sense of humor to the police. Day lasts from early morning until the evening the rain to bring sorrow alhoon. Eventually, however, the sun began to rise again it's time to become sensitized and look deep into the eyes of friendship.

Sixpack

Sixpack is a positive story on the outskirts of society. The story takes place in Helsinki on rock and following the advent of exclusion of the story regarding one of summer days. The film's protagonist, Marshal, is stuck in a shabby home. Lihi and Henninen attract the Marshal out and tired of opposition after the Marshal finds them to spend a hot summer day in the park in the world with amazement. The trio crash -day pass to the young, rutjakkeisiin sense of humor to the police. Day lasts from early morning until the evening the rain to bring sorrow alhoon. Eventually, however, the sun began to rise again it's time to become sensitized and look deep into the eyes of friendship.

Blackout

Recovering from a nail gun shot to the head and 13 months of coma, doctor Pekka Valinta starts to unravel the mystery of his past, still suffering from total amnesia.

Ganes

Remu grew up in modest conditions. He dropped out from schoold during his teen age years and is making career as a small time criminal. His family's destiny is about to come true, and it's going to be the usual: jail, alcoholism and violent death. After learning about rock music Remu learns to play drums and pushes himself into different bands. His first time in jails interrupts his music career, but after being released he starts his own band; Hurriganes.

The Matriarch

Martta and Otto are a pair of traveling tailors who claim to be bastard descendants of the Romanovs and wander from town to town in Finland seeking work, accompanied by their two half-witted adult sons, Hippo, Repe and equally silly son-in-law Ventti. The family occasionally turns to crime when they can't quite make ends meet, and the boys begin turning to violence with greater frequency when Otto weakens and Martta becomes the head of the family business. Their fortunes take an unexpected turn when the brothers assault and abduct a man they call Kaspar, who becomes the family's sidekick in their travels. Despite Kaspar's inability to speak, he attracts Martha's youngest daughter, an attractive young woman named Lara, but the family is in disarray when a long-lost half-brother, Laszlo, suddenly re-emerges and tries to wrest control of the clan away from his mother.

Family Meeting

Revolves around the 20-year celebration of the Wentus Blues Band and their jubilee concert at the Aleksanteri Theater in Helsinki.

Jackpot

Kummelin Jackpot, was released in February 2006. It was about a divorced man portrayed by Silvennoinen, who realises a way to trick himself a jackpot in football betting.

FC Venus

Pete is a football enthusiast, who plays as a goalkeeper for FC HeMan, a team playing in the lowest possible league. His girlfriend, Anna, hates the whole sport. Pete and his teammates are planning to travel to watch the Football World Cup held in Germany. Anna is not excited about Pete's plan to leave her alone for the summer. Therefore Anna decides to present a challenge to Pete: She will form a team from the wives and girlfriends of the FC HeMan players, and then the women's team (FC Venus) would play against FC HeMan. If the women's team wins, the men will have to give up football, and if the men's team wins, the women will never complain about their hobby.

Elias

The story of a boy and his journey deep into the dark, snow-bound forest, his fight to save a girl's life, and growth towards understanding.

Carmen

A documentary about a young Finnish Romany Carmen, 11, who lives with her grandmother and aunt in the suburb of a small town in Northern Finland.