Sari Aaltonen

During the 1950s, Helsinki was the focal point of the Cold War, as global powers and their intelligence agencies coalesced in the small neutral country that stood between the East and the West. Shadow Lines is an international spy thriller that follows a secret intelligence team whose mission is to defend the independence of Finland no matter the cost.

Young couple, graffiti artist Asta and skateboarder Joona are planning to leave their small hometown and move abroad to study and experience the world. Things get complicated when they find out that Asta is pregnant. Is it possible to conquer the world and have a baby at the same time?

Young Pietari lives with his reindeer-herding father in arctic Finland. On the eve of Christmas, a nearby excavation makes a frightening discovery and an evil Santa Claus is unleashed…

Mariia visits her childhood home and reminisces about the summer of 1986, when a girl named Mimi arrived in the small village and filled the life of the then 15-year-old Mariia with light.

It is 1595. Brutal wars have just ended in an uneasy peace between Protestant Sweden and Orthodox Russia. We focus on the spiritual defeats of two conquered Finnish brothers, one a hardened near-psychopathic war hero, the other a gentle scientist in an age with no use for such men. They find themselves in the swampy interior, demarcating the new border with a unit of sadistic Russians.

Thousands of years ago in ancient China, a man fights against his destiny. He wants another chance to be reunited with his loved one and he gets that chance, in a far away place and a far away time, in modern Finland.

A man emerges with his autistic daughter and three others from a hospital elevator to find themselves trapped in the building with devilish monsters.

Raid is a mysterious drifter and ex-criminal who comes and goes as he pleases. He has been away from the country for an extended period of time but learns on his return that his ex-girlfriend Tarja has presumably died in a fire that he soon discovers was a larceny. He is also contacted by inspector Jansson, who he knows from the past regarding the murder of a protestor. Raid begins his investigation and soon finds that there's more to the cases than meets the eye.

The cheapest drivers in the hearse business, gambling addict Risto Kivi and his friend Arto Niska, an 85% brainless man, have found themselves in a situation where everything has gone wrong and a fresh start is needed.

The film tells about members of Finnish women's Lotta Service during the Second World War through the eyes of three young women.

Isolated is an antology of short films made by seven Finnish film directors during the covid-19 pandemic. The films are about encountering oneself in isolation. People feel loneliness and it erupts in absurd ways. Family members witness unexpected reactions during the crisis.

War and Peace of Mind explores what war does to the human mind and how both, the individuals and the nation as a whole, survive it psychologically. Finland and WWII, locally known as continuation war, is the backdrop of this documentary.

Mervi is a gay girl living in the hipster quarters of Helsinki. She has been together with Kata for a year, and now they are encouraged by the circumstances to come out from closet. When they do, Mervi realises that she is not the only one in her family with secrets – her parents have been living in an open-bisexual-swinger-relationship for 20 years. On the other hand Kata is pretty surprised that she might be living with a hetero girl that once was dating a neo-nazi. And the ex-boy friend cannot swallow that Mervi is now with a person both of wrong color, and sex. The real threat appears when Kata’s parents arrive from Berlin and the local skinhead chief finds out that a black muslim celebrity politician has arrived to town.

The director Lauri Nurkse tells that Veijarit is a film about "arjensietokyvyttömyys" (= inability to tolerate everyday life) and about the Peter Pan complex. The main actor Mikko Leppilampi says it's about "kolkyttoistavuotiaat" (= thirtyeenagers = people of thirty behaving like teenagers). An immediate reference point is the commedia all'italiana of the 1950s and the 1960s, the black comedy often exposing the infantile stage of development of the Italian male. Saku and Ässä are anti-heroes, but we never fail to sense the humanity behind their shallow and crazy ways. Veijarit is a satire and a parody of a superficial way of life, but there is a vitality in the protagonists that we feel can lead them to a more meaningful stage of existence after the prolonged youth full of sound and fury. There is a motif of transcendence in the imagery of flying: will the balloons carry me or will they burst.

Pipsa wants a better life. She is sure that new breasts will help her to achieve it. But where to get the money for the surgery?

A love story set in the world of theater. Romeo and Juliet is to be the season's grand premiere. Noora, the female lead in the play, breaks her leg at the kickoff party, and Laura, an actress who due to her debilitating stage fright has ended up as the prompter for the play, gets a chance of a lifetime. There are 8 days to the premiere.

Euthanizer tells the story of a mechanic who euthanises sick and old pets as a side job. Despite the grim work, he has a soft spot for the animals. Trouble stirs when the owner of a dog he was supposed to end realises that the canine is still alive. The only innocent party in the drama that ensues is the dog itself.

A boy abandoned by his father wants to become Finland's biggest rock star.

Detective sergeant Timo Harjunpää of the Helsinki Violent Crime Unit loses his daughter in a tragic way. Despite the support of his closest colleague, Constable Onerva Nykänen, Harjunpää is unable to recover from the loss of his family. He seeks revenge against his daughter's killer, while in his work he investigates strange deaths in the Helsinki metro that turn out to be the work of a serial killer.

Rolli and little elf girl Juniper along with the rest of the rollis and other strange creatures lead peaceful and rollishly fun lives in their flourishing Rolli Village. One day the inquisitive friends Rolli and Juniper hear incredible news from Malcolm the Maggot: somewhere far away, beyond mountains, forests and the sea, lies a place called The Beginning of All Time. That’s where the storks always take off on their trips to deliver babies in small bundles to their new homes. Rolli and Juniper cannot help but become curious. Both of them have fallen into Rolli Village in a bundle from the sky, and especially Juniper has always wondered where she came from. The two friends decide to throw themselves into a joint adventure. They embark on a trip toward The Beginning of All Time in order to find the answer to life’s greatest secret.