Movies about Finland

A stubbornly traditional eighty-year-old farmer - whose social attitudes verge on the prehistoric - raises hell when he is forced to move in with his sadsack, city-dwelling son and domineering daughter-in-law.

The comedy, which takes place in a fictitious desert town near the U.S.-Mexico border, centers on the intertwining daily lives of neighbors Bud Buckwald and Ernesto Gonzales. Bud, a married father of three, is a Border Patrol agent who feels threatened by the cultural changes that have transformed his neighborhood. Living next door is Ernesto, an industrious Mexican immigrant and father of four, who is proud to be making it in America. As Bud and Ernesto’s paths begin to cross, their families become bound by friendship, romance and conflict.

Touko Laaksonen, a decorated officer, returns home after a harrowing and heroic experience serving his country in World War II, but life in Finland during peacetime proves equally distressing. He finds peace-time Helsinki rampant with persecution of the homosexual and men around him even being pressured to marry women and have children. Touko finds refuge in his liberating art, specialising in homoerotic drawings of muscular men, free of inhibitions. His work – made famous by his signature ‘Tom of Finland’ – became the emblem of a generation of men and fanned the flames of a gay revolution.

An anthology of 5 different cab drivers in 5 American and European cities and their remarkable fares on the same eventful night.

A man with a mysterious past flees the country to escape his own personal hell... only to arrive somewhere much worse. In an effort to survive this new horror, he turns to his personified conscience.

A 16-year-old girl raised by her father to be the perfect assassin is dispatched on a mission across Europe. Tracked by a ruthless operatives, she faces startling revelations about her existence and questions about her humanity.

"Jester's Night: Seriously Off Nut" tells us a story that happened the day before - The New Year. It is the time when we wait for the wishes to come true. The picture is about our dreams that change with time and, unfortunately, become more pragmatic. The characters dedicate their lives to the career without noticing anything around them even their lovers' worries. Living this day together with characters, a viewer understands that it is never too late to implement in life their dreams. A businessman and a housewife; a cab driver and a man-hater; a secretary and a barbershop; a director and an ordinary tutor - everyone has their own New Year. For someone it is a pleasant fuss and an opportunity to make a secret wish. For others it is an annual tradition to make fun of oneself and to laugh at others during "Jester's Night".

A Finnish superhero, a masked vigilante Rendel seeks for revenge and fights against VALA, the huge criminal organization.

Four youngsters bump into a weird creature, which looks to be half human, half rabbit. This creature is called Bunny the Killer Thing, and it haunts anything which reminds of women's genitals.

Sang-min comes to Finland to send her autistic son to a special camp. She feels so alienated in snow covered-white Helsinki. Ki-hong is an architect working in Finland on dispatched duty. His family is not so perfect either with a daughter having child depression and mentally unease wife. The two meet for the first time at the gathering point of this special camp. They get to have a short trip to the camp together in silence but start to feel comfortable and connected to each other. On their way back to Helsinki, with the road blocked from heavy snow, Sang-min and Ki-hong are isolated in a cabin by the forest and lake. Carried away by irresistible passion, they spend a night together. But the next day, they go separate ways without asking each other’s name...

The film follows Finnish army machine gun company in Continuation War against Soviet Union, 1941–1944. Based on Väinö Linna's best selling novel Tuntematon Sotilas (The Unknown Soldier) and the novel's uncensored version, Sotaromaani (A War Novel).

Through the eyes of two 12-year-old boys, the sexual revolution arrives in a conservative and religious small town in Northern Finland.

Naked Harbour is a movie about Finnish love in the year 2011. It is a story about people who seek love and acceptance at any cost. During one winter week all its characters face something irreversible.

12-year-old Tinja is desperate to please her mother, a woman obsessed with presenting the image of a perfect family. One night, Tinja finds a strange egg. What hatches is beyond belief.

Helena has worked as a kind of midwife on the eve of the Lapland War. She wants to leave everything behind, and a suitable opportunity arises when she falls in love with a German-Finnish officer Johannes, who is leaving to German-led Titovka prison camp in the Soviet Union. Helena enlists into the camp as a nurse, where she experiences the brutality of war.

