Stupid Young Heart to compete for the Crystal Bear in Berlinale

Stupid Young Heart, produced by Venla Hellstedt and Elli Toivoniemi for Tuffi Films, has been selected to Berlinale’s Generation 14plus competition. The section features films for young audiences.

Stupid Young Heart is a naturalistic drama about two teenagers Kiira and Lenni (Rosa Honkonen and Jere Ristseppä) in the suburbs of Helsinki who suddenly find themselves expecting a baby. The situation becomes even more complicated as Lenni is drawn to a gang of right-wing extremists of his neighborhood.

Both Vilhunen and Saari are happy that the film is shown in Generation which typically gathers large audiences of teenagers. The film premiered in Finland in October and has gained over 65,000 admissions already.

Selma Vilhunen is known for her Oscar nominated short film Do I Have to Take Care of Everything? (2012), Nordic Council Film Prize winning debut feature Little Wing (2016), and EFA Young Audience Award nominated documentary feature Hobbyhorse Revolution (2017).

Stupid Young Heart is the first feature film Tuffi Films has released as the main producer. Tuffi’s short films have traveled widely to festivals such as Sundance, Berlinale and Locarno. The company is currently developing the One-Off Incident project which will include 11 short films, an impact campaign and a feature film titled MeToo. The project will discuss the different forms of discrimination women face in the society.