Film Secection: Moi Suomi- Finnish Film and Culture Festival , Berlin
By Tobias Verlende
The opening was in the gallery sphn (Berlin- Mitte). When I arrived at the location, it was quite crowded with people, many watching Santeri Tuori’s video-installation "Red Shirt" showing a seemingly ordinary happening: a blond kid trying to put on his shirt. If the act of dressing is though prolonged to a story lasting over four minutes, the shirt becomes alive and the fight against it reminds me of fighting against roles and expectations I never wanted to fulfil. Santeri Tuori, one of the most sensitive video artists in contemporary Finland sure crosses the border between film and modern art – Red Shirt created pictures that stuck with me. Though after a while and a few four-minute-sessions, there was even more to look at: Ola Kolehmainens photographs exhibited at sphn also made ordinary things come alive. His detailed studies of modern architecture reveal great peaces of art as little as a pile of concrete tubes.
Finland, concrete and "modern" architecture is also what you met when you directed your steps towards the ACUD cinema at Rosenthaler Platz. Finding ACUD wasn’t as easy as expected, as the cinema was being rebuilt and renovated and thus covered in dust and without too many noticeable signs on the outside. But the film program more than compensated the difficulties in finding the cinema and bearing the cold temperatures inside it. Kirsi Liimatainens memorable Spring Hymn works with the director’s childhood memories of Tampere, though set and filmed in Berlin and the interview with the main actress and the producer easily made you forget that the director wasn’t present. And surprisingly enough, another Finnish director’s work is set in Germany and even featuring Franka Potente, Gerrmany’s maybe most promising actress at the moment: Hannu Salonen’s Downhill City. But Raimo O Niemi’s beautifully photographed Scattered in the Wind then transported the spectator directly into the Finnish winter woods and into a family coping with tragical loss. Me and Morrison, a story about defining reality, fantasy and lie, love, adventure and responsibility by Lenka Hellstedt and a major box office hit in Finland attracted not only Finland-maniacs in Berlin. The thriller Raid combined Finnish humour with a catching and stunning plot and Upswing by Johanna Vuoksenmaa has won so many prizes in Finland that it’s hardly understandable why it needs a festival to be shown in Germany. moisuomi presented a wide range of valuable Finnish feature films and even gave an impression of Finnish documentary works with a special on the promising director Mika Taanila. And those who disliked the cold but cosy atmosphere around ACUD could easily switch to the Blow Up cinema, which also showed nothing but Finland for a week.
Last but not least, there was Finnish music in Berlin. The opening concert by Tangon Taikaa was as classically and typically Finnish as it could possibly be. (Actually a contradiction to the festivals motto to "show Finnish culture apart from all clich�s", but definitely worth while). A Finnish band playing tango, a few couples on the dancefloor, weird old paintings on the wall and a lot of alcoholic drinks on the tables – what more could you need? The history and development of Finnish Tango wasn’t explained until two evenings later, when Finland’s underground star M.A. Numinen called it "a crude mixture of German Marsch and Russian romance". Although Numinen does hardly produce Finnish Tango himself, he called himself one of the Tango’s biggest admirers and dedicated half of his concert in sold-out tR�NENpALAST to this very special Finnish type of music. Of course Numinen then went back to his normal, unbelievably ironic and comical "rustical tango and jazz" program, which had people both gaping at excellent musicians as well as shrieking with laughter. But most extravagant gig during moisuomi was certainly Cleaning Women, a young Finnish band playing in M�belfabrik. The band surprised their audience by making extraordinary music on clothes horses, an idea which could possibly only come up in Finland… The festival then ended in a concert of the Finnish-German combo Kuusim�ki who had loads of people dancing to Finnish versions of songs by Radiohead, Cardigans and many more.
It’s my and I believe many other’s biggest hope that moisuomi will continue it’s good work and that Berlin will again in 2005 turn Finnish for a short time.
