17-02-2009

Production Support - The Finnish Film Foundation, February 2009

    The Finnish Film Foundation has granted a total of 5 029 000 € production support to the following feature-length films:

    Film Commissioner Jukka Asikainen:

    Feature-length fiction

    Mannerheim

    Mannerheim tells the story of a man who was recently voted the greatest Finn of all time. It is the story of a distinguished military leader, an intrepid explorer and a great statesman: a human destiny not possible in the modern world.

    The movie follows his life from the motherless small child who is abandoned by his aristocratic father, to the handsome young man who joins the Imperial Russian army towards the end of the 19th century.

    Finally, as President of his country and an old and fragile man, Mannerheim negotiates Finland´s way to peace without dishonour; peace without loss of sovereignty.

    Director: Renny Harlin

    Script: Heikki Vihinen & Marko Leino

    Editing: Brian Berdan

    Cinematography: Roman Osin

    Sound design: Jyrki Rahkonen

    Set design: Streven Lawrence

    Costumes: Marjatta Nissinen

    Make-up design: Greg Cannom & Riikka Virtanen

    Cast: Mikko Nousiainen, Sara Paavolainen, Peter Franzén, Irina Björklund, Ilkka Heiskanen, Kari Heiskanen, Pamela Tola, Laura Birn, Esko Salminen, Jani Volanen, Kari Väänänen, Peter Kanerva, Ville Virtanen

    Shooting: March - June 2009

    Premiere: January 15, 2010

    Distribution in Finland: Nordisk Film Theatrical Distribution Oy

    Financing TV company: MTV3

    International Sales: TrustNordisk

    Budget: 10 M€

    Total Support of The Finnish Film Foundation: 450 000 €

    Production: Solar Films Inc. / Markus Selin & Jukka Helle

    Tel. +358941744700

    Fax +358 9 4174 4744

    E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

    Sister, I Would Like to Stay (Sisko tahtoisin jäädä)

    Emilia, 15, has always been the responsible one in her family. Emilia´s parents are divorced, and the children live with their dad. In the absence of their mother, Emilia looks after her little sister, and her dad says Emilia "will always do fine." On the last day of summer break, Emilia meets Siiri, who seems to be everything Emilia wishes she was: brave, free and independent. It is friendship at first sight, and Emilia´s life soon revolves around Siiri. But can freedom be found in a symbiotic relationship with Siiri? Emilia has to find the courage to break free from Siiri in order to become whole and find her own path. Sister, I Would Like to Stay is a film about the bittersweet beauty of being young.

    Director: Marja Pyykkö

    Script: Marja Pyykkö, Laura Suhonen

    Editing: Mikko Sippola

    Cinematography: Konsta Sohlberg

    Sound design: Panu Riikonen

    Music: Antti Lehtinen

    Set design: Antti Nikkinen

    Costumes: Tiina Kaukanen

    Cast: TBA

    Shooting: August 4 - September 25, 2009

    Premiere: Autumn 2010

    Distribution in Finland: Nordisk Film Theatrical Distribution Oy

    Financing TV company: Channel Four Finland

    International Sales: TBA

    Budget: 1 552 334 €

    Total Support of The Finnish Film Foundation: 650 000 €

    Production: Solar Films Inc. / Markus Selin, Jukka Helle, Piia Nokelainen

    Tel. +358941744700

    Fax +358 9 4174 4744

    E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

    Bad Family (Paha perhe)

    Followed by an ugly divorce the father has been bringing up the son by himself while the mother has had the custody of the daughter. Sixteen years later the mother passes away and the brother and sister meet again. The brother has a crush on his sister and rebels against the father, who copes poorly with the situation. The father ends up alone with his dementic father.