Summer 1962 and Olli Mäki has a shot at the world championship title in featherweight boxing. From the Finnish countryside to the bright lights of Helsinki, everything has been prepared for his fame and fortune. All Olli has to do is lose weight and concentrate. But there is a problem – he has fallen in love with Raija.

Two 18-year old girls from a christian fundamentalist community flee to a city for a summer job.

Juha Berg is a 30-year-old hopeless drunk in the Kallio neighborhood of Helsinki. Juha doesn't have the first intention of changing his way of life - just the opposite. He really enjoys sundry sexual relationships, adrenalin-inducing violence and, of course, alcohol for which he gets money even if by collecting bottles. But the hilarity in a drunken haze soon gets a run for its money as the passionate Juha falls in love with his AA group leader. The relationship with Tiina progresses quickly to dating and Juha has to make pivotal decisions. Juha has to begin balancing between maintaining a functional intimate relationship and his old lifestyle. Juha's best friend Kristian does his best to sabotage the relationship, and Juha's shaky decision to stay sober is further hindered by Mikael, an expert on German erotica. But how far can you go before there is only one solution left?

Long time ago, there lived a man whose name was Gustaf Mannerheim, better known as the Marshal of Finland. He was given this title following his courage as an army man; he fought for the freedom of his small country, struggling to keep its independency. As small nations always do, this nation needed a true hero, and Gustaf was the true hero of them: brave, ambitious, successful. But what are the things a hero must always sacrifice? How can you live normal life if you think your country needs you more than your family? Gustaf became the most beloved person in his country and the nation loved him, he had succeeded to become the greatest soldier there ever was, but he still had lost the most important thing in his life – love. This is the story about an extraordinary man captured inside the great legend, who was longing for ordinary life, love and peace. But as we know it, life is like a mountain – there are ups and there are downs.

A young and ambitious civil servant Jussi finds himself being in charge of the environmental permit of a huge nickel and uranium mine in Northern Finland. The Talvivaara mine, led by a charismatic globe trotting visioner Pekka Perä is introducing an entirely new method of collecting minerals whilst creating jobs in one of the poorest areas in Scandinavia. Jussi slowly discovers that he has been led astray by several people and that the new method has serious downsides he did not forsee. The mine is causing environmental hazards that are being hushed down. A new application for another permit is brough to his table by the same mine. Along with the application comes an interesting job offer and a chance of a new beginning. Jussi has to decide whether he will play along and if so, with whom.

Calamari Union is an allegorical movie that tells the story of sixteen men all of whom are called Frank (inspired by Frank Armoton) apart from a single confrere, Pekka. Collectively the Franks and Pekka are unhappy with the perceived oppression they face in their district of Helsinki, Kallio, and decide to move to another, Eira, imagining it to be an unspoiled place where people can live lives of dignity. The journey is an ironic one given that both districts are not so far apart. In this spirit, their journey across the city takes on epic proportions with each of the travellers gradually falling by the wayside due to such travails as marriage, work, and death. In its entirety the film is a wry discussion of humanity within a system that regards humans as subservient components.

With few options, newly pardoned convict Leila agrees to work as an assistant to a blind pastor. Father Jacob spends his days answering the letters of the needy, which Leila finds pointless. But when the letters stop, the pastor is devastated and Leila finds herself cast in a new role.

8-Ball tells the story of single mother Pike who, having just been released from prison, is trying to start her life anew. When her former boyfriend Lalli comes back from abroad, it opens a window into a past that Pike wants to put behind her.

Raid is a mysterious drifter and ex-criminal who comes and goes as he pleases. He has been away from the country for an extended period of time but learns on his return that his ex-girlfriend Tarja has presumably died in a fire that he soon discovers was a larceny. He is also contacted by inspector Jansson, who he knows from the past regarding the murder of a protestor. Raid begins his investigation and soon finds that there's more to the cases than meets the eye.. This movie is a sequel to the very popular Raid TV series.

Two troubled youths break out of their halfway house and make their way to one's home.

