Movies: Sami Mäntymaa

Touko Laaksonen, a decorated officer, returns home after a harrowing and heroic experience serving his country in World War II, but life in Finland during peacetime proves equally distressing. He finds peace-time Helsinki rampant with persecution of ...

Lapland Odyssey is a comedy about Janne, a man from Lapland in northern Finland, a man who has made a career out of living on welfare. Inari, his girlfriend, is tired of Janne's incapability of getting a grip on life, Janne wasn't even able to buy a ...

In the mid-1960s, three small-time Finnish bootleggers seize control of their Helsinki neighborhood's black-market liquor business....

It is 1595. Brutal wars have just ended in an uneasy peace between Protestant Sweden and Orthodox Russia. We focus on the spiritual defeats of two conquered Finnish brothers, one a hardened near-psychopathic war hero, the other a gentle scientist in ...

Four Olympic gold medals, seven World Championship titles, four World Cup tour championships, and forty six World Cup circuit victories. Once his career as a professional athlete ended however, the other side of his personality emerged into public vi...

A stubbornly traditional eighty-year-old farmer - whose social attitudes verge on the prehistoric - raises hell when he is forced to move in with his sadsack, city-dwelling son and domineering daughter-in-law....

A father who was absent for 30 years of his son's life returns and wants to set on a journey through Finland, so they can learn to know each other again....

Haunted by his traumatic past and cautious about the prospects of an uncertain future, a fourteen year old boy named Juhani winds up in an isolated boys' home known as The Island. Juhani has been shuttled between foster homes and temporary families f...

Four stories about Finnish life intersect. In the first one, drum artist Monkki Mähönen arrives for a renovation job at his old band mate's summer villa. Second story revolves around wannabe motorcycle gang and its leader Jouni who are being humiliat...

Cheng, 45, a restaurant owner from China, has travelled with his young son halfway around the world to a remote village in Finland. His wife died recently in an accident, and Cheng wanted to have a break from everything by traveling with his son to s...

The tough Detective Vares, get hired by a friend accused of murdering a girl. His job is to find the real killer, but people aren't talking. Before he can get traction another homicide takes place- and things move toward a dire conclusion....

A 14-year-old boy in a stifling Helsinki slum takes some unwise life lessons from his soon-to-be-incarcerated older brother....

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 = ...

A boy abandoned by his father wants to become Finland's biggest rock star....

Emilia is a teenager and a good girl, who never forgets her homework or her little sister, Elsa. Siiri is just one year older than Emilia but not at all like her. When Emilia and Siiri become friends, Emilia's life changes. Siiri encourages her to ta...

A ravishing story about little Pete and his survival and growth in the gray area between love and fear....

The movie is about the Lokomo laborer, and group of friends that dreams come true and a thirst for fast-paced life that take decades....

In the third instalment of the franchise, Janne embarks on an epic hike, a journey of self-discovery. His dreams of a tranquil retreat into nature are quickly shattered however, when Räihänen and Kämäräinen both decide to come along for the trip. Mea...

Set in the final weekend of the year 1995 Ice Hockey World Championships, 95 tells through overlapping stories why Finland became a ice hockey world champion and how it affected the whole nation....

A sort of "Divorce Finnish Style," Mika Kaurismäki's rambunctious comedy, The House of Branching Love , recounts the breakup of a thirty-something professional couple - Juhani, a family therapist, and his wife, Tuula, a successful business trainer....