Movies: Pirkko Hämäläinen

Finland in the 50s saw a time where boats from all over the world docked in the harbor city of Kotka. In addition to transporting goods, the sailors brought with them another import: jazz, swing and blues. A tale of music-loving, fearless and passion...

Baby Girl, 30, a poet with a bachelor's degree in arts, is anguished because of her relationship with Pirkka, a relatively smart, young man. Baby Girl's parents, Eila and Rampe, do their best to become friends with Pirkka and his elegant mother. Thro...

Story about human relationships, love and forgiveness....

An comedy set in 1960s Helsinki. The story revolves around Elsa, a resolute hatmaker who is in complete control of her life. Besides running her shop, she sometimes doubles as a fortune teller. When Jan, a Czechoslovakian jazz musician and Elsa's old...

Anssi Mänttäri’s low-budget movies with their intimate content have become classics. In this black comedy that takes place in Helsinki in summer the main character (played by Mänttäri himself) jumps from one bar and bed to the next. Especially vulgar...

A Finnish film version of Macbeth. Macbeth, the Thane of Glamis, receives a prophecy from a trio of witches that one day he will become King of Scotland. Consumed by ambition and spurred to action by his wife, Macbeth murders his king and takes the ...

The Unknown Woman is a documentary film scripted and directed by Elina Kivihalme. It depicts the reality of Finnish agriculture and forestry during the war years, when the home front relied entirely upon the work and endurance of the women. All farm ...

Anna Kelanen is an ex-model, who just has been released from prison. She thinks back on her life, when she was a rather successful model, and on the things that went wrong....

Ella, a girl from the province, starts her freshman year at the Helsinki Business School. The capital's party scene introduces her to ecstasy, and together with her new friend Silja and boyfriend Jokke she can't help finding it an easy and lucrative ...

TV play about the legend of Lalli....

Rousku and Raninen are fleeing their unemployment by setting up a construction company. Occupational illiteracy is not an obstacle and accounting is fine when Rouskun's mate deals with things. The entrepreneurs know that the poor can be, but not arti...

Talkative, hyperactive young drifter Ville Alfa goes around Helsinki, basically trying to borrow money from friends and strangers by means of an incessant delivery of quirky and snappy quasi-intellectual lines and fabricated excuses....

An arctic comedy about the childlike, sincere Kauko and his desire to grow up. It is a story about two brothers who accidentally end up in each other's pants. In the Lapland summer night, they encounter lovers, petty criminals, and Kauko, who is lear...

Two diverse families meet for the first time over Christmas dinner. The evening goes off the rails right from the start when the male host couple reveal a closely guarded secret: there's also a hostess in the house, and she's very pregnant! Of course...

Black drama-comedy about elementary school teacher Kaisa who has lost control of her life....

Matti Pellonpää (1951-1995) was one of the most talented Finnish actors of his generation. In Eero Tuomikoski's documentary, we meet Pellonpää in 1984, after Kaurismäki's Arvottomat film, but before his actual big breakthrough....

A man fakes his own suicide in order to see how his close ones react....

Kari Uusitalo, a regular visitor to the Tampere Film Festival, delved into the state of Finnish cinema of the mid-1980s, while getting to know the new generation of filmmakers in Anssi Mänttäri's comedic short documentary. Deep in Reppufilmi's cellar...

Katri's husband has died in the Finnish Winter War. When the Continuation War begins, Katri volunteers to work in a Helsinki military hospital. She is courted by a patient, a poetry-reciting countryman bound to be released from service. In the same t...

Art dealer James has been happily married to Eleanor for many years. Everything changes when James becomes involved in a passionate affair with Kate, who is considerably younger than him. Eleanor finds out about her husband's secret relationship, and...