19 films got production support in March

Finnish Film Foundation’s board granted 5,745,000 euros of production support in March.

Image: Hanna Bergholm (photo by Laura Malmivaara), Jalmari Helander (photo by Antti Rastivo

Four of the 19 supported projects got funding from the 50/50 production support scheme aimed at mainstream films with a large audience potential. Altogether the films include nine feature films, five documentary films and one documentary series, and four short films of which one is animated.

NB: The support sums include development and production support

Features

E

Director & scriptwriter: Anna Eriksson
Producer: Matti Pyykkö
Production company: Ihode Management
Support sum: 153,000 €

The surrounding reality has turned into a desert. People at its mercy try to adapt to the situation, each in their own way. The biggest threat to the protagonists wandering in the desert is their own doppelgangers, who seek to destroy the original version of themselves. This is how they get to move to the Metaverse, beyond the reach of meaning and symbolic exchange. The film E deals with the spiritual loneliness of modern man and creates a modern myth about the greatest tragedy of our time.

Eagles of The Republic
international minority co-production SE-FR-DK-FI

Director & scriptwriter: Tarik Saleh
Producers: Johan Lindström, Linda Mutawi, Linus Stöhr Torell, Mark Lwoff, Monica Hellström, Alexandre Mallet-Guy, Misha Jaari, Toni Valla
Finnish co-production company: Bufo
Production company: Unlimited Stories (Sweden)
Support sum: 150,000 €

Egypt’s most adored actor, George Fahmy, falls out of favor with the authorities overnight. On the verge of losing everything, George is forced to accept the role of President al-Sissi in a biopic celebrating him. He finds himself thrown into the inner circle of power, and soon realizes that he is not only in danger of losing his soul but has literally thrown himself into a dangerous dance of death.

The Elf (Tonttu)

Directors: Joonas Berghäll, Hannes Vartiainen
Scriptwriters: Veera Tyhtilä, Joonas Berghäll, Hannes Vartiainen
Producers: Joonas Berghäll
Production company: Oktober
Support sum: 850,000 €

An adventure film for children and families in the world of Elves, set in Lapland during Christmas time.

Häjyt 2
50/50 production support

Director: Aleksi Mäkelä
Scriptwriter: Petja Lähde
Producers: Jukka Helle, Markus Selin
Production company: Solar Films
Support sum: 500,000 €

Konsta has just been released from prison and returned back to his old neighborhood. Grudges from the past get him involved with drug business again, even when his close ones try to keep him out of trouble. Finally Konsta has to face his past with a surprising way and he makes a decision that affects the rest of his life.

Nightborn (Yön lapsi)

Director: Hanna Bergholm
Scriptwriters: Hanna Bergholm, Ilja Rautsi
Producer: Daniel Kuitunen
Production company: Komeetta
Support sum: 950,000 €

Perfect Strangers (Tuntemattomat)
50/50 production support

Director: Rike Jokela
Scriptwriter: Tiina Lymi
Producer: Oskari Huttu
Production company: Lucy Loves Drama
Support sum: 550,000 €

Ricky Rapper and the Double (Risto Räppääjä ja kaksoisolento)
50/50 production support

Director: Samuel Harjanne
Scriptwriters: Tiina Nopola, Emma Nopola
Producers: Rimbo Salomaa, Tiina Nopola
Production company: Solar Films
Support sum: 500,000 €

Sisu 2

Director & scriptwriter: Jalmari Helander
Producer: Petri Jokiranta
Production company: Cosmic Snowball
Support sum: 1,000,000 €

Super Furball and the Lying Squirrel (Supermarsun totuus ja tehtävä)
50/50 production support

Director: Joona Tena
Scriptwriters: Paula Noronen, Joona Tena
Producers: Marko Talli, Anni Pänkäälä, Olli Haikka
Production company: Yellow Film & TV
Support sum: 600,000 €

Documentaries

Grains of Paradise

Directors & scriptwriters: Jenni Kivistö, Jussi Rastas
Producer: Ella Ruohonen
Production company: Väki Films
Support sum: 147,000 €

The Last Misfits by The Golden River (Maa)

Director & scriptwriter: Juho-Pekka Tanskanen
Producer: Isabella Karhu
Production company: Danish Bear Productions
Support sum: 53,000 €

Paradise in Hel
documentary series

Director: Mika Mattila
Scriptwriters: Mika Mattila, Nino Poppius, Dylan Pashley
Producers: Axel Högström, Satu Majava
Production company: Parad Media
Support sum: 130,000 €

The documentary series Paradise in Hel tells the story of mystic Ior Bock, the mythology he told, and the people who followed him. The series weaves together the three timelines: Ior’s own tragic life-story from beginning to end, the rise and fall of the Bock-Saga cult born in Goa in the 1980’s, and the rebirth of the Saga in modern times–as well as the followers’ attempts to prove its authenticity. The overarching theme of the series is new-age spiritualism and the innate human desire for connection and belief.

Perstuntuma

Director & scriptwriter: Peter Lindholm
Producers: Mika Ritalahti, Niko Ritalahti
Production company: Silva Mysterium
Support sum: 167,000 €

Riding with Death (Lentävä kuolema)

Directors & scriptwriters: Nina Forsman, Sakari Suuronen
Producer: Markku Tuurna
Production company: Filmimaa
Support sum: 281,000 €

Riding with Death is a documentary film about the hidden social and emotional impacts of Tuberculosis. In this poetic film, family secrets are revealed, using unseen archives, contemporary observational cinema and dramatized expressive scenes. In order to save children from a fatal infection, they were isolated as newborn and taken into a special institution called Christmas Seal Home. That period of detachment was never talked about in the family, but left permanent scars in the children’s emotional life.

Showtime in Helsinki

Director & scriptwriter: Arthur Franck
Producers: Sandra Enkvist, Arthur Franck
Production company: Polygraf
Support sum: 160,000 €

Pointless kabuki theatre or an essential step towards the fall of the Iron Curtain? Showtime in Helsinki is an immersive all-archival study of perhaps the most important, and simultaneously the most forgotten, Cold War event ever to take place.

Short Films

Love/Please
animated / international minority co-production SE-FI

Director & scriptwriter: Anna Mantzaris
Producers: Johan Edström, Lise Fernley, Erika Forzy, Jani Lehto
Finnish co-production company: Böhle Studios
Production company: APPARAT (Sweden)
Support sum: 4,500 €

Love/Please is a dark comedy and a film poem about the human desire for love. In a series of lovely, connected, humorous, tender and bizarre scenes we meet different people in a Nordic town, people that long for inclusion, intimacy, recognition and empathy. With a mixture of darkness and warmth, often with absurd subtext, the film explores what it is to love and to be loved in our world today.

Matkalla sukulaisten luo Haminaan

Director & scriptwriter: Juha Koiranen
Producer: Kimmo Yläkäs
Production company: Kimey
Support sum: 10,000 €

Strive

Director & scriptwriter: Jussi Rautaniemi
Producers: Mark Lwoff, Misha Jaari
Production company: Bufo
Support sum: 123,000 €

In a world where everyone escapes reality, a teenager fights for a chance to feel something real, even if it means risking his own life.

A Woman’s Triumph
international minority co-production DE-FI

Director: Alexander Zwart
Scriptwriters: Tomas Solli, Valia Phyllis Zwart, Alexander Zwart
Producers: Valia Phyllis Zwart, Joonas Berghäll
Finnish co-production company: Oktober
Production company: Komet Film (Germany)
Support sum: 21 500 €