Little Wing tells the story of 12-year-old Varpu, who's quickly growing to adulthood, and about her mother, who doesn't want to grow up. Varpu lives with her mother and has never met her father. One night Varpu has enough of her riding buddies and her mother. She steals a car and drives up north in search of her father, of whom she only knows the name. But her father is not exactly what she had expected. Meeting him trigger something in Varpu and Siru's life, making them realize their role in each other's lives, and in the world.

Taavi,the enigmatic 18-year-old lead, has just inherited his long-deceased wealthy parents home and estate. It is high school graduation and Taavi's birthday, and after his fiends greet him au natural and are arrested, Taavi invites his friends to the mansion for a wild party. Taavi lives with a recording camera to his eye, a machine that allows his to keep interpersonal distance from everyone. Among his friends are Jere who considers himself a woman's man, Markus (who appears the well-adjusted one, and chubby, pierced Sami whose sexuality is ambiguous. The party gets wild, guests sleep around, and Taavi records it all!

Turo is stuck in a small village and the best thing in his life is being the lead vocalist for the amateur metal band Impaled Rektum. He and his bandmates have practiced for 12 years without playing a single gig. The guys get a surprise visitor from Norway -- the promoter for a huge heavy metal music festival -- and decide it's now or never. They steal a van, a corpse, and even a new drummer to make their dreams a reality.

Armi Ratia is the woman behind the legendary design company Marimekko and a worldwide celebrity. A theatre company has taken on the task of trying to portray the life and work of this complex person. The sets mainly consist of the well-known patterns that we all have grown to love. Armi is a brave, risk-taking businesswoman and her passion for her company repeatedly takes its toll on her employees, finances and family. The company grows while Armi's personal life is shaken by suicide attempts and turbulence. In Armi Alive!, Oscar-nominated film producer and director Jörn Donner portrays a fascinating woman with fervent ideas about the new Finnish man, her company, fabrics and clothes.

Having moved to Paris for university, Leevi returns to his native Finland for the summer to help his estranged father renovate the family lake house so it can be sold. Tareq, a recent asylum seeker from Syria, has been hired to help with the work, and when Leevi's father has to return to town on business, the two young men establish a connection and embark on a romance set against the idyllic Finnish summer. However, looming over this chance encounter, is the father's imminent return to the lake house, the continuation of Leevi's studies abroad as well as Tareq's complex relationship with his family in Syria.

The film follows Sanna, who sets out to document the countless ways there are to ruin a marriage for her doctoral thesis.

September of 1944, a few days before Finland went out of the Second World War. A chained to a rock Finnish sniper-kamikadze Veikko managed to set himself free. Ivan, a captain of the Soviet Army, arrested by the Front Secret Police 'Smersh', has a narrow escape. They are soldiers of the two enemy armies. A Lapp woman Anni gives a shelter to both of them at her farm. For Anni they are not enemies, but just men.

It's the eve of Christmas in northern Finland and an "archeological" dig has just unearthed the real Santa Claus. But this particular Santa isn't the one you want coming to town. When all the local children begin mysteriously disappearing, young Pietari and his father Rauno, a reindeer hunter by trade, capture the mythological being and attempt to sell Santa to the misguided leader of the multinational corporation sponsoring the dig. Santa's elves, however, will stop at nothing to free their fearless leader from captivity. What ensues is a wildly humorous nightmare - a fantastically bizarre polemic on modern day morality. RARE EXPORTS: A CHRISTMAS TALE is a re-imagining of the most classic of all childhood fantasies, and is a darkly comic gem soon to be required perennial holiday viewing.

In this pitch black comedy the rivalry between two neighbors escalates into an all out war. Through a maintenance error on a tractor they both end up, paralyzed, in a wheelchair. It seems they are doomed to stay together. They no longer focus their rage on each other but on the manufacturer of the tractor, in Helsinki. So get ready for a hilarious wheelchair road movie.

