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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

Movies

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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 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.

The Dinosaur

The Dinosaur · 2021

MovieDocumentary

Acclaimed Finnish director Rauni Mollberg made several scandalous yet widely appreciated films. Former co-worker Veikko Aaltonen’s eye-opening documentary The Dinosaur looks at the relentless, often disturbing directing techniques behind Mollberg’s art and success.

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.

Laukaus tehtaalla

Laukaus tehtaalla · 1973

Laukaus tehtaalla

The events surrounding a factory in a small town are gone through in documentary style.

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.

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.

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.

Anna

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

Paradise America

Paradise America · 1990

Paradise America

MovieDramaComedy

Finnish friends escape taxes to Florida.

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.

Fanny & Alexander: A Bergman Tapestry

Fanny & Alexander: A Bergman Tapestry · 2004

Fanny & Alexander: A Bergman Tapestry

MovieDocumentary

Short documentary featuring interviews from the cast and crew of "Fanny and Alexander." Featured on the Criterion Collection box set of the film.

Two Forces

Two Forces · 1979

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

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.

Donner - Private

Donner - Private · 2021

Donner - Private

MovieDocumentary

Jörn Donner’s entire production can be considered as a self-portrait, a life-spanning performance. Whilst others have painted one image or another of Donner, John Webster’s interpretation differs in that it pulls most of its material from Donner’s last-intended interview in December 2019, and an immense never-before-seen collection of photographs from albums simply labelled “Donner – Privat”. As a result, the film morphs into an epilogue of sorts, of Donner’s life story.

Hellyys

Hellyys · 1972

Long-time cohabiting couple Petteri and Liisa wake up with a terrible hangover and realize to their horror that they got married the night before. Throughout the day, the couple argues and reminisces about their previous relationships, but by evening they are ready to reconcile.

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.

TV Shows

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.