Directing

Maunu Kurkvaara

Born July 18, 1926 · Viipuri, Finland [now Vyborg, Russia]

Died December 31, 2023 · aged 97

Maunu Kurkvaara (18 July 1926 – 31 December 2023) was a Finnish film director and screenwriter. Kurkvaara has been widely regarded as the initiator of the "new wave" of Finnish cinema in the spirit of French New Wave cinema. He directed 22 films between 1955 and 1993. Many of his films share a nautical theme due to his love of the sea. His film Yksityisalue was entered into the 13th Berlin Intern…

Known For

Meren juhlat

Meren juhlat · 1963

Sini is waiting for her husband to return from a trip and starts thinking about her past relationship with Jaska. She invites him to a party, where old feelings resurface. Afterwards, they go to an island they used to visit and confront their memories and the past of their relationship

Menestyksen maku

Menestyksen maku · 1983

Menestyksen maku

A young advertising executive decides to focus on success in his life. As he concentrates on building his career, both his family and his colleagues are pushed aside.

Autotytöt

Autotytöt · 1960

Underaged girls hitch-hike across Finland.

Punatukka

Punatukka · 1969

MovieDramaRomance

A story about young factory worker Tuija, who has recently met an interesting young man. When the death of a friend interrupts a monotonous and carefree life, the strangest week of Tuija's life begins.

Orpopojan valssi

Orpopojan valssi · 1949

Orpopojan valssi

MovieDramaHistory

A biographical film about Finnish singer J. Alfred Tanner and his path through a failed career as a construction master to become a highly successful couplet singer - the "king of couplets".

Lauantaileikit

Lauantaileikit · 1963

MovieMusicComedy

A music film whose song, dance and music performances all take place in Helsinki during one summer Saturday.

Tirlittan

Tirlittan · 1958

MovieAdventureComedy

Young Tirlittan gets rid of her family after being struck by lightning in her home. While looking for a new home, she meets a friendly policeman, a woman with goat, and a ringmaster with whom Tirlittan ends up performing in a circus.

Kaunis Veera eli ballaadi Saimaalta

Kaunis Veera eli ballaadi Saimaalta · 1950

Kaunis Veera eli ballaadi Saimaalta

MovieComedyMusic

Tar Steam Princess Armada travels along Lake Saimaa to St. Petersburg and back during the years of Russian rule over Finland. The ship's crew gets tired of their sophisticated coffee maker and replaces her with Roma girl Veera, who has escaped from an arranged marriage. On the way back, mysterious passengers appear on the ship.

Filmography

Sort

Meren juhlat

Meren juhlat · 1963

Sini is waiting for her husband to return from a trip and starts thinking about her past relationship with Jaska. She invites him to a party, where old feelings resurface. Afterwards, they go to an island they used to visit and confront their memories and the past of their relationship

Writer

Menestyksen maku

Menestyksen maku · 1983

Menestyksen maku

A young advertising executive decides to focus on success in his life. As he concentrates on building his career, both his family and his colleagues are pushed aside.

Producer

Autotytöt

Autotytöt · 1960

Underaged girls hitch-hike across Finland.

Writer

Punatukka

Punatukka · 1969

MovieDramaRomance

A story about young factory worker Tuija, who has recently met an interesting young man. When the death of a friend interrupts a monotonous and carefree life, the strangest week of Tuija's life begins.

Writer

Orpopojan valssi

Orpopojan valssi · 1949

Orpopojan valssi

MovieDramaHistory

A biographical film about Finnish singer J. Alfred Tanner and his path through a failed career as a construction master to become a highly successful couplet singer - the "king of couplets".

(uncredited)

Lauantaileikit

Lauantaileikit · 1963

MovieMusicComedy

A music film whose song, dance and music performances all take place in Helsinki during one summer Saturday.

Director

Tirlittan

Tirlittan · 1958

MovieAdventureComedy

Young Tirlittan gets rid of her family after being struck by lightning in her home. While looking for a new home, she meets a friendly policeman, a woman with goat, and a ringmaster with whom Tirlittan ends up performing in a circus.

Screenplay

Kaunis Veera eli ballaadi Saimaalta

Kaunis Veera eli ballaadi Saimaalta · 1950

Kaunis Veera eli ballaadi Saimaalta

MovieComedyMusic

Tar Steam Princess Armada travels along Lake Saimaa to St. Petersburg and back during the years of Russian rule over Finland. The ship's crew gets tired of their sophisticated coffee maker and replaces her with Roma girl Veera, who has escaped from an arranged marriage. On the way back, mysterious passengers appear on the ship.

