Finnish series creators are ready to laugh – also at themselves.
“While cultures vary, a fish-out-of-water experience is universal,” says writer Beata Harju, behind “Lay Low and Don’t Be Fabulous” about a woman who just can’t let go of her ex. Or of her Finnish roots.
“Finland is the perfect setting for a culture-clash comedy, because our networking events are so silent, you can hear the crunch of a cucumber.”
The show, set to bow in the Focus on Finland showcase at Mipcom, won’t be the only one led by complex female protagonists. In “True North,” three women fight for power after Egyptian refugee, Layla, joins a catering company with a secret.
“Through placing the story in [Spain’s] Marbella, where international jet-setters and social media celebrities live next to refugees and locals struggling to get by, we create a unique story around some of the inequalities of today’s society,...
“While cultures vary, a fish-out-of-water experience is universal,” says writer Beata Harju, behind “Lay Low and Don’t Be Fabulous” about a woman who just can’t let go of her ex. Or of her Finnish roots.
“Finland is the perfect setting for a culture-clash comedy, because our networking events are so silent, you can hear the crunch of a cucumber.”
The show, set to bow in the Focus on Finland showcase at Mipcom, won’t be the only one led by complex female protagonists. In “True North,” three women fight for power after Egyptian refugee, Layla, joins a catering company with a secret.
“Through placing the story in [Spain’s] Marbella, where international jet-setters and social media celebrities live next to refugees and locals struggling to get by, we create a unique story around some of the inequalities of today’s society,...
- 10/12/2023
- by Marta Balaga
- Variety Film + TV
GÖTEBORG — Indie distributor Intramovies has signed on to handle international sales for the upcoming Finnish feature “Light Light Light.”
Directed by Inari Niemi, and produced by Oskari Huttu at Lucy Loves Drama, the film is an adaptation of the 2011 book “Valoa Valoa Valoa” by Vilja-Tuulia Huotarinen. Writer-actress Juuli Niemi (“Summertime”) wrote the screenplay for the film.
Currently in post-production, the story is set in the spring of 1986, when there is an explosion in Chernobyl. A girl called Mimi arrives in a small village in western Finland. She immediately fills 15-year-old Mariia’s life with light. 20-years-later, Mariia returns home to take care of her sick mother, and memories of that meaningful summer start rising to the surface.
Said Niemi: “When I first read the novel ‘Light Light Light,’ which our film is based on, the thing that I found the most extraordinary was the way the author Vilja-Tuulia Huotarinen portrayed the two main characters,...
Directed by Inari Niemi, and produced by Oskari Huttu at Lucy Loves Drama, the film is an adaptation of the 2011 book “Valoa Valoa Valoa” by Vilja-Tuulia Huotarinen. Writer-actress Juuli Niemi (“Summertime”) wrote the screenplay for the film.
Currently in post-production, the story is set in the spring of 1986, when there is an explosion in Chernobyl. A girl called Mimi arrives in a small village in western Finland. She immediately fills 15-year-old Mariia’s life with light. 20-years-later, Mariia returns home to take care of her sick mother, and memories of that meaningful summer start rising to the surface.
Said Niemi: “When I first read the novel ‘Light Light Light,’ which our film is based on, the thing that I found the most extraordinary was the way the author Vilja-Tuulia Huotarinen portrayed the two main characters,...
- 2/1/2023
- by Liza Foreman
- Variety Film + TV
The spectacular rise of green-haired Finnish pop star Alma has inspired one of Finnish Film Affair’s most buzzy documentaries in progress, “Alma – Who Am I?” Finnish director and actor Pamela Tola spoke to Variety about her film.
Produced by Helsinki production company Lucy Loves and Oskari Huttu, and being pitched at the Helsinki film industry event this week, “Alma – Who Am I?” follows the rise of its subject, who suffers from mental health challenges and who grew up in a socially alienated family with her twin sister and their disabled parents. Alma is also a musical force of nature who writes songs for major international artists and performs her own work to audiences around the world.
Tola confesses that as she got to know her subject she quickly encountered universal themes in the challenges facing women artists.
How did you become interested in Alma’s story and what did...
Produced by Helsinki production company Lucy Loves and Oskari Huttu, and being pitched at the Helsinki film industry event this week, “Alma – Who Am I?” follows the rise of its subject, who suffers from mental health challenges and who grew up in a socially alienated family with her twin sister and their disabled parents. Alma is also a musical force of nature who writes songs for major international artists and performs her own work to audiences around the world.
Tola confesses that as she got to know her subject she quickly encountered universal themes in the challenges facing women artists.
How did you become interested in Alma’s story and what did...
- 9/22/2021
- by Will Tizard
- Variety Film + TV
It will be the third feature from director Jonas Karasek.
Slovakian project The File (Spis) has won Screen International’s Best Pitch Award at the Baltic Event Co-Production Market at the Tallin Black Nights International Film Festival.
