Thursday, March 11, 2010

Tampere Film Festival: the Finnish Competition


Hamy Ramezan: Viikko ennen vappua / Over the Fence (2009) starring Jesse Martin.

ANIMATION
Benigni (Elli Vuorinen, Jasmiini Ottelin, Pinja Partanen, 2009) DigiBeta, 8' - wax animation - the lonely man finds a companion from under his own armpit
Fengshui (Pauliina Punkki, 2009) DigiBeta, 4' - stark animation a bit in the style of Priit Pärn
Hiiren kalansaalis / The Catch of a Mouse (Heikki Prepula, 2009) dvd, 6' - drawn and painted fairy-tale animation, no dialogue
Hyvä meininki / Good Stuff (Niina Suominen, 2009) DigiBeta, 8' - following Arcimboldo, Shvankmajer - food animation - what a waste - great colour
Isola (Antonia Ringbom, 2009) DigiBeta, 17' - in Swedish - painted animation with fantasy characters, purple hues
Kaupunki / The City (Vappu Tuomisto, 2009) dvd, 6' - fine b&w water colour animation - simple lines, a talent of observation, a talent for the detail - intriguing music
Trolley Boy (Teemu Auersalo, IE 2009) DigiBeta, 4' - stylish animation about the world of the shopping mall
Veriset kädet / Bloody Hands (Malakias, 2009) DigiBeta, 7' - highly stylized

DOCUMENTARY
44500 Max (Jari Kokko, 2009) Beta, 79' - English subtitles - a documentary portrait - an ironical portrait of Max Perttula who creates his own luxury perfumes
A Kosovo Fairytale (Mark Middlewick, Samantha Nell, Anna-Sofia Nylund, 2009) dvd, 15' - documentary animation collage, a very interesting visual approach *
Freetime Machos (Mika Ronkainen, 2010) 35 mm, 87' - English subtitles - documentary - atavistic male force in the North, finding its expression in rugby
Göringin sauva / The Baton of Goering (Pia Andell, 2010) DigiBeta, 38' - a documentary portrait - Felix Forsman (1917-2005) got the mission to film Mannerheim's visit to Hitler in 1942 - good visual quality
Piirrän, siis olen / I Draw, Therefore I Am (Kim Finn, John Hakalax, 2009) Beta, 52' - documentary biopic - in Swedish with Finnish subtitles - the story of the Estonian artist Ilon Wikland - the birth of the visual shapes of the beloved Astrid Lindgren characters - the tragedy of Estonia
Kinbaku / Kinbaku - sielun solmuja (Jouni Hokkanen, 2009) DigiBeta, 29' - in English - an ambitious account of bondage
Kun liikun / When I Move (Ville Salminen, 2009) dvd, 7' - experimental documentary - visually ambitious - the girl whose feet don't touch the ground
Leikkipuisto / Playground (Susanna Helke, 2010) DigiBeta, 30' - multi-cultural life today
Lumikko / The Little Snow Animal (Miia Tervo, 2009) DigiBeta, 19' - animation / fiction / experimental - a collage about the solitude of a girl - talking in the radio programme Yölinja (Night Line) with the psychologist Pekka Sauri
Magneettimies / The Magnetic Man (Arto Halonen, 2009) DigiBeta, 79' - this documentary portrait I had seen before
Mies ja videokamera / Man with the Video Camera (Petri Hagner, 2009) Beta, 49' - an experimental documentary portrait of a personality: Esko Lönnberg - in Pori, creating a film on the band Circle - visions, action painting
Miesten vuoro / In the Steam of Life (Joonas Berghäll, Mika Hotakainen, 2010) 35 mm, 85' - see separate entry above
Reindeerspotting - pako Joulumaasta / Reindeerspotting - Escape from the Land of Santa Claus (Joonas Neuvonen, 2010) DigiBeta, 85' - this I missed
Ruuhka / Traffic Jam (Arthur Franck, Oskar Forstén, 2009) Beta, 12' - a motored deliveryman and deliverywoman
Strawberry Girl / Mansikkatyttö (Arja Pettersson, 2009) dvd, 4' - in English with Finnish subtitles, experimental documentary - a long take of the Polish girl rolling on a strawberry-patterned sheet - reciting her monologue on the slave labour on a Finnish strawberry farm - [my personal observation of a strawberry farm I know is that pickers are treated well, to the benefit of all]
Ukko ja akka / The Old Man and the Old Lady (Markku Heikkinen, 2009) blu-ray, 15' - Seppo, 73 years, and Linda, 102 years, living in Northern Finland not far from the Russian border
Vasen vartaloon / Fight of Fate (Mohamed El Aboudi, 2009) DigiBeta, 56' - English subtitles - a documentary portrait: Umar Kemiläinen, a boxer and a Muslim who loses his health - shot in Finland and Dubai

FICTION
Huomisen muisto / The Memory of Tomorrow (Pekka Saari, 2010) blu-ray, 28' - English subtitles - starring Heikki Nousiainen - digital imagery, visually ambitious - the medical experiment to prolong memory
Pikkuveli / Our Little Brother (Oskari Sipola, 2009) blu-ray, 27' - realistic drama about the relationships between children in a dysfunctional family
Snow Business (Roi Vaara, 2009) DigiBeta 11' - documentary of the performance artist Roi Vaara: snow for sale in Finland in winter
Veeti ja pavunvarsi / Veeti and the Beanstalk (Susanna Kotilainen, 2009) blu-ray, 14' - fantasy fiction - highly stylized, pantomime, farce
Viikko ennen vappua / Over the Fence (Hamy Ramezan, 2009) 35 mm, 30' - with Jesse Martin and Emilia Laine - and Matleena Kuusniemi and Eero Milonoff - a drama on domestic violence, racism
Äiti ei enää keilaa / Mother Doesn't Bowl Anymore (Teemu Nikki, 2009) DigiBeta, 10' - fiction with an element of danger and horror - returning from the prison the neo-Nazi protagonist finds mother missing, home full of fresh meat

EXPERIMENTAL
Kone 2010 (J. Karelius, 2009) dvd, 10' - rough imagery, forceful poem recital
Lopun alkuja / Beginning and Ending (Jani Ruscica, 2010) DigiBeta, 17' - low tech apocalyptica
Sisäinen lähiö / The Suburb Within (Pekka Sassi, 2009) DigiBeta, 12' - English subtitles - abstract visual imagery with red static in a cube - flicker - grid imagery

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