Movies: Elvi Saarnio

Lasse Pöysti's directorial debut film. And Helena Plays On (1951) is based on Aino Räsänen's second novel of the same name in the Helena series. When the Winter War breaks out, Arttu (Jussi Jurkka), the son of Helena (Irma Seikkula) and Jari Junkker...

This biographical film celebrates the little-known life of the Finnish novelist and revolutionary Maiju Lassila (Asko Sarkola), born in 1868. Lassila's early years are briefly shown, then the film richly details his active and paradoxically reclusive...

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A story takes place within one summery day in a place called Putkinotko on the shore of lake Saimaa in the early 20th century. Juutas and Rosina Käkriäinen are poor sharecroppers struggling to feed their ten children, so they run a liquor selling bus...

Like it or not, almost anyone who has met a really serious poet finds that they have something about them which sets them apart from other people. It's not just a romantic legend. In wry but basically directionless Finnish movie, Paavo Pentikainen pl...

Täällä Pohjantähden alla is based on the book with the same title. It is a story of the little village. The movie starts in the 1890's and it ends to the Finnish civil war in 1918. Story concentrates around a tenant farmer family, although it gives u...

The young Count Martin von Tandenskiöld who has returned from the war is forced into a battle with a Russian colonel after he harasses his bride Karin. Chased by the Cossacks Martin escapes and joins the old wanderer. On the way Martin encounters adv...

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, ...

Maria Toikka is called to testify in a trial in which her husband Ville is charged. The assurances show the events that led to the trial from the previous fall, when Patron Oppman begins to approach Maria, offering her money in return for services....

Story of first love affair during summer school holidays, in a pastoral setting....

Three Finnish girls travel to Stockholm to look for work. But soon they notice that the big city is not such a great place as they thought. Most of the foreign men who they meet there are crooks and liars....

A Finnish military farce about an elderly man who is commanded back to service....

A young man arrives in the village. He becomes a miller and delights the girls in the village, which evokes bitterness in others. He is subject to moralistic criticism, even though he is in fact only in love with the tailor's daughter....

A story of the conflict between the old and new orders of living....

The film revolves around Vihtori's clandestine involvement with an attractive and rather worldly young woman named Ritva, who is planning to marry boxing champion and garage owner Klasu Tullari, son of Vihtori's friend Tomi, and their interactions wi...

In the 1910s, beautiful young Silja loses both parents and ends up working as a maid at wealthier farms around her village. She is courted by a number of bachelors, ranging from simple farmhand Väinö to sophisticated young student Armas whom she meet...

After the death of his long-time housekeeper, a meticulous assessor has trouble finding a new one....

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The cold and ruthless Bruno is married to Karen. Together they seek out poor and defenseless people offering them life insurance policies. Bruno and Karen make sure that it pays off. A movie about insurance scams. Inspector Susikoski investigates....

A story of a mink coat passing from one owner to another binding their fates....