An autumn season full of Finnish releases
Hopes raised that domestic productions could grab over 20% of aggregate audience
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The rise in Finnish film production began in the mid-1990s. Whereas the share of attendances won by Finnish-made releases dipped as low as 4% or less in 1994 and 1996, by 1999 it was up to nearly 25%, in great measure as a result of the box-office success of the WW2 drama Ambush (Rukajärven tie).
At the same time, aggregate attendances at Finnish movie theatres spurted upwards, from a low of 5.3 million in 1995 to top 7 million by 2000. In 2002 and 2003 things went even higher, thanks to blockbuster foreign titles like the Lord of the Rings trilogy and the Harry Potter films.
Domestic releases currently account for some 15-20% of total audiences annually.
This year could see a return to the earlier highs, as there will be six Finnish movies on first-run release over a three- or four-month period.
Pekka Lehto's thriller Game Over starts things off on August 26th, followed by Timo Koivusalo's Shadow of the Eagle (Kaksipäisen kotkan varjossa), a patriotic "Russification" movie about Czarist times when Finland was still a Grand Duchy. This opens nationwide on September 9th.
Klaus Härö's portrayal of a 1940s war-child Mother of Mine (Äideistä parhain) will be released at the end of September, a week before Kaija Juurikkala's quasi-Dickensian children's feature Valo.
Dome Karukoski has directed a hiphop-flavoured boy-meets-girl piece entitled Beauty and the Bastard (Tyttö sinä olet tähti) that opens on October 21st, and just before Christmas viewers can see Ilkka Vanne's drama about women's auxiliaries in the war years, entitled Promise (Lupaus).
As if this were not enough, the momentum looks set to continue into the New Year.
Many might argue that the biggest buzz currently is around a battle-of-the-sexes comedy about a women's football team entitled FC Venus.
This is scheduled to come out in early January of next year, rapidly followed by a semi-fictional account of the flight and painful fall to earth of a ski-jumper named... Matti.
Given the Finnish obsession with the tabloid travails of ex-Olympic hero Matti Nykänen, this last production is fairly likely to do good business in early 2006.
The Finnish Film Foundation's Harri Ahokas believes the rise of Finnish cinema is down to a new generation of directors and canny producers.
"The role of the producer has clearly been strengthened, and marketing is getting to be up to an international standard", says Ahokas.
The new generation has also tapped in to themes that appeal to the public, for example portrayals of great men and local icons, and many of the films address strongly national subjects.
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 20.8.2005
More on this subject:
 Movie theatres look to rescue by autumn domestic first-runs
Links:
Finnish Film Foundation: Upcoming Releases
Internet Movie Database (search on film name in either Finnish or English)
Helsingin Sanomat
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