Thousands of years ago in ancient China, a love struck sword hero fights against his destiny. He wants another chance to be reunited with his loved one and he gets that chance, in a far away place and a far away time, in the cold north, in modern Finland. Jade Warrior is set in ancient China early iron age and present day Finland. The past is feeding the story in present day, slowly revealing our warrior his real origin, his superior skills and his destiny. Jade Warrior - the first Finnish Kung Fu film - combines Finnish and Chinese mythologies into one film. Jade Warrior is an homage to Kung Fu genre strongly spiced with a truly original approach to Finnish national epic Kalevala. Like Kalevala Jade Warrior is a pure melodrama. A story of Kalevala's greatest hero. Written by www.ses.fi

Lapland Odyssey is a comedy about Janne, a man from Lapland in northern Finland, a man who has made a career out of living on welfare. Inari, his girlfriend, is tired of Janne's incapability of getting a grip on life, Janne wasn't even able to buy a digital TV box that Inari had given money for. Inari gives an ultimatum: a digital box needs to arrive by dawn or she leaves. Janne sets out into the night with his two friends to find a box. On their way to the city of Rovaniemi, Janne and his friends face many challenges, obstacles and temptations. They learn that they need to be daring. There's no room to give into bitterness. The most important thing isn't success, but rather the journey in itself.

When a border guard with a sixth sense for identifying smugglers encounters the first person she cannot prove is guilty, she is forced to confront terrifying revelations about herself and humankind.

Luokkakokous is a story about three men that travel back to their hometown to attend their high school class reunion.

Air Force One is shot down by terrorists, leaving the President of the United States stranded in the wilderness. 13-year old Oskari is also in that wilderness, on a hunting mission to prove his maturity to his kinsfolk by tracking down a deer, but instead discovers the President in an escape pod. With the terrorists closing in to capture their prize, the unlikely duo team up to escape their hunters.

Director Christophe Blanc delivers a fast-past thriller set to a background of Finland's stunning landscape. High-end car dealership owner Maxime is pursued by Finnish gangsters over unsatisfactory cars his dead partner sold them.

Modern finnish movie about two very different young adults that after a chance meeting end up making music together and fall in love. While Nellis parents have the perfect career and man planned, she dreams of becoming a singer. Through a chance meeting at the studio, she meets the young and grungy Hip Hop music artist Sunen and asks him to help her make a demo tape. Not only is the ensuing story about differences growing closer and the difficulties that have to be overcome, well told. Also the music is exceptionally well made. It is quite unbelievable that this is the first feature of the director.

Taisto Kasurinen is a Finnish coal miner whose father has just committed suicide and who is framed for a crime he did not commit. In jail, he starts to dream about leaving the country and starting a new life. He escapes from prison but things don't go as planned...

A father who was absent for 30 years of his son's life returns and wants to set on a journey through Finland, so they can learn to know each other again.

Helsinki, 1945. The end of the war brings a new sense of artistic and social freedom for painter Tove Jansson. While focusing her artistic dreams on painting, the enchanting tales of the ‘Moomin’ creatures she told to scared children in bomb shelters, rapidly take on a life of their own, bringing international fame.

Russia attacked Finland in late November 1939. This film tells the story of a Finnish platoon of reservists from the municipality of Kauhava in the province of Pohjanmaa/Ostrobothnia who leave their homes and go to war. The film focuses on the farmer brothers Martti and Paavo Hakala.

Tram driver Lauri looses his job. Shortly later, the restaurant where his wife Ilona works as a headwaitress is closed. Too proud, to receive money from the social welfare system, they hardly try to find new jobs. But they are completely unlucky and clumsy, one disaster is followed by the next. Finally, their courage, confidence, and their unbreakable love triumph over the fate.

A restaurateur befriends a Syrian refugee who has recently arrived in Finland.

The Leningrad Cowboys, a group of Russian musicians, and their manager, travel to America seeking fame and fortune. As they cross the country, trying to get to a wedding in Mexico, they are followed by the village idiot, who wishes to join the band.

Neo-Nazi falls in love with a woman who has a black son and finds himself fighting with conflicting feelings.

A 14-year-old boy in a stifling Helsinki slum takes some unwise life lessons from his soon-to-be-incarcerated older brother, in Finnish master Pirjo Honkasalo’s gorgeously stylized and emotionally devastating work about what we pass on to younger generations, and the ways we do it.