The Lightning Rod and A Light That Never Goes Out to premiere in Cannes
A Finnish minority co-production is also in the Official Competition.
Photo: The Lightning Rod
The Lightning Rod (orig. Matalapaine), written and directed by Helmi Donner, has been selected to La Cinef, the official section of the Cannes Film Festival for short films made in film schools. The short film is a poetic horror drama about Irina, a young mother on the run from her poisonous relationship, and her grandmother who has her own wounds too. The film is Donner’s MA film for ELO Film School Finland at Aalto University.
Previous Finnish films in La Cinef (formerly Cinéfondation) are To Return Until (2010) by Salla Sorri and The Painting Sellers (2015) by Juho Kuosmanen. The Painting Sellers won the main Cinéfondation Award.
The Lightning Rod is produced by Sandra Enkvist and Hadi Nikzad, and it stars Oksana Lommi, Janina Berman and Samuel Kujala.
Debut feature in ACID
A Light That Never Goes Out, a debut feature from Lauri-Matti Parppei, will premiere in ACID (Association du cinéma indépendant pour sa diffusion), an independent side section of the festival. The film follows Pauli, a classical flutist, who returns to his small hometown to recover after a breakdown. Pauli runs into Iiris, who starts persuading him to try and make some music together.
The film is produced by by Ilona Tolmunen for Made and co-produced by Goodtime Pictures from Norway. The domestic premiere is in September.
Founded in 1992, some of the previous filmmakers whose films have been shown in ACID include Justine Triet, Kaouther Ben Hania, Radu Jude, Robert Guediguian and Claire Denis.
A Light That Never Goes Out. Photo: Tero Ahonen.
Minority co-production in the Official Competition
Eagles of the Republic, directed by Tarik Saleh, has been selected to the Official Competition. The Swedish film will complete the trilogy which includes The Nile Hilton Incident (2017) ja Boy from Heaven (aka Cairo Conspiracy, 2022).
Both Boy from Heaven and Eagles of the Republic are supported by the Finnish Film Foundation and co-produced by Mark Lwoff and Misha Jaari for Bufo. The cast includes actor Sherwan Haji, known for his role in The Other Side of Hope (2017) by Aki Kaurismäki.
Eagles of the Republic. Photo: Unlimited Stories.
Cannes Film Festival takes place May 13–24, 2025.