Rakkautta & Anarkiaa -festivaalin tulevaisuus on uhattuna – liity tukikampanjan joukkoihin!

https://hiff.fi/uutiset/2023/11/20/rakkautta-anarkiaa-festivaalin-tulevaisuus-on-uhattuna-liity-tukikampanjan-joukkoihin/

Pandemia-ajan vaikutukset, epävakaa toimintakenttä ja nousevat kustannukset ovat näivettäneet suomalaista kulttuurialaa, ja Suomen merkittävimpiin elokuvafestivaaleihin kuuluvan Rakkautta & Anarkiaa -festivaalin tulevaisuus on nyt uhattuna. Yleisömäärän pudotus pandemiaa edeltäneestä ajasta on ollut raju. Vaikka yleisö on enenevissä määrin tehnyt paluun festivaalille, on nousu hidasta. Tänä syksynä Rakkautta & Anarkiaa teki pandemian jälkeisen yleisöennätyksensä 51 000 kävijällä. Ennen pandemiaa määrä oli jopa yli 60 000. Samalla festivaali on joutunut tekemään pitkäaikaisia investointeja, joiden hedelmät eivät näy vielä tänä vuonna.

Rakkautta & Anarkiaa kutsuu nyt yleisönsä avuksi. Tilanne on vakava, mutta sen korjaamiseksi on tehty suunnitelma, joka on jo vauhdissa.

#hiff

Fifth and sixth Love and Anarchy festival days. Managed to make ten out of twelve of the films I had bought tickets for. Kind of annoying to miss the few, but that happens.

Same time next year?

Warning: spoilers!

All the Colours of the World Are Between Black and White (2023)

Bambino is a motorcycle courier in Lagos. During a delivery he meets Bawa, a wannabe photographer who takes his picture. The pair develop a complex relationship of mutual interest through their time together with Bambino taking Bawa around Lagos to photograph.

Throughout the film we see the conflict of Bambino realizing he may be gay and rejecting those thoughts multiple times during the film. Female friend Ifeyinwa is caught in the middle, with feelings for Bambino, who ends up using her to test whether he is gay or not. In the end, even at the risk of suffering violence for being gay, Bambino finds what is important to him and accepts his feelings for a man.

A well produced film with lots of pretty photographic shots of Lagos while taking the journey of discovery of ones preferences and learning to accept ones feelings.

And the king said, what a fantastic machine (2023)

Missed this documentary about photography and film due to not feeling to well Saturday night and wanting to sleep a bit late. Boo :(

Lola (2022)

What if there was a machine that allowed you to see future radio and TV broadcasts? Invented by two sisters at the beginning of world war 2, the machine seems like the perfect way to defeat Nazi Germany. Soon after they realize they've erased David Bowie, they end up using the machine to help sink the U-boat fleet, thinking it will provide a great victory, but at the cost of an American civilian liner being sunk. Unfortunately, this causes the US to not enter the war and the eventual invasion of the UK by Nazi forces.

How do you undo all this? You make a documentary about it, air it and hope that you view it in history, thus avoiding the whole mess from happening. Messing with time is easy, right?

Cute very indie scifi film with lots of repurposed historical footage showing Britain under Nazi rule. Unfortunately the footage of cheering crowds would have likely been very true if an invasion had succeeded.

#hiff #lgbtq #lagos #photography #scifi #ww2 #timetravel #films #movies

Fourth Love and Anarchy film festival day, two screenings.

Warning, spoilers!

The quiet migration (2023)

Farm equipment. Farm animals. Farm buildings. Perfectly positioned pretty cinematic shots of all those. This is "The quiet migration".

Carl is an orphan adopted from Korea into a family in rural Denmark. Growing up on the farm, he is constantly faced with a feeling of not belonging, reinforced by racist rhetoric in the small rural community.

An asteroid falls. Or is it something to indicate trouble to come, crisis of identity and past? I think if it was intended to be an asteroid maybe the film makers should have consulted someone on what kind of craters rocks that smash into the Earth leave. Or their likely composition and thus weight. But maybe asteroids don't float around in rooms anyway.

The whole film builds up to Carl needing to make a decision. Will he choose to inherit the family farm in the Danish countryside or possibly explore other possibilities in life. I think it was pretty clear which one he would be choosing, and it makes a good ending to the film. I just hope he talks to the girl.

Nightsiren (2022)

Slovakian forests sounds like a great setting for a film about witches. And there is a lot of beautiful forest scenery and small village charm. Like wife and kid beating men kind of charm. And enough superstition to burn people alive. Are there any witches though? The answer probably lies in whether there were any witches during the times when they were commonly burned alive, in the darkest times of European history.

This film does the rare thing of keeping you on your toes at all times throughout the film. Waiting for the spells to come out, waiting for the evil men to be turned into toads. Spoiler: this is not a fantasy film. Things get a bit magical at times, but we don't really get told whether it's the witches at play or not. There is beauty and horror going through the whole film, enough to keep one constantly focused on the screen. Not yawning and wondering when the film will end is always a good positive sign of a good production.

