Lotta Taarasti

Julius, who devours comic books and vampire stories, has a lively imagination. Julius meets Arnold Cautious, who lives in an abandoned house on the outskirts of town and introduces himself as a degenerated, strawberry juice-drinking vampire. Julius and Cautious become friends. Together they try to make the Lucky Stone, the recipe for which is in Cautious' grandmother's secret recipe book. Julius wants to give the stone to his estranged parents so they can rediscover their common happiness. Julius and Arnold's laboratory attempts to make the Lucky Stone falter badly time and time again, but they stubbornly pursue their quest for happiness.

Nisse’s wife Leila has just died but he feels he’s done enough mourning. Friends and family are overrun by Nisse who just wants the funeral to be over and done with. No fuss and no mourning here! Nisse demands to be left alone. So, there he is, with the only thing remaining – the sorrow. Nisse grows to understand that even a deep loss is no excuse to eliminate everyone and everything.

In this short, shown in the student category at IDFA, the compelling, dramatised story of a pedophile is told. He hasn’t opened up about his orientation to even those closest to him, nor would he ever hurt a child.

Digging up the memory of the Finnish Civil War in 1918, Grey Wolf tells a historical story with a modern twist. When Viktor Stark, a peaceful writer of the conservative Whites, finds a wounded enemy soldier hiding for his life, Stark’s values and loyalty are measured against each other. Will he choose a higher moral or otherness? The answer is revealed in the final scene that turns the whole world around. Grey Wolf is set in history, but truly, it tells about us.

A self-ironic portrayal of a young woman and her secret cigarettes.

The daily life of an ill man is constantly interrupted by television advertisements. They promise some change to his life. He finds himself as a part of the adverts, but soon the empty promises become demonically possessive. The truth sets in.

The Finnish rap film Punasii päin draws inspiration from street art, particularly the Stop Graffiti project, which sees the film's main characters, graffiti artists Henri and Joonas, become uneducated and unemployed, burdened with disproportionate debt as punishment for painting on walls. Helsinki, the last bastion of prohibition, offers the marginalized a job as a drug dealer. The film features a significant number of Finnish rap artists and their provocative underground songs.