Assistant Director

4 x 4

MovieDramaComedy

Four short stories from Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Finland.

Director

Patarouva

Patarouva · 1959

MovieDramaRomance

Kaius Kannisto a bachelor who has experienced hard on the love front, goes through his relationships with his four former female friends, the four queens of the deck of cards.

Screenplay

Darling

Darling · 1961

Tells the story of a young couple using flashbacks.

Writer

Butterfly's Dream

Butterfly's Dream · 1986

Butterfly's Dream

A young woman finds a hidden bit of film about her mother's youth, a film which somehow seems linked to her own life.

Director

Naiset

Ritva Hakala the single parent of a little boy is working in the office. While Ritva talks lightly about men and her future plans with other women at the office and coffees, she has to avoid her jealous and violent ex-husband, who threatens a relationship with her new male friend Kale.

Writer

Onnen saari

Onnen saari · 1955

A young soldier named Olavi is seriously wounded on the front lines of the Continuation War and, while unconscious, recalls a happy summer when he and his friends landed on the island of Bornholm in a sailboat after a storm and met Birte, a girl from the archipelago. Only about 28 minutes of the film have been preserved in a 16 mm screening copy. Maunu Kurkvaara later compiled the film material into the film Ei enää eilispäivää (No More Yesterday).

Director

Miljoonaliiga

Miljoonaliiga · 1968

MovieDramaCrime

Reiska who has moved to Helsinki from the country starts working as an errand boy in Sweden and Denmark for Lehto, a leader of a criminal league. Reiska's friend from school, Lea, who dreams of being a singer, drifts under Lehto's influence as well.

Producer

Äl' yli päästä perhanaa

Äl' yli päästä perhanaa · 1968

Äl' yli päästä perhanaa

MovieComedyHistory

In the farce, the producer has invited people to his place to plan a film celebrating the centenary of independence. They get drunk and come up with three possible films, which they also act in themselves. The topics chosen, in the spirit of Finnish nationalism, are the life of Colonel Sandels, moonshining, and the 1974 presidential election.

Producer

Maunu Kurkvaaran Kujanjuoksu

Maunu Kurkvaaran Kujanjuoksu · 1971

Maunu Kurkvaaran Kujanjuoksu

After a young girl is found murdered in Kumpula, Helsinki, the police arrest Ossi Virtanen as a suspect. He had been drinking for days and got into a fight with a local youth gang. The police think that Ossi had gone after the gang for revenge and then killed the girl by mistake. Though Ossi maintains his innocence, and the evidence against him is insufficient, deputy chief Ranta has decieded he is guilty.

Writer

Yksityisalue

Yksityisalue · 1962

An apparent suicide of a successful architect prompts an investigation into his death. A young man investigating can't believe that his well-respected boss would take his own life until he discovers that the man had a loveless marriage, another woman on the side, and a general feeling of malaise – a condition caused by the fact that he very nearly sold himself out to the lure of big money.

Director

Rottasota

Rottasota · 1968

A story about the rise of awareness among the youth against the pollution and eco-system disaster. The conflict between the youth and ruling establishment is also taken under the inspection. The daughter of the prime minister and her relation to the son of another minister of opposing party is especially under surveillance.

Writer

Raportti eli balladi laivatytöistä

Raportti eli balladi laivatytöistä · 1964

Raportti eli balladi laivatytöistä

A journalist is reporting on prostitutes active in the harbor area. He falls in love with the beautiful and different Vuokko.

Producer

Tänään olet täällä

Tänään olet täällä · 1966

Tänään olet täällä

MovieDramaRomance

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

Writer

Ei enää eilispäivää

Ei enää eilispäivää · 1957

Ei enää eilispäivää

The events of the film took place during the Continuation War, and the film is a new, expanded version of Kurkvaara's 1955 film Onnen saari (The Island of Happiness). In the summer of 1956, Kurkvaara filmed a new frame story for the beginning of the film in Lahti and rebuilt the ending of the film. The new scenes in the film are set in a hospital environment.

Director

Kielletty kirja

Kielletty kirja · 1965

Kielletty kirja

An author writes a historical novel about witch persecution and is accused of blasphemy.

Writer