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International film festivals host Finnish flicks
Tiina Lymi’s Happier Times, Grump will be screened at the Beijing International Film Festival, while Markku Pölönen’s Land of Hope will be shown at St. Paul International Film Festival in Minnesota.
Happier Times, Grump (Ilosia aikoja, Mielensäpahoittaja) is TiinaLymi’s humorous take on an inter-generational relationship between granddaughter Sofia (Satu Tuuli Karhu) and her grumpy granddad, The Grump (Heikki Kinnunen).
The film has been screened widely at international festivals, including in Petroskoi and St. Petersburg in Russia, the Netherlands and at Cinequest in California, the US. In Beijing, the film will compete for the Tiantan Award, which celebrates “beauty in variety, harmony in diversity” and includes seven categories.
Markku Pölönen’s Land of Hope (Oma maa) has also been busy touring Stateside, with screenings at Santa Barbara International Film Festival and the Nordic Lights Film Festival in Seattle, as well as an upcoming one at St. Paul International Film Festival.
The film takes audiences to post-World War II Finland and tells the intimate love story of Anni (Oona Airola) and Veikko (Konsta Laakso). The story mirrors the resettlement of over 440 000 evacuees from Eastern Finland and the tragic human consequences of war.