Travel tips, film news and favourite albums

Always wanted to visit Finnish Lapland? Travel + Leisure shares its top tips on how to plan the perfect trip to the region, which is “known for its stunning nighttime sky views, wide-open landscapes, and air so fresh it’s been shown to increase happiness”. 

Khadar Ayderus Ahmed has revealed his next feature film. The Finnish-Somalian film-maker told Variety he is working on a comedy to be shot in Africa with an African cast. The film, scheduled to start filming in the second half of 2023, will combine mythology with comedy and focus on the themes of female empowerment and inclusiveness. 

Hurja Halla’s debut album, Riitti, leaves you wanting more, writes Finnish Music Quarterly. The folk music duo of multi-instrumentalists Janne Ojajärvi and Liisa Haapanen has the perfect album for this season as it “invites us to dance away the darkness”.  

Congratulations to Alina Tomnikov, one of European Shooting Stars for 2023! Tomnikov is one of the ten actors selected by an international jury to the prestigious programme. According to the Finnish Film Foundation, the jury was impressed by Tomnikov’s performance in The Worst Idea Ever, where “her character grabs the audience by the lapels and compels them to fall in love with her, while letting them know she doesn’t give a damn about them”. 

Love interior design? Dezeen has listed its top 10 shop interiors of 2022, including the Durat showroom in Helsinki. The website highlights its bold colours and how “almost every element in the 100-square-metre showroom is formed of Durat's terrazzo-like surface material, which is made from plastic waste and is 100 per cent recyclable”.

If you are a newcomer to Finnish music, here is a list to get you started. Music Finland’s staff have chosen their favourite Finnish albums of 2022. The twelve picks cover everything from indie rock and electronic pop to folk music and classical pieces. 

Two Finnish films will get their world premiere at the International Film Festival Rotterdam. Selma Vilhunen’s Four Little Adults has been selected for the festival’s Big Screen Competition, and Sami van Ingen and Mika Taanila’s documentary Monica in the South Seas will screen in its Cinema Regained section. The Finnish Film Foundation has the news. 

Here is one for Moomin lovers. The Moomin website has collected a list of fun offline and online activities related to Tove Jansson and the hippo-like creatures. 

For those heading to the Eurosonic festival in the Netherlands, check out the Finnish acts performing there. According to Music Finland, these are “modern rockers Cyan Kicks, crossover violin phenomenon Elia Lombardini, rising pop rapper Averagekidluke and ethno-techno outfit Suistamon Sähkö”. 

Finnish photographer Mikko Lagerstedt knows how to capture the magic of snowy Nordic landscapes. You can have a sneak peek at his upcoming print collection, In The Solitude, on Colossal.

Inno’s Naku furniture family has a new member, a stackable chair called Naku Stack. Designed by the brand’s founder, Harri Korhonen, the chair is made of solid wood and features a graphic A-shaped frame, Dezeen writes.