    Director: Aleksi Salmenperä

    Script: Aleksi Salmenperä

    Editing: Samu Heikkilä

    Cinematography: Tuomo Hutri

    Sound design: Tero Malmberg

    Music: Ville A. Tanttu

    Set design: Markku Pätilä

    Costumes: Ella Brigatti

    Make-up design: Marjut Samulin

    Cast: Ville Virtanen, Lauri Tilkanen

    Shooting: March 31 - May 25, 2009

    Premiere: January 29, 2010

    Distribution in Finland: Sandrew Metronome Distribution Finland

    Financing TV company: YLE TV1

    International Sales: TBA

    Budget: 1,6 M€

    Total Support of The Finnish Film Foundation: 780 000 €

    Production: Sputnik Oy / Aki Kaurismäki

    Tel. +35896877100

    Fax +358 9 6877 1010

    E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

    Rally On (Ralliraita)

    Sladi (Heikki Silvennoinen) is a retired top rally co-driver who´s nowadays tired driving teacher in Pekkarinen´s garage complex "Team Susa". Sladi´s nephew Luumu (Olavi Uusivirta) arrives from Helsinki to Pekkarinen´s garage. His parents have sent him North Karelia´s peace and quiet, away from the big city´s attractions. Luumu loves cars and he finds his own place in Pekkarinen´s garage with the help of Team Susa´s mechanist Suko (Peter Franzén).

    Pekkarinen´s garage is situated in his worst opponent Torppo´s states. Torppo Junior (Antti Virmavirta) wants to evict with a big rent raise the whole Pekkarinen´s team before the grand rally triathlon begins. Sladi attracts Torppo Junior to a bet between Torppo team and Susa team, racing against each other in the rally triathlon. The winner takes it all. On stake is the future of Pekkarinen´s garage and its people.

    The preparation goes smoothly in Team Susa´s garage until their driver Stumppi (Mika Nuojua) hurts his hand while rehearsing for the rally. Sladi has no other change than let Luumu go behind the wheel. For Sladi´s surprise Luumu is a magnificent rally driver. But Team Susa´s rally car brakes because of the sabotage of Torppo team.

    The last race of rally triathlon is crucial and Team Susa´s future doesn´t look so good. Sladi is distracted by a sweet Sirkku (Satu Silvo) and Luumu´s heart is swept away by Torppo Junior´s daughter Aija (Laura Birn). Can the honorable duo keep their thoughts in the road and their feelings banned...?

    Of course they can!!

    RALLY, ROCK AND LOVE!

    Director: Markku Pölönen

    Script: Arttu Käyhkö, Heikki Silvennoinen, Markku Pölönen

    Editing: Jari Innanen

    Cinematography: Kari Sohlberg C.F.I.

    Sound design: Kyösti Väntänen

    Music: Vesa Mäkinen & Kotiteollisuus

    Set design: Pete Neuvonen

    Costumes: Anna Sinkkonen

    Make-up design: Riikka Virtanen

    Cast: Heikki Silvennoinen, Satu Silvo, Olavi Uusivirta, Laura Birn, Peter Franzén, Tom Petäjä, Mika Nuojua, Kai Hyttinen, Eeva Litmanen, Antti Virmavirta, Heikki Nousiainen, Sakari Kuosmanen, Aake Kalliala, Janne Reinikainen, Ismo Apell, Hans Stigzelius, Olli-Kalle Heimo, Marja-Leena Gröhn, Hannu Virolainen, Jouko Rummukainen, Janne Kinnunen

    Shooting: May 13 - 23 & September 9 - 26, 2008

    Premiere: February 27, 2009

    Distribution in Finland: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Finland

    Financing TV company: MTV3

    International Sales: TBA

    Budget: ca. 1 200 000 €

    Total Support of The Finnish Film Foundation: 210 000 €

    Production: Suomen Filmiteollisuus SF / Jukka Karttunen & Satu Sadinkangas

    Tel. +358408644804

    E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

    Feature-length children´s films

    Ricky Rapper and Bicycle Thief (Risto Räppääjä ja polkupyörävaras)

    Ricky Rapper´s adventures continue in a fabulous new musical comedy.

    Ricky Rapper and the Bicycle Thief is a touching and action-packed musical comedy, which tells a totally new story of Ricky´s adventures.

    Serena Rapper and Lennart Lindberg decide to go on a vacation and Fanny Freezer comes to take care of Ricky and Nelly Noodlehead. Ricky gets a fancy new bike in consolation. Unfortunately, the new bike disappears inexplicably. This launches a wild adventure in which all key characters mysteriously cross paths. And what is the role of Bertil and Robert Rosenbögel and a hospital headed by odd behaving doctors in all this?

