26/11/2024 - The Finnish director shares some insights into the process underlying the creation of his tragicomic characters and discusses juggling Finnish stereotypes

(© Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival)

We caught up with Teemu Nikki following the world premiere of his latest feature, 100 Litres of Gold [+see also:
film review
interview: Teemu Nikki
film profile], in the International Competition of the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival. Getting a glimpse into the “kitchen” of his creative process only added to the charm of this heartwarming film about bad habits and family ties.

Cineuropa: You are a very prolific filmmaker. How do you manage to quickly create films that are clearly well thought-out and witty, and not just hastily put together?
Teemu Nikki: First of all, I love making films. I'm constantly writing and coming up with new ideas. The last five years have been especially busy, but many of these projects had been in development for years before we finally shot them back to back. I also love cinema, and I never want to repeat myself. My films are quite different from each other.

That’s true: your previous film The Blind Man Who Did Not Want to See Titanic [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Teemu Nikki and Jani Pösö
interview: Teemu Nikki, Jani Pösö an…
film profile] is darker and more peculiar.
Yes, and Death Is a Problem for the Living is also quite gloomy. 100 Litres of Gold leans more towards comedy but still has its opaque side.

Your earlier group interview for Cineuropa ended with the phrase “Nobody is perfect”, which seems to resonate with your current film as well. Is this the philosophy behind how you portray your characters?
Possibly. The characters are exaggerated but grounded in reality. As a filmmaker, I see people as having both good and bad qualities, and I aim to portray them honestly. I don’t look down on my characters or elevate them; I try to understand them. The film explores themes like drinking – how it can be fun until it’s not – and why these characters drink. Is it a cure or a trap? I don’t judge them; I simply show their struggles.

From a practical point of view, how did you approach the development of Pirkko and Taina’s multi-layered personalities?
The idea for the film originates from life in my hometown of Sysmä. My family has been making this local traditional beer, sahti, so the setting is somewhat autobiographical. I’d wanted to make this film for 20 years, but I didn’t have the right lead characters until I saw actresses Elina Knihtilä and Pirjo Lonka together on stage. I’ve worked with Elina before but not with Pirjo, and in this theatre production, I saw them playing drunks – they were funny, loveable, horrible and genuine. I immediately asked if they’d like to star in this film. They’ve been friends since they were 13 but had never acted together in a film, so they took it as an opportunity to finally partner up. The chemistry they had in front of the camera was perfect.

I haven’t lived in my hometown for 30 years, so I approached all of this with both nostalgia and romance. While the plot is fictional, it’s inspired by real-life events and exaggerated to enable hilarious storytelling. For example, there’s a scene where a boat capsizes, and one of the sisters is saved by a sahti canister. That actually happened to some men I know, but I thought it would be more interesting to depict women in these roles.

The cinematography adds to the nostalgic feel. Was that intentional?
Yes; I wanted a warm, western-inspired look with wide shots. The cinematographer, Jarmo Kiuru, is also from Sysmä, although we didn’t know each other growing up. It was almost like making a family film.

The Finnish drinking culture is sort of a stereotype, and you play with it here. For instance, when the older sister, Pirkko, says, "Half of Finland would be fired for having a hangover," it’s funny, but is it really revealing local habits?
That line is a joke that Pirkko tells to justify her drinking. Stereotypes often have some truth to them. Finland has a complicated relationship with alcohol, and the statistics show that we drink too much. I know many recovering alcoholics. When discussing this with an Italian producer, she said she didn’t know any alcoholics, whereas I could name around 50.

However, times are changing. In the 1980s, the film industry in Finland was more relaxed about drinking during production. Now, professionalism has replaced those habits, especially among the younger generations.

Pirkko seems to embody the typical image of the strong Nordic female. Was that intentional?
It wasn’t deliberate, but the characters start out as stereotypes and evolve into something deeper. They reveal their vulnerabilities and inner softness by the end.

Is there a sentence you would like to wrap up this interview with?
The world feels bleak right now, but as long as there’s laughter, there’s hope, too.