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Finnish films get prestige screentime in the US
The Ann Arbor Film Festival will feature three Finnish films by directors Patrik Söderlund, Sami van Ingen and Maija Blåfield. All the films will be screened in the international competition.
Ann Arbor is known for its experimentalist and avant-garde feel and content. It is the oldest film festival in its genre and will be held for the 57th time this year at the end of March in Michigan, the US.
The likes of Andy Warhol, Kenneth Anger and even George Lucas have attended the festival to promote their early experimental works. This year’s festival consists of almost 40 different programmes and 180 films in various genres from over 20 countries.
Patrik Söderlund’s Realms(Valtakunnat) will take its audiences through geological epochs and past the Anthropocene. The film premiered at Rotterdam Film Festival in January.
Perhaps the most anticipated film of the Finnish trio is Sami van Ingen’s short film Flame (Polte), which has been built around damaged frames from Teuvo Tulio’s Silja – Fallen Asleep When Young (Nuorena Nukkunut) from 1937. The original material was thought to be lost due to a studio fire in the 1950s. Van Ingen was presented with the opportunity to make the film after the frames were discovered in Paris in 2015.
Finally,Maija Blåfield’s On Destruction and Preservation (Tuhoutumisesta ja säilyttämisestä) is a humorous documentary that tells five different stories, touching on climate change, lost luggage and the romantic life of fungi.