Documentaries

The birth experience affects the whole life. Two Finnish birth experts, midwife Kirsi and doula, i.e. birth support person, Anna-Riitta, work to improve birth practices and empower birth givers. Observational yet strongly cinematic, The Labour of Pain and Joy explores the personal, social and mythic levels of birth.

Pariah is a film about power and powerlessness, about truths and myths and the stuff in between and how a stubborn and resilient housewife took on the entire world to make a point.

Regina is a young feminist wrestler who fights men to become an international star. However, the true battle in wrestling takes place outside the ring – in the story team meetings.

Cinematic film about radical young people who are defending one of the last coniferous forest areas in Europe. It is also an unusual love story of a younger generation whose object of love is the Finnish forest.

The three main protagonists come face to face with a deeply rooted national ideology of the forest as a foundation for the nation’s economic well-being.

The documentary follows the charismatic young environmentalists for over a year as they take part in the new dynamic Forest Movement.

Carmen is the coming-of-age story of a resourceful girl who is passionate about dancing. This dynamic documentary follows a fearless Finnish Romany girl for seven years on her way to adulthood.

The Arctic Circle of Lust is about the secret sexuality of middle-aged men living in peripheral regions and the ensuing relationship and identity crises that occur when the men are caught red-handed. How does a man who has come to terms with their bisexuality learn to be truthful and faithful to themselves and their partner? Arctic Circle of Lust is an intimate and wholesome family film about regular Finnish middle-aged men, who, in various ways, face a partially unacknowledged and invisible sexual desire – bisexuality.

A filmmaker asks 11 young locals to lock into an old mine for 11 days in Almaden, Spain, in order to honor their grandparents mining strike of 1984.

Outside the mine villagers start demonstrating, national media arrives and the politicians and the mining company get nervous. The nostalgic tribute turns into social movement, documentary filmmaking intervenes reality, and suddenly some of the participants threaten not to leave the mine at all.

Oksana, 29-year-old Ukrainian doctor is living in Finland when the war breaks out. Oksana decides to do something. She jumps into a bus on its way to the border of Ukraine and Poland. Goal of these “rescue operations” is to bring Ukrainians to Finland. Do No Harm is a film from the sidelines of war. It is a personal story about the problems connected to helping. What can you do when you have to do something?

The significance of the WWII intelligence officer’s secret past begins to be revealed as his grandson begins to investigate his family’s history and his grandfather’s international espionage networks. As the mystery unfolds, it becomes clear that the grandfather had to work under the constant threat of the Soviet Union, delivering his findings first to Germany and its allies and, after the war, to NATO.

The film also paints a startling picture of Finland’s role as a playing field for international espionage. The protagonist’s observations of the secrets that have been passed down through generations help us reflect on our own safety today. Have we learned anything in this changed world?