Directing

Jörn Donner

Born February 5, 1933 · Helsinki, Finland

Died January 30, 2020 · aged 86

Jörn Donner was a Swedish-speaking Finnish writer, film director, actor, producer, politician and founder of Finnish Film Archive. Internationally he was best known for his film Fanny and Alexander (1982), that won four Academy Awards, including the award for the best foreign language film. In Finland he was known for his work as an author, as well as having been member of both, Parliament of F…

Known For

Fanny and Alexander

Fanny and Alexander · 1982

Fanny and Alexander

MovieFantasyDrama

As children in the loving Ekdahl family, Fanny and Alexander enjoy a happy life with their parents, who run a theater company. After their father dies unexpectedly, however, the siblings end up in a joyless home when their mother, Emilie, marries a stern bishop. The bleak situation gradually grows worse as the bishop becomes more controlling, but dedicated relatives make a valiant attempt to aid Emilie, Fanny and Alexander.

Eight Deadly Shots

Eight Deadly Shots · 1972

Eight Deadly Shots

Small-scale farmer Pasi shoots four policemen who have come to arrest him for raged drunkenness. Rest of the movie is a long flashback examining the events that finally leads to the tragic shooting. As time goes by, Pasi sinks gradually deeper and deeper into the poverty, gets into trouble with both police and tax officials while family arguments grow more and more serious. Based on a true story.

The Other Side of Hope

The Other Side of Hope · 2017

The Other Side of Hope

MovieComedyDrama

A restaurateur befriends a Syrian refugee who has recently arrived in Finland.

Hemåt i natten

Hemåt i natten · 1977

Hemåt i natten

Harri is one of Sweden's many Finnish immigrant-workers. While in Sweden, the illiterate Harri marries and has a child. After accidentally killing a man in a fight, he flees back across the border to Finland and begins to pick up the pieces of his life, but soon, the police come looking for him.

Fuck Off 2 - Images from Finland

Fuck Off 2 - Images from Finland · 2017

Fuck Off 2 - Images from Finland

MovieDocumentary

In „Fuck Off 2“, Donner waxes sarcastic about the scourges in Finnish society by interviewing regular people. The film takes a theme of different living possibilities. Some people find happiness, others succumb to depression. Many still dream of a better life somewhere else. Donner himself undergoes cardiac surgery.

Portraits of Women

Portraits of Women · 1970

Portraits of Women

MovieComedyDrama

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.

Nine Ways to Approach Helsinki

Nine Ways to Approach Helsinki · 1982

Nine Ways to Approach Helsinki

MovieDocumentary

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

Paradise America

Paradise America · 1990

Paradise America

MovieDramaComedy

Finnish friends escape taxes to Florida.

Filmography

Sort

Fanny and Alexander

Fanny and Alexander · 1982

Fanny and Alexander

MovieFantasyDrama

As children in the loving Ekdahl family, Fanny and Alexander enjoy a happy life with their parents, who run a theater company. After their father dies unexpectedly, however, the siblings end up in a joyless home when their mother, Emilie, marries a stern bishop. The bleak situation gradually grows worse as the bishop becomes more controlling, but dedicated relatives make a valiant attempt to aid Emilie, Fanny and Alexander.

Producer

Eight Deadly Shots

Eight Deadly Shots · 1972

Eight Deadly Shots

Small-scale farmer Pasi shoots four policemen who have come to arrest him for raged drunkenness. Rest of the movie is a long flashback examining the events that finally leads to the tragic shooting. As time goes by, Pasi sinks gradually deeper and deeper into the poverty, gets into trouble with both police and tax officials while family arguments grow more and more serious. Based on a true story.

Editor

The Other Side of Hope

The Other Side of Hope · 2017

The Other Side of Hope

MovieComedyDrama

A restaurateur befriends a Syrian refugee who has recently arrived in Finland.

Poker Player

Hemåt i natten

Hemåt i natten · 1977

Hemåt i natten

Harri is one of Sweden's many Finnish immigrant-workers. While in Sweden, the illiterate Harri marries and has a child. After accidentally killing a man in a fight, he flees back across the border to Finland and begins to pick up the pieces of his life, but soon, the police come looking for him.

Producer

Fuck Off 2 - Images from Finland

Fuck Off 2 - Images from Finland · 2017

Fuck Off 2 - Images from Finland

MovieDocumentary

In „Fuck Off 2“, Donner waxes sarcastic about the scourges in Finnish society by interviewing regular people. The film takes a theme of different living possibilities. Some people find happiness, others succumb to depression. Many still dream of a better life somewhere else. Donner himself undergoes cardiac surgery.

Director

Portraits of Women

Portraits of Women · 1970

Portraits of Women

MovieComedyDrama

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.

