Jackpot

Unexpected adventures and incidents in the life of model and cashier Noora Lehtinen.

The Helsinki of the 1990s, longed for by many, comes to life in Heikki Ahola's City Symphony. Celebrating its 30th anniversary, this classic montage film offers a unique glimpse into the pulsating life of the capital at all hours of the day. More than 30 young filmmakers worked on the documentary. Filmed between September 1993 and February 1995, City Symphony encounters the contrasting spirits of Helsinki – including unemployment and luxury, homeliness and internationalism. As the title suggests, music plays a central role in the film, with Tuomas Kantelinen responsible for the score. You won't find a more comprehensive journey through 1990s Helsinki than Kaupunkisinfonia. The world just before the breakthrough of the internet and the economic boom already looks very different.

A small mole is looking for a fallen star in the night forest where everyone else seem to have already found their own treasures.

Pertsa and Kilu are two neighbour boys with different backgrounds. They live adventurous life of a young imaginary mind in small harbour town. Accidentally they get involved in a bank robbery. Through their own investigation of the case, imagination and real danger gets mixed and leads to great adventure where friendship and courage is on stake.

Sisters Kiia and Eija moved away from the village of Pirunperä in Kainuu after their father committed suicide. Kiia has become a sculptor and is plagued by nightmares related to her home village. Kiia returns to her hometown to create sculptures for the local church. At the same time, she investigates her father's and her hometown's past.

While on a shopping trip, Grump smells Saimi, a woman who smells just right and throws the whole man in a state of confusion. The Grump would not have believed that his chest could still feel like a young boy's. The Grump has to admit that he enjoys Saimi’s company. The words, looks, and touch of another awaken long-forgotten feelings. The Grump’s sons are incredulous and downright jealous of their father, and they don’t want to trust Saimi’s sincerity… could she be after the inheritance? Family meetings, misunderstandings, moonlight swims, and sleepless nights. Indeed, Cupid's arrow can pierce even an old man's flannel shirt.

Psychiatric patient Elmeri knows about the existence of a gold treasure in Finnish Lapland, hidden there by his late father who somehow managed to capture it from withdrawing German troops on the last days of WW2. His openly gay nurse helps him escape from the mental institution, and the two men slowly find their way up north to reach the gold. On their way, the odd couple meets a cavalcade of even odder characters.

Young Pietari lives with his reindeer-herding father in arctic Finland. On the eve of Christmas, a nearby excavation makes a frightening discovery and an evil Santa Claus is unleashed…

The Tough Ones tells a story of two friends who have a hard time finding their place in the society. Antti and Jussi are released from jail. While they were doing time for bank robbery, the third man involved in the robbery, the one who was not convicted, has become a policeman. He tries to help his friends to settle into the small town in Pohjanmaa, but the boys start a black market liquor business instead. The road seems to lead back to the jail.

Umur tells a love story strongly connected to the nature of Lapland, in which Poika, a young border guard played with sensitivity by Heikki Rantanen, falls passionately in love with the mysterious Lapland beauty Umuri.

Grump's life follows the same familiar routines: spring is here and the early potato harvest is ripening. But Grump crashes his beloved Ford Escort and the car has to be scrapped. A new, modern vehicle is no match for quality and the nearest Escort, a 1972 model, can be found in Germany. When the Grumps's sons refuse to help, he must travel to Germany alone.

Juha is 38 years old and has three small children and a depressed wife. He sees himself as strong and believes a man should provide for his family. But one day Juha is fired from his job. Ashamed, he weaves a web of lies to hide the fact from his family. With the help of his friend Olli, Juha begins prostituting himself to support his wife and children. With this he makes in two hours what it took him two days to earn before. The shame and deception mushroom, but the pay from the new profession seems to offset the downside.

The twin sisters Helena and Irene are born in Helsinki during World War II. A few months later their mother, Sirkka, leaves the girls in the care of their grandmother, an old communist, and runs away with a German soldier. Their life under the protection of their grandmother and the teachings of communism ends first with the death of Stalin, then with that of their grandmother. The girls are eight years old when they are put in an orphanage. Their mother shows up at the orphanage in the company of Ramon, a Spanish trapeze artist. They are on a talent search for a German circus. Ramon trains the reluctant Irene during circus tours in Central Europe. She becomes the trapeze star of the circus. The hard work soon exhausts Irene and she falls from height, as if on purpose. Helena has secretly learned the art of fire-eating. Now she is burdened with both her mother and her sister. The violent life, however, separates the three from each other. In the present-day Helsinki the middle-aged...

The Helsinki-based teenagers Ippe, Papu and Mia have become entangled in drug circles. Their problems get even worse when violent dealer Kalle starts blackmailing the indebted Ippe.

The director Lauri Nurkse tells that Veijarit is a film about "arjensietokyvyttömyys" (= inability to tolerate everyday life) and about the Peter Pan complex. The main actor Mikko Leppilampi says it's about "kolkyttoistavuotiaat" (= thirtyeenagers = people of thirty behaving like teenagers). An immediate reference point is the commedia all'italiana of the 1950s and the 1960s, the black comedy often exposing the infantile stage of development of the Italian male. Saku and Ässä are anti-heroes, but we never fail to sense the humanity behind their shallow and crazy ways. Veijarit is a satire and a parody of a superficial way of life, but there is a vitality in the protagonists that we feel can lead them to a more meaningful stage of existence after the prolonged youth full of sound and fury. There is a motif of transcendence in the imagery of flying: will the balloons carry me or will they burst.

On a dark night, a man sees a wrecked car on the side of the road, inside which a young woman is dying. The woman asks for the strangest last favor.