PRODUCTION / FUNDING Finland / Estonia / Sweden
Pirjo Honkasalo’s latest endeavour, Orenda, to screen at IFFR, Göteborg and Tampere
- The drama, starring Pirkko Saisio and Alma Pöysti, follows two strong-willed women who meet each other and confront their guilt-ridden memories amidst the magical landscapes of an archipelago

Orenda [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], the latest effort by veteran Finnish helmer Pirjo Honkasalo, will be world-premiered in the Big Screen competition of the upcoming edition of IFFR (30 January-9 February) before heading to the Göteborg Film Festival (24 January-2 February). The Helsinki-born filmmaker will also be celebrated with a retrospective covering her 50-year career at the Tampere Film Festival (5-9 March), where Orenda will celebrate its Finnish premiere and open the gathering.
Honkasalo is an acclaimed writer-director, DoP, editor and producer. In collaboration with Pekka Lehto, she helmed several features in the 1970s and 1980s, including Flame Top, which vied for the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 1980. Transitioning to solo work in the 1990s, Honkasalo shifted her focus to documentaries, creating the award-winning trilogy comprising Mysterion, Tanjuska and the 7 Devils and Atman. She later directed The 3 Rooms of Melancholia (2004) and made her return to fiction with Concrete Night [+see also:
trailer
film profile] in 2012.
Penned by Pirkko Saisio (who also stars in one of the two leading roles), the plot of her new pic promises to “stretch the boundaries of everyday reality” and has been described as “a flowing tale of grace and severity”. In detail, the story follows two strong-willed women (played by Fallen Leaves [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] star and Golden Globe nominee Alma Pöysti and the aforementioned Saisio), who meet each other and confront their guilt-ridden memories amidst the magical landscapes of an archipelago. Other key roles are played by Hannu-Pekka Björkman and Luca Leino.
Orenda is being produced by Misha Jaari and Mark Lwoff for Finnish studio Bufo, alongside Estonia’s Allfilm and Sweden’s Plattform Produktion, which are serving as co-producers.
The Yellow Affair is in charge of the pic’s international sales.
Did you enjoy reading this article? Please subscribe to our newsletter to receive more stories like this directly in your inbox.