Director

Nine Ways to Approach Helsinki

Nine Ways to Approach Helsinki · 1982

Nine Ways to Approach Helsinki

MovieDocumentary

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

Editor

Paradise America

Paradise America · 1990

Paradise America

MovieDramaComedy

Finnish friends escape taxes to Florida.

Producer

After the Rehearsal

After the Rehearsal · 1984

After the Rehearsal

Rational, exacting, and self-controlled theater director, Henrik Vogler, often stays after rehearsal to think and plan. On this day, Anna comes back, ostensibly looking for a bracelet. She is the lead in his new production of Strindberg's A Dream Play. She talks of her hatred for her mother, now dead, an alcoholic actress, who was Vogler's star and lover.

Producer

Tabu

Solidarity with the border people. Equal rights for the sexual deviants. Kristoffer Lohman is a young solicitor who collects stories and knowledge of different perversions. This has affected and changed his own sexual life. Sara, a young well-behaved and adorned woman, becomes interested in Kristoffer's activity.

Producer

Helsinki, Forever

Helsinki, Forever · 2008

Helsinki, Forever

MovieDocumentary

Helsinki, Forever is a montage film about the city of Helsinki by the award-winning Finnish film director and academic Peter von Bagh. The film draws a portrait of Helsinki and also acts as an essay on Finnish culture in a wider sense. It shows Helsinki as captured by leading Finnish feature film and documentary makers over a period of one hundred years.

Thanks

The Flight of the Eagle

The Flight of the Eagle · 1982

The Flight of the Eagle

MovieDramaAdventure

The Swedish 19th century engineer Salomon August Andrée sets out to become the first man on the north pole. His idea is to launch a polar expedition using a hydrogen balloon, together with two friends. The balloon, "The Eagle", takes off from Svalbard in 1897, but the three men are never heard from again.

Producer

The Worthless

The Worthless · 1982

MovieCrimeDrama

Manne, Harri, and Ville Alfa are rootless twenty-somethings in search of purpose for their banal lives. After Manne steals a priceless painting from a group of petty criminals, Manne and Harri flee from the gangsters across Finland, while Ville goes to Paris. On the road they meet Veera, an old girlfriend of Harri's, and try to avoid the gangsters in pursuit.

Co-Producer

Pyhä perhe

Pyhä perhe · 1976

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?

Producer

The Border

The Border · 2007

MovieDramaRomance

The young man must set up a clear border between Finland and Russia, white and red, enemy and friend, us and them. While the task seems clear he finds out the execution of his command in concrete situations is very difficult. Right choices turn out to be wrong ones and correcting them make things worse.

Producer

The Undressing

The Undressing · 1986

Minister Korkolainen happens to bump into his ex-girlfriend from years ago. They end up spending the night together, discussing the past and politics.

Producer

Near and Far Away

Near and Far Away · 1976

Near and Far Away

MovieRomanceDrama

Mania is a new employee at a mental hospital, where she meets a young man with mutism. He gets her to realize that it is a fluid boundary between being healthy and being regarded as sick.

Producer

Hockeyfeber

Hockeyfeber · 1983

Hockeyfeber tells not only the story of collisions on the ice , but also about life as it really fortoner in the tough environment amateur sport unfolding in . The film depicts the sporting community for better or worse , and shows how tough and cynical demands of athletes being when the sponsors' affection, the most important.

Marja pieni!

Marja pieni! · 1972

A story about Marja Maronen, a 30-year-old office worker who is self-centered and pursues love and wealth. After her father's death, Marja is plunged into a crisis that shakes her entire life, the consequences of which are particularly reflected in her relationships and working life.

Producer

Anna

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

Screenplay

Brutal

MovieDocumentary

The concrete costs for culture and creativity is here illustrated in punchy images.

The Memory of Ingmar Bergman

The Memory of Ingmar Bergman · 2018

The Memory of Ingmar Bergman

MovieDocumentary

In commemoration of the 100th anniversary of Ingmar Bergman the Finnish writer and director Jörn Donner shares his memories of his friend and collaborator. The movie is based on two as yet unpublished TV interviews with Bergman which Donner filmed in 1975 and 1987.

Director

Two Forces

Two Forces · 1979

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

Producer

Mommilan veriteot 1917

Mommilan veriteot 1917 · 1973

Mommilan veriteot 1917

MovieDramaHistory

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

Producer

Fanny and Alexander

Fanny and Alexander · 1984

Fanny and Alexander

Through the eyes of ten-year-old Alexander, we witness the delights and conflicts of the Ekdahl family, a sprawling bourgeois clan in turn-of-the-twentieth-century Sweden.

Producer

Jörn Donner kertoo Helsingistä

Jörn Donner kertoo Helsingistä

Jörn Donner kertoo Helsingistä

SeriesDocumentary

Returning to his beloved hometown after years abroad, Jörn Donner reminisces Helsinki of his youth and investigates the present state of affairs in the city.

Creator