Pekka Lehto

Interwoven with scenes that are meant to grab attention by their stunning composition, this biographical look at Finland's violinist Arto Arsi is not so much a narration of his childhood and early years, as an attempt to artistically show what was happening inside his psyche during that time. Literally sold to a master teacher, Sergei Rippas (Tarmo Manni) by his mother when he was still a child, the violin prodigy was forcefully and strictly raised to practice, practice, and perfect his technique. Once an adult, Arsi finds a way to escape the rigors of a U.S. tour and drowns his overworked self in drink, or seeks out one-night stands, or otherwise lets off steam. The tightly-wound spring that has been coiled since he was forced into his grueling training and work sessions -- shown through symbolic images -- eventually snaps in a healthy way, freeing Arsi at last to continue on, simply for the love of music.

Krokelby in the 1920s. Sakris Kukkelman is a crippled, Nietzsche reading village idiot who believes himself to be a romantic hero.

Finnish porn movie producer Pertsa returns from America to his home country to continue his profession with hopelessly small budgets and incompetent casts and crews. A self-ironic satire about director Donner's scandalous fame in late 1960s Finland, notorious for a graphic long shot of his penis pointing northeast.

A doctor, her daughter, and her young housekeeper spend their summer on a remote island.

Finnish friends escape taxes to Florida.

A fictitious biography of Aira Samulin, the goddess of dance and importer of all the international dance crazes to Finland for some fifty years. The life story of this extravagant ever-teen, well beyond the usual retirement age, is told inside a fictitious plot about a Master of Ceremonies trying to persuade Aira to stage a show at his cabaret restaurant. Besides Aira Samulin, many other Finnish celebrities appear among the eccentric lineup auditioning for the show, playing more or less their fictionalised selves.

Paavo Mäkinen's alcoholism is hard on the whole family. His wife Terttu falls into depression and is hospitalized. Their children Marja, Tapsa, and Sanna each show symptoms in their own way: leaving home, drinking, skipping school. Will Paavo manage to stop drinking for the sake of his family?

Valtteri and Sepe, two ordinary white-collar guys from southern Finland drive up north to implement a plan they've been hatching for months. Because they simply love the taste of lamb, baked "robber-style" in a hole dug under a campfire, they forge their car's number plates and other important documents just to be able to poach sheep grazing on the roadside without getting caught. Lots of man talk around the campfire, aided by lots of booze. The summer may be wet, but the vodka is definitely dry.

This very serious drama, based on a true incident, explores the unremitting labor which put a young mother living in rural isolation into the situation of being charged with having thrown her children down a well. Her husband is an unimaginative, work-obsessed man who cannot see that her constant hard work without any support or sympathy from anyone is driving the sensitive woman to consider suicide. When the loutish fellow discovers that his wife and three children are missing, he calls the police, and a manhunt begins. The police discover the oldest boy alive, and find that the mother tried to drown herself, but has survived. The two younger children remained missing.

Max Sjöman, Architect: "This is the story of my daughter. Her life was short. Short is not purposeless. I brick her picture into the cornerstone of an atomic power station. It is my testament to the future generations. They'll see from that photograph what a healthy child once looked like."

A documentary-like film about Jussi Parviainen's divorce.

Docudrama about the Soviet occupation of a Finnish village in the fall before the Winter War.

A Finnish businessman finds himself at the center of an international corruption scandal.

It is the first anniversary of Uuno and Elisabet. Uuno has placed a bet with his friend Härski-Hartikainen a year ago, that if Uuno can take just one year of marriage with Elisabet, Hartikainen will treat him a festive dinner. However, Hartikainen buys a lottery ticket for Uuno, who agrees to deduct it from his debt – and the festive dinner is reduced to a can of milk and half a sausage. As it happens, Uuno becomes the lottery winner of 1.5 million marks, only to soon realize he doesn't own a single penny yet. Mister Tossavainen arrives and offers to finance Uuno before he actually gets the jackpot. Thus, Uuno gets to live a rich live on credit. He buys a raccoon fur, leopard swimming trunks and a couple of Mercedes-Benzes. Women begin to fancy Uuno and so does his father-in-law. As time goes by it is revealed, though, that Uuno is not actually a lottery winner, and so he has to escape the anger of others to Härski's car repair shop.

Nine Ways to Approach Helsinki, shot by Pirjo Honkasalo and Eero Salmenhaara, is a documentary on the capital of Finland.

This biographical film celebrates the little-known life of the Finnish novelist and revolutionary Maiju Lassila (Asko Sarkola), born in 1868. Lassila's early years are briefly shown, then the film richly details his active and paradoxically reclusive adult life, beginning with his sojourn in St. Petersburg, working as a businessman. Unable to stay away from politics, he caused the assassination of a high-ranking Czarist and as a result, had to run back to Finland to hide. Once established in the comparative safety of a small village, he taught school in order to support his real vocation as a writer. Always living on the edge of poverty, if not square in the middle of it, Lassila continues to avoid public contact - he keeps his identity low-key and camoflages it by publishing under a variety of pseudonyms.

A Finnish Prostitute and four Gangsters expose how the Drug Squad Police Chief commits crimes, rather than solves them. Is this corruption of an individual or a system?

On the eve of the Finnish Civil War, the film follows the last days of Alfred Kordelin, the richest man in Finland.

Aleksis Kivi (1834-1872) was a Finnish author who wrote the first significant novel in the Finnish language, "Seven Brothers/Seitsemän veljestä". Although Kivi was among the very earliest authors of prose and lyrics in Finnish language, he is still considered one of the greatest of them all.

Onni is a shoemaker, aged 70. Toivo is a blacksmith, aged 75. The film tells the story of their generation, from childhood through various stages to the present day. They have lived through the entire Finnish history of this century.

A movie inspired by a true crime - the coldblooded Heino double murder, committed by a group of teenagers - that shocked Finland in 2001.

A film about Finnish artist Kalervo Palsa who was completely neglected by his peers and time.

Rock musician Andy McCoy, formerly of Hanoi Rocks, takes us on a "trip" through his mind, memories and imagination. Documentaries, real life and Mr. McCoy's acid mind intertwine to form an interesting experience.

Two outlaws, The Lonely Rider and the Indian Tonto, have caught (at least they think they have) Speedy Gonzales, a ruthless gunfighter from the town of Njietponimaistadi. They start to travel to another town for the reward, through the desert without water and fighting against Indians. And just to find out that they have made a full circle back to origin.