04/03/2013 - In his new feature, Finnish director Rax Kinnekangas follows the top demon, now unemployed, who becomes a human being - with support from the Finnish Film Foundation

Since Finnish director Rax Rinnekangas (photo) set up his own production company, Bad Taste, in 1995, he has mainly made documentaries on architecture, cinema, visual arts and modern cinema.

But then two years ago he directed his first feature, A Journey to Eden [+see also:
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film profile] (2011), and now the Finnish Film Foundation has chipped in €90,000 for The Last Life of Lucifer, which Bad Taste is producing for Pirkanmaan Elokuvakeskus to release in the autumn.

Rinnekangas wrote the script about Lucifer, world’s greatest demon who finds himself unemployed, after mankind has created its own devils to help human life vanish from the planet. He decides to become a human being and selects a theatre director in Helsinki as his guide on the way; he also falls in love, and is now living as a normal husband.

The foundation also supported Finnish director Akseli Tuomivaara’s Korso [+see also:
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film profile] by €400,000, portraying Markus who dreams of becoming a street ball star in New York, but spends his time playing and drinking with his friends in an old Korso warehouse. Kirsikka Saari and Jenni Toivoniemi delivered the story, currently shooting for Bufo, Tuffi Films and Channel Four Finland.

Finnish director Maria Ruotsala received €50,000 for Hollow Sky, which Koskela Art & Media House is bringing to the screen for Pirkanmaan to launch in the autumn. Scripted by Ruotsala, from Leena Krohn’s novel, the film follows a scientist, who studies evil, working to prove theory that man’s life is ruled by chance and devoid of any purpose. Not everybody agrees.

The Finnish Film Foundation also subsidised a package of documentaries, including Antti Haase’s Lordi, Virpi Suutari’s Eden, Pekka Lehto’s The Prosecutor – A Nordic Murder Mystery, and Tonislav Hristov’s Love & Engineering.