Severi Seppänen

The title of the Finnish film Elokuu translates to August. Directed by Matti Kassila, one of Finland's premiere filmmakers, Elokuu was adapted from a novel by Nobel prize winning finnish author F.E. Sillanpää. Simply put, the story concerns the decline and fall of a once-proud family, thanks to the alcoholism of its paterfamilias. Toivo Makela delivers a powerfully effective performance as the inebriated protagonist, avoiding the usual "drunken" cliches. The overlong running time, coupled with the downbeat nature of the subject, limited the film's worldwide appeal.

A kind-hearted chancellor dreams of love with a beauty he meets at dinner.

In Eastern Finland, in Liperi to be exact, Anna-Liisa Ihalainen asks her husband Antti to get some matches from the Ihalainen household. Unfortunately that trip takes a little longer than expected...

Sten Lehtoja, a married, middle-aged businessman, picks up a young hitchhiker, Elsie, while driving to his summer home. Elsie spends the night and becomes his mistress. Later during the summer, Elsie also begins an affair with Reino, the teenage son of a local storekeeper. Sten offers to divorce his wife, and Elsie, attracted by the prospect of a secure social position, agrees to marry him when the divorce becomes final. One night when the couple are in bed, Reino climbs a ladder and attempts to force his way into their room; he falls and breaks his neck, and to avoid scandal Sten hides the body. But the strain of guilt ruins the romance, and Elsie contacts the police, who arrest her lover.

The unlucky layabout Isarkar Keturi brings a criminal gang to heel with the help of his assistant Mikael. He frees Irma, the daughter of mining magnate Tömstet, from captivity and a forced marriage to Kurt. Irma achieves her dream of becoming a pop star, with Isaskar's help.

Inspector Susikoski is inspecting the murder of an agronom in the countryside, during his summer holiday trip. He participates to the investigation of the case. The case seems to be clear, but there is much more than meets the eye.

Two Finnish PI:s are hunted by a gang specialized to counterfeit banknotes from Malaga to Finland and Mallorca and back. The counterfeit money printing plates are desperately searched by the gang and our heroes try to hide from them by travelling to Mallorca, where some of the local hoods try to kill them and retake the missing plates.

Kaarina, an orphan girl raised by Taneli, the innkeeper, notices that her friendship with her childhood friend Antti is turning into romance. Henrik, the patron, also has his eye on Kaarina.