Finland cultural season running until June
by Annika Pham
From April 1 to the end of June, France is hosting one of the biggest cultural seasons ever dedicated to Finland. Over 250 Finnish events and 500 Finnish artists will make the trip to introduce French citizens to their latest and most established works in architecture, design, music, film and video art.
The film programme includes features and shorts, television programmes and documentaries. In Paris, the Centre George Pompidou is presenting through June Views from Finland (Regard sur la Finlande), a look at Finland through films aimed at children. The Filmothèque Quartier Latin has a special tribute to Anastasia Lapsui and Markku Lehmuskallio, who for the last 20 years have been filming the daily life of nations from Siberia, Groënland, northern Canada and Scandinavia. Six of their films will be presented by the filmmakers, including the opening film of the season, Travelling (2007).
Producer/filmmaker Teuvo Tulio (1912–2000), dubbed the “Finnish Rudolph Valentino”, will be in focus at the Cinémathèque Française; a series of new fictional features will be programmed at the Lincoln cinema; and Finland’s most renowned contemporary filmmaker Aki Kaurismäki will have a complete retrospective of his works at the Festival Paris Cinema early July.
Beyond Paris, the Annecy Animation Film Festival (June 9-14) will welcome an extraordinarily strong presence of Finnish animation specialists; the children and youth film festival Plein la Bobine (Jun 13-19) in Puy de Dome will give ‘carte blanche’ to their Finnish counterpart, the Oulu Children Film Festival; and the La Rochelle Film Festival (June 27-July 7) will honour the work of the Helsinki Film Archives.
Similar cultural seasons based on governmental cultural agreements have been organised in France for almost twenty years. Cineuropa is joining this Finnish celebration with a special Focus on Black Ice [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Kai Nordberg
interview: Petri Kotwica
film profile], last year’s top winner at the local Jussi Awards, which also screened in competition at the last Berlinale.
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