Shortly Once a Month

Strangers in the Dark

Documentary/experimental 2023 / 13 min
Directors & screenwriters: Jenni Pystynen, Perttu Inkilä

Strangers in the Dark is an experimental film of how light pollution makes glow-worm’s love life a living hell. Combining different techniques from animation to archive material the film follows glow worm’s attempts to find a partner in an environment that is no longer dark at night.

The Piano Lesson

Animation 2023 / 13 min
Directors & screenwriters: Nils-Erik Ekblom, Tom Norrgrann

Two young lives intertwine by the melody of a piano as the world goes mad around them during WW2. The Piano Lesson shows children’s perspective on the chaotic events of June 25th, 1941, when the Soviet Union bombed Finland’s capital, Helsinki.

Tuulikki

Fiction 2022 / 14 min
Director & screenwriter: Teemu Nikki

Tuulikki has a problem. She is in the throes of young love, and the world outside her window is vibrant and inviting. But her mother disagrees, not wanting to let Tuulikki out of her sight. Tuulikki fights back, but nothing seems to be making a difference. Finally, the mother-daughter relationship escalates when the circumstances prove too much for both of them.

Jasmin’s Two Homes

Documentary 2022 / 15 min
Directors & screenwriters: Inka Achté, Hanna Karppinen

When Jasmin’s parents decide to move their family back to her dad’s home country, Somaliland, she is faced with the biggest change of her life. Where is her home and could there be two of them?

Night Stop

Fiction 2022 / 13 min
Director & screenwriter: Khadar Ayderus Ahmed

A teenage boy is on his way home at night when his bicycle breaks down in the middle of a quiet highway. He stops to fix it and a mysterious woman in a veil appears at the nearby stop.

Blush – An Extraordinary Voyage

Animation/documentary 2022 / 15 min
Director & screenwriter: Iiti Yli-Harja

For 18-year-old Finnish–Kosovan Fatu, a simple visit to the grocery store feels as nerve-racking as a lunar expedition: for the first time in his life, he’s wearing makeup in public. Luckily his best friend Rai, a young woman on the spectrum of autism, is there to ferociously support him through the voyage.