Producer Wanda Adamik Hrycova of Bratislava-based Wandal production, director Jonas Karasek and the film’s Finnish co-producer Oskari Huttu of Lucy Loves accepted the award, which offers editorial coverage throughout the film’s life-cycle.
The €1.8m political thriller, based on real events surrounding one of the biggest corruption scandals in Eastern European history, will be the third feature directed by Karasek.
It continues...
Slovakian project The File (Spis) has won Screen International’s Best Pitch Award at the Baltic Event Co-Production Market at the Tallin Black Nights International Film Festival.
Producer Wanda Adamik Hrycova of Bratislava-based Wandal production, director Jonas Karasek and the film’s Finnish co-producer Oskari Huttu of Lucy Loves accepted the award, which offers editorial coverage throughout the film’s life-cycle.
The €1.8m political thriller, based on real events surrounding one of the biggest corruption scandals in Eastern European history, will be the third feature directed by Karasek.
It continues...
- 11/29/2019
- by 158¦Martin Blaney¦40¦
- ScreenDaily
Exclusive: Scanbox takes Scandinavian rights to upcoming period drama from Finnish director Mikko Kuparinen.
Scanbox has acquired Scandinavian rights for Finnish director Mikko Kuparinen’s upcoming drama White Hunger.
The film, pitched at Haugesund’s co-production market this week, has also added partners in Sweden’s GötaFilm (Girls Lost) and Denmark’s Beofilm (Force Majeure).
Kuparinen adapted the script from Aki Ollikainen’s bestselling, Booker-longlisted novel of the same name.
The $2.3m (€2m) period drama is set in 1867 Finland and tells the parallel stories of a mother forced to beg for food during a winter famine; and a wealthy Swedish doctor who falls in love with a prostitute.
Kuparinen said he was aiming for “an arthouse film with audience potential.” He said he will not make a traditional “postcard epic” but a film that is “more cinema verite. We’ll be close to the character’s skin and emotions. As the characters experience their ordeals we’ll be...
Scanbox has acquired Scandinavian rights for Finnish director Mikko Kuparinen’s upcoming drama White Hunger.
The film, pitched at Haugesund’s co-production market this week, has also added partners in Sweden’s GötaFilm (Girls Lost) and Denmark’s Beofilm (Force Majeure).
Kuparinen adapted the script from Aki Ollikainen’s bestselling, Booker-longlisted novel of the same name.
The $2.3m (€2m) period drama is set in 1867 Finland and tells the parallel stories of a mother forced to beg for food during a winter famine; and a wealthy Swedish doctor who falls in love with a prostitute.
Kuparinen said he was aiming for “an arthouse film with audience potential.” He said he will not make a traditional “postcard epic” but a film that is “more cinema verite. We’ll be close to the character’s skin and emotions. As the characters experience their ordeals we’ll be...
- 8/26/2016
- by wendy.mitchell@screendaily.com (Wendy Mitchell)
- ScreenDaily
Screen reports on the 19 project pitches, including animations, family fare and a Daniel Dencik drama.
The Nordic Co-Production And Finance Market at Haugesund’s New Nordic Films event hosted its project pitches today (August 24).
They included Daniel Dencik’s drama about a disintegrating relationship 1000 R.I.P.; a children’s animation from Norway’s Aleksander Nordaas, the director of festival hit Thale; Icelandic director Marteinn Thorsson’s new psychological thriller; Martin Skovbjerg’s debut feature produced by hot new Danish outfit Snowglobe (who won Locarno’s Golden Leopard with Godless); and a new family film, hand drawn 2D animated Amundsen & Nobile.
Projects from Georgia, Italy and Canada were also included in the 19-strong line-up.
Overview of pitches:
1000 R.I.P., dir Daniel Dencik, prod Michael Haslund-Christensen, Company Haslund/Dencik Entertainment (Den)
The team behind 2015’s Gold Coast reunites for this fable inspired by The Passenger about a couple who meet a half Japanese model in the desert...
The Nordic Co-Production And Finance Market at Haugesund’s New Nordic Films event hosted its project pitches today (August 24).
They included Daniel Dencik’s drama about a disintegrating relationship 1000 R.I.P.; a children’s animation from Norway’s Aleksander Nordaas, the director of festival hit Thale; Icelandic director Marteinn Thorsson’s new psychological thriller; Martin Skovbjerg’s debut feature produced by hot new Danish outfit Snowglobe (who won Locarno’s Golden Leopard with Godless); and a new family film, hand drawn 2D animated Amundsen & Nobile.
Projects from Georgia, Italy and Canada were also included in the 19-strong line-up.
Overview of pitches:
1000 R.I.P., dir Daniel Dencik, prod Michael Haslund-Christensen, Company Haslund/Dencik Entertainment (Den)
The team behind 2015’s Gold Coast reunites for this fable inspired by The Passenger about a couple who meet a half Japanese model in the desert...
- 8/24/2016
- by wendy.mitchell@screendaily.com (Wendy Mitchell)
- ScreenDaily
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