    Director: Mari Rantasila

    Script: Sinikka & Tiina Nopola

    Editing: Tuuli Kuittinen

    Cinematography: Timo Heinänen

    Sound design: Risto Iissalo

    Music: Iiro Rantala

    Set design: Minna Santakari

    Costumes: Niina Pasanen

    Make-up design: Leila Mäkynen

    Cast: (Ricky Rapper TBA, Nelly Butterfly TBA,) Martti Suosalo, Ulla Tapaninen, Annu Valonen

    Shooting: July - August 2009

    Premiere: February or August 2010

    Distribution in Finland: Nordisk Film Theatrical Distribution Oy

    Financing TV company: YLE

    International Sales: TBA

    Budget: 1 709 354 €

    Total Support of The Finnish Film Foundation: 600 000 €

    Production: Kinotar Oy / Lasse Saarinen & Rimbo Salomaa

    Tel. +35891351864

    Fax +358 9 135 7864

    E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

    Film Commissioner Kaisu Isto:

    Feature-length fiction

    Vera - Sukunsa viimeinen (working title)

    Young nenets-girl Neko is taken against her will from her family´s tepee to a boarding school in a Russian village. For the first time in her life Neko finds herself surrounded by a foreign language and culture, and rebels against the attempts to turn her into Russian. Bullied by her schoolmates and pressured by the teachers, Neko decides to run away and return to her family. She talks her fellow nenets boy Parasi from the school into fleeing with her. The children´s flight in the icy forests and tundra is short-lived and the return to the school and their new Russian life inevitable.

    The story is told through the memories of Neko. Now grown up she´s concious of all the good the school gave her. But something essential has changed for good; Neko - the last of her kind - has been alienated from her extincting heritage for good.

    Directors: Markku Lehmuskallio & Anastasia Lapsui

    Script: Markku Lehmuskallio & Anastasia Lapsui

    Editing: Juho Gartz

    Cinematography: Johannes Lehmuskallio

    Sound design: Sergei Zabenin

    Cast: Villagers from Yamal and the town of Salehart

    Shooting: Spring - Summer 2009

    Premiere: February 26, 2010

    Distribution in Finland: Pirkanmaan elokuvakeskus

    Financing TV company: YLE TV1

    International Sales: TBA

    Budget: 554 828 €

    Total Support of The Finnish Film Foundation: 350 000 €

    Production: Illume Oy / Pertti Veijalainen & Jouko Aaltonen

    Tel. +35891481489

    Fax +358 9 148 1489

    E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

    If You Love (Jos rakastat)

    If You Love is an edgy musical love story between a politician´s daughter and an immigrant family´s son. A spoiled 19-years old girl, Ada, crashes a car, loses her memory and has to start her life a new. She falls in love with Toni, but has to carry a big secret, which endangers to destroy everything.

    Director: Neil Hardwick

    Script: Katja Kallio

    Cinematography: Pini Hellstedt

    Music: Leri Leskinen

    Set design: Kaisa Mäkinen

    Cast:TBA

    Shooting: June 4 - July 30, 2010

    Premiere: January / February 2010

    Distribution in Finland: FS Film Oy

    Financing TV company: YLE TV2

    International Sales: TBA

    Budget: 1 583 017 €

    Total Support of The Finnish Film Foundation: 680 000 €

    Production: Juonifilmi Oy / Jarkko Hentula

    Tel. +358207300451

    Fax +358 20 7300 452

    E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

    Hella W

    At last Finnish cinema gives us a heroine - a strong woman, one who takes her place, if no place is offered to her.

    Every Finn knows the characters of Hella Wuolijoki´s Niskavuori plays, but the eventful life of the author is less known to many. Writer Outi Nyytäjä and director Juha Wuolijoki´s journey into Hella´s past makes the story of the famous playwright, politician and businesswoman familiar to all.

    Director: Juha Wuolijoki

    Script: Juha Wuolijoki, adapted from the original script by Outi Nyytäjä

    Editing: Harri Ylönen

    Cinematography: Mika Orasmaa

    Music: Leri Leskinen

    Costumes: Anu Pirilä

    Cast: TBA

    Shooting: May - July 2009 and Winter 2009 - 2010

    Premiere: Autumn 2010

    Distribution in Finland: Sandrew Metronome Distribution Finland Oy

    Financing TV company: YLE

    International Sales: TBA

    Budget: 1 730 000 €

    Total Support of The Finnish Film Foundation: 800 000 €

    Production: Snapper Films Oy / Juha Wuolijoki

    Tel. +358969693560

    Fax +358 9 6969 3569

    E-mail:This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

    Hellsinki (Rööperi)

    Happiness, jail or the grave?

