27/01/2010

Bad Family [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], the third feature film by award-winning Finnish director Aleksi Salmenperä (Producing Adults, A Man’s Job [+see also:
trailer
film profile]), produced by Aki Kaurismäki, will have its international premiere at the upcoming Berlinale in the Panorama Special sidebar.

“Aki is an old football pal of writer/director Salmenperä,” said Hanna Hemilä, who produced the film with Kaurismäki for their company Sputnik Film. “Aki liked Aleksi’s previous works and urged him to write a new script.”

Bad Family is a tragicomedy about an overly concerned father who messes up his relationship with his children and new wife. Following an ugly divorce, the father has been bringing up the son by himself while the mother has had custody of their daughter. Sixteen years later the mother passes away and the brother and sister meet again. The brother has a crush on his sister and rebels against the father, who copes poorly with the situation.

The film stars Ville Virtanen (Sauna [+see also:
trailer
film profile]), Lauri Tilkanen (Last Cowboy Standing [+see also:
trailer
film profile]) and Pihla Viitala (2010 Shooting Star). Sandrew Metronome is releasing it domestically this Friday, on 15 screens. World sales are handled by The Match Factory.

Another Finnish film will be screening in the festival’s Generation 14+ section: Last of the Line by Anastasia Lapsui and Markku Lehmuskallio, featuring the Nenets, an indigenous people of the Arctic Circle. The Illume production will open in Finland on February 26.

The directing duo will also take part in the celebration of the Berlinale’s 60th anniversary with the screening of their 2000 film Seven Songs from the Tundra, in the 4 Decades of the Forum retrospective, with Aki Kaurismäki’s The Match Factory (1989).