Jörn Donner

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 AlexanderFanny and Alexander · 1982
Fanny and Alexander
★ 7.81982
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.
The Other Side of HopeThe Other Side of Hope · 2017
The Other Side of Hope
★ 6.92017
MovieComedyDrama
A restaurateur befriends a Syrian refugee who has recently arrived in Finland.
The WorthlessThe Worthless · 1982
The Worthless
★ 6.51982
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.
Eight Deadly ShotsEight Deadly Shots · 1972
Eight Deadly Shots
★ 7.71972
MovieDrama
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 Flight of the EagleThe Flight of the Eagle · 1982
The Flight of the Eagle
★ 7.01982
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.
Laukaus tehtaallaLaukaus tehtaalla · 1973
Laukaus tehtaalla
★ 8.51973
MovieDrama
The events surrounding a factory in a small town are gone through in documentary style.
Adventure Starts HereAdventure Starts Here · 1965
Adventure Starts Here
★ 7.01965
MovieDramaRomance
Fashion Designer Anne must decide between Toivo, an architect ten years her senior, and French businessman, Jacques, with whom she's been living for three years.
Helsinki, ForeverHelsinki, Forever · 2008
Helsinki, Forever
★ 7.12008
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.

Filmography

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Angela's WarAngela's War · 1984
Angela's War
★ 4.01984
MovieRomanceDrama
In this melodrama about love in wartime, Angela (Ida-Lotta Backman) is a Finnish nurse in Lapland who begins a torrid affair with Thomas Schmidt (Mathieu Carriere), a wounded German army captain. Their love for each other is verboten in Finland, where the Germans occupy northern Lapland until the end of the war. Finland had formed a brief alliance with Germany to fight an invading Russia in the winter of 1939, but when the Russians won that battle and took more than 16,000 square miles of land away from Finland, it was too late to successfully rout the Germans from Finnish soil. So for the entire war, the Finns were fighting Germany on their own national territory -- which makes the love affair between a Finnish nurse and German soldier a very complex issue. While Angela receives different reactions from her friends, acquaintances, and relatives, she continues on with her love for the German, against odds which are greater as time goes by.

Novel