Milka: A Film About Taboos 1980 ( 5.8)

Based on a novel by the late Finnish writer Timo Mukka, this simple story focuses on what happens when Milka (Irma Huntus), a girl barely out of childhood, gets pregnant by Ojanen (Matti Turunen) a rustic fieldhand. Her own mother had been hoping to marry Ojanen, and her daughter's pregnancy turns their lives around. Set in the Lapp country of northern Finland, the scenery is breathtaking, made even more so by the isolation of the region. A sense of natural solitude is underscored by a slow-moving dialogue interspersed with long silences, and the connection between nature and the dialogue is underscored as the young Milka recites poetry while out in the countryside. The fate of Milka and her mother, however, is connected to the decision that Ojanen makes at the end.

The Year of the Hare 1977 ( 7.262)

Young advertising executive Vatanen suddenly quits his job and his whole life in Helsinki, and decides to spend a while in the Finnish wilderness. A wounded hare hit by a car becomes his travel companion. Together they find reclusion in the Finnish Lapland, soon to be disturbed by a noisy group of foreign tourists and their pretentious Finnish hosts. When the hare gets ill and needs to see a vet, Vatanen must return to the city and finally face the choice between his new and former life

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Turandot - FNO 2023

A beautiful Chinese princess has issued a decree for her suitors: whoever cannot solve her riddles to win her hand will be beheaded. As unlucky suitors fail and fall, up steps Calaf, a prince of the Tatar people. The new, visually stunning version of Puccini’s Turandot at the Finnish National Opera delivers a universal message: regardless of who we are or where we come from, we are all looking for love. Director Sofia Jupither sets out to focus on the essence of Puccini’s interest in private and the public lives, power and responsibility, love and vulnerability. Puccini composed the opera in the heyday of exoticism and orientalism; an Europe-centric view of the Far East is in danger of distancing modern audiences from Puccini’s masterpiece.

Eugene Onegin 2024

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's 1879 opera, adapted from Alexander Pushkin's novel. Performed by the Finnish National Opera. Filmed on 20 December 2024 and streamed by Operavision.