Kari Franck

Manillaköysi is a cult status holding TV-movie adaptation of the satirical war novel by Veijo Meri. Manillaköysi has an endless list of classic one-liners, but it is still not based on cheap laughs or anything like that. The whole humouristic aspect of it comes from describing the absurdity of war, and the whole military system, by looking it with the eyes of a simple man, who's thrown into it, and who simply does not give a rats ass of it all. The tone of it is not overly preachy or moralizing. If I would have to describe it with one word, it would be: unglamourizing. The main point of Manillaköysi is pretty much compressed in one of the most famous quotes of it: There is nothing supernatural about war, it is just work like anything else.

Spanish poet Federico García Lorca is condemned to death by Captain Nestares after an absurd interrogation that serves to make it clear to the people that the Spanish Civil War is a war of ideas, and that there is no place for individuals like Lorca in Spain.

The relationship between a priest's wife and the renovator crackles with passion. While the rectory terrace is being restored, there is a triangular drama at the fore: a priest, a priest’s wife and a renovator.

An ageing wrestler and circus strongman is put in an institution located somewhere in a world of its own.

Matti and Liisa are two farmers who become curious to see the first railroads in Lapinlahti, Finland.

The musical characters Rampe and Naukkis became popular from the TV series Hymyhuulet and Pulttibois, where they told jokes to each other in the cleaning closet during breaks. In reality, the characters only appeared in the Pulttibois series.

Täällä Pohjantähden alla is based on the book with the same title. It is a story of the little village. The movie starts in the 1890's and it ends to the Finnish civil war in 1918. Story concentrates around a tenant farmer family, although it gives us a good look at the society at whole. While the class struggle depends, people of the village are driven to bloody civil war.

The King Without a Heart is a fairytale about of a happy king who has a young daughter and a lovely wife. After the sudden death of his wife, the king becomes so sad that he wants his heart taken out of his chest. The kingdom is turned into an effective society based on reason, and there is no longer place for emotions. When she grows up, the princess tries to make her father see the importance of play and emotions.

The film is based on characters from the Mänttien TV-asema sketches featured on the Spede Show.

The story of the seven Jukola brothers in 19th century Finland.

A movie about summer, youth, the difficulty of love, and a camping trip to the countryside by four young people from Helsinki.

Hese, the shy owner of a video company, travels on a moped to film a commissioned Christmas party. From the steps of his office, Hese finds an anonymous Christmas present, a Hese slipover, and begins to find out who it is from.

Erkki leaves the army and sets out to find himself. In the countryside, he finds new love and the courage to stand up to his strict father.

A story about one man's success and another's demise. Algoth Mäki, who moved to southern Finland in search of work, encounters the harsh world of gravel mining, where others succumb, but Hurme, the Sand King, continues his rise up the social ladder.

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.

Bridge engineer Akseli Jaatinen arrives to stir up the lives of the inhabitants of a small Finnish village. Jaatinen is well-liked at the bridge construction site, but he quickly finds himself clashing against the local decision-makers. The bridge engineer is also popular with the ladies and, being a man of energy, he manages to take care of several of his admirers at once.

Nordic people living in Ibiza meet at a party organized by artist Nitta.

Time of depression in the 1930s. "Poverty and abundant wealth have simultaneously filled the earth's circle. The peasant's cornerstones are moving." Iso Herneinen's mistress is dead and grief lives in Jopi's heart. Jopi's grown-up boys are hardly happy. The eldest boy fell in love with the house maid. The middle one is, according to Jopi, a strange modern product. The youngest does not enjoy working or working at home. The three-part TV series tells about the peasant's collapse in years of depression.

Lapinlahden linnut