    Hellsinki is based on an interview novel describing the old days of one of the most notorious parts of Helsinki, "Rööperi". The film is set between 1966 and 1979.

    Besides the journey of Tomppa and Krisu, the main characters of the film, Hellsinki tells the story of Gypsy Kari, Arska, Biscuit, Uki and a bunch of other bad boys and criminals; it tells of their memorable and unscrupulous journey from crime and poverty to becoming respectable citizens, going to jail - or dying too young. The wrong side of the law is seen through the eyes of Koistinen, a local police officer.

    The guys, who fall into a life of crime, have one thing in common: they all start by bootlegging, being sure money is an answer to all their problems. Money is a way out of a miserable life; it is a way to happiness and their modest dreams. They can stop doing criminal business as soon as they get enough money.

    When the guys start making more money with black-market booze, their hunger and their dreams grow bigger.

    Even though the reality Rööperi is portrayed as rather rugged and rotten, we can see both warmth and humor in the characters walking the streets of Rööperi; these qualities will make the audience love them. The audience will cry and laugh with them - and for them.

    Director: Aleksi Mäkelä

    Script: Marko Leino

    Editing: Kimmo Taavila

    Cinematography: Pini Hellsted F.S.C.

    Sound design: Jyrki Rahkonen

    Music: Kalle Chydenius

    Set design: Pirjo Rossi

    Costumes: Tiina Kaukanen

    Cast: Samuli Edelmann, Peter Franzén, Kari Hietalahti, Pihla Viitala, Juha Veijonen, Jasper Pääkkönen, Pekka Valkeejärvi, Hiski Grönstrand, Tommi Rantamäki, Kristo Salminen

    Shooting: March, June - July 2008

    Premiere: January 9, 2009

    Distribution in Finland: Nordisk Film Theatrical Distribution

    Financing TV company: MTV3

    International Sales: TrustNordisk

    Budget: 1 718 234 €

    Total Support of The Finnish Film Foundation: 550 000 €

    Production: Solar Films Inc. / Markus Selin & Jukka Helle

    Tel. +358941744700

    Fax +358 9 4174 4744

    E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

    International co-productions

    Circus Fantasticus

    (co-production Slovenia, Ireland, Finland)

    When the deafening rattle of war dies away, we see Stevo, scared, running about the field where traces of warfare can be seen and where his house, likewise badly damaged, stands. He is left alone with his daughter Dunja and son Small as his wife has been hit by one of the grenades. When it seems that the worst is over, a terrible rumble can be heard from a distance and keeps nearing the house as a threat.

    Stevo discovers, confused, that the vehicle which stopped in front of the house is not a killing machine but a rather unusual vehicle of Circus Fantasticus.

    Getting know of the group of bizarre but utterly human characters changes the life of Stevo and his children, and they join the circus caravan which sets off on a new journey.

    Director: Janez Burger

    Script: Janez Burger

    Cinematography: Divis Marek

    Sound design: Rob Flannagan

    Set design: Vasja Kokelj & Andraž Trkman

    Costumes: Alan Hranitelj

    Make-up design: Alenka Nahtigal

    Cast: Leon Lučev, rene Bazinet, Daniel Rovai, Pauliina Räsänen, Slava Volkov, David Boelee, Martens Yannick, Ravil Sultanov, Nataša Sultanova, Luna Mijovic, Devi Trošt, Marjuta Slamič, Enej Grom, Zhang Xiaoxue, Urs Jackle

    Shooting: March 2 - April 30, 2009

    Premiere: September 1, 2010

    Distribution in Finland: TBA

    International Sales: TBA

    Budget: 2 073 639 €

    Total Support of The Finnish Film Foundation: 29 000 €

    Production: Staragara / Jozko Rutar (Slovenia)

    Finnish co-producer: Cine Works / Petri Rossi

    Tel. +358503861266

    E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

    ********************************************************************

    Satu Elo

    kulttuuriviennin tiedottaja /

    Information Officer International Promotion

    Suomen elokuvasäätiö /

    The Finnish Film Foundation

    Kanavakatu 12

    FI-00160 Helsinki

    tel. +358962203020

    fax +358 9 6220 3050

    This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

    http://www.ses.fi/