Many people claim that Finnish films can’t even be
spoken of on the same day as American ones, and I’m not a huge fan of the Finnish
film production myself either, but sometimes it might be reasonable to try to
analyze what makes us form these opinions. Too many people skip Finnish films
out of habit and don’t even bother to give them a chance. Sure, the leading
roles are always given to the same few actors and you might not be blown away by
the special effects, but the truth is that no-one really wants Finnish films to
be made like the American ones. It simply wouldn’t be believable.
The best Finnish films are the ones whose makers know
Finland’s and Finnish people’s strengths and aren’t afraid to use them. For
example in the movie Rare Exports Finnish mythology has been combined with
black humor and original Finnish action: not riding in some fancy high-tech
motorboat but instead in an old snowmobile. Napapiirin sankarit succeeds in
laughing at Finnish people themselves and once again the humor is so bad and
tacky it actually makes it good. Somehow it seems that you can’t make a good
Finnish movie without snow and winter, but luckily we have more than enough of
those.
Finnish children’s movies and animations have done
quite well lately. For example Niko - Lentäjän poika has been distributed to
many countries and also liked there. Other successful 21st century
children’s movies, which have been acknowledged at least nationally, are
Joulutarina and Risto Räppääjä. This might be because with children less is
more, and the moviemakers don’t have to try to impress them so badly. When
making a Finnish film, for kids or for adults, the best results are achieved
with sticking to the kind of homey and down to earth approach to a subject which
comes naturally to Finnish people.