#hiff #denmark #farms #slovakia #witches #films #movies

Third Love and Anarchy film festival screening, only one today.

Caution, spoilers!

White plastic sky (2023)

It's the year 2123. Planet Earth has died. Apparently either the last piece of humanity is the domed city of Budapest, or at least nothing else is mentioned, with the main characters pondering at one time whether there are other cities. Clearly not the most free of societies then.

Strict rules are necessary to keep humanity alive, says the co-founder of the miracle of Budapest. These strict rules include a set 50 year life span and controlled reproduction. After 50 years, your body becomes the property of the city. There are hints throughout the beginning of the film on the usage of the bodies. The people of the city need to eat right?

After the loss of their son, 32 old Nora doesn't want to live anymore and takes a voluntary implantation (where the implant is normally injected to your heart when you turn 50). When her husband finds out he makes the amazingly quick transformation from "fanboy of the system" to "my wife is special and needs saving, screw the city".

A rescue plan comes together with some amount of ease, and soon our characters are driving around the wasteland to a mystical place where Nora can be saved. During the journey we see how the human bodies are cultivated into food and some history is also shared.

"White plastic sky" is an interesting take on the dystopia and collapse of society -topic. The animation is striking and dream like, a beautiful film to watch. There are some weird plot holes and the whole ending of the film felt a bit strange, also I'd suggest drinking a large cup of coffee before as the music alone is something to make one sleepy. Overall an interesting story on what the cost of driving the planet to death could be, and the struggle of letting go. From your loved ones, and from the continuation of society at whatever cost.

#hiff #scifi #dystopia #films #movies

My second day of Love and Anarchy film festival. Initally I thought I had two screenings. Then I realized I have three, my calendar just managed to hide one of them. Then I fucked up and missed the last one 😁

Warning: There may be spoilers ahead.

Timecrimes (2017)

Everything about this screamed "go watch me". Time travel, scifi, "weird", being the selling labels. Sure, that's for me! It was weird. I think time travel is probably one of the hardest science fiction themes to get right - probably because "right" is a rather hard to define when it comes to time travel. It's not like we've actually had working time travel solutions, and the whole thing is a bit of a mindfuck.

Timecrimes did the "weird" part really well, but I'm afraid otherwise it felt a bit of a half-attempt. Just so many things that made the plot hard to follow, and the casting wasn't particularly impressive. The plot did try to pull through towards the end though, but left quite a bit of "wait what" holes in the process. Maybe it's just the time travel topic being hard.

Rakkautta ja Hekumaa (short films)

Short film collections from Love and Anarchy are always a nice thing to give a chance to. This collection, with films related to love and sexual desire container the following:

Super (2023)

A crush and sexual tension can happen anywhere, even at a supermarket. This short film follows a pair hooking up at a supermarket, spending the remaining day there being silly to each other and taking a break having sex in an elevator. In the end it is revealed "James" has a girlfriend and they separate after paying for their purchases just before the store closes.

OK it was more interesting than I described it. Sweet story of young love.

Dildotectonics (2023)

This short film was more of a documentary (I think?) of a person with the aim of creating non-phallic dildos, while throughout the film we also hear the story of (I forgot the name of the person) from history who had enjoyed dildos in a coven and then her girlfriend got judged by the Inquisition. I'm afraid the pace was rather slow and 16 minutes felt like a long time, maybe I was just tired.

Affricate (2022)

A woman is spending days at a beach side hotel with her two daughters. The daughters feel full of life, while the woman feels sad and lonely, and over protective regarding especially one of her daughters, who seems to have some special mental qualities needing extra care.

Luckily the day is saved by local hotel staff hunk Mark, who shows her life is all good by giving her a quick fuck on the beach. I think that was the point of the film.

An avocado pit (2022)

A trans prostitute decides to hit on a seemingly straight guy who seems to be having relationship trouble. Mutual interest develops, though in the end, neither believes love is in the air. This was actually a really well filmed cute story with lots of beautiful scenes, though the story didn't have a lot in it.

27 (2022)

I missed this one, as I had to leave to run (cycle) to my next movie, a 35 minute biking trip away as somehow I planned things poorly. A nice bike ride later...

Kubi (2023)

A samurai film by Takeshi Kitano. Something I was really looking forward to. A furious bike ride later, walking towards the theater at the last minute I realized the film is actually screening in a completely different place, like 10 km away. Somehow I had completely misread and with the laws of physics making it rather impossible for me to move my bike 10km in one minute, this one had to be missed :(

It was probably good!

#hiff #scifi #films #movies #fail

First day of Love and Anarchy film festival over! Three movies. Three completely different movies. Half an hour between each movie. My mind is pretty mushed up right now.

This post may include spoilers regarding some of the festival movies, be warned!

Living (2022)

I love Bill Nighy! There is just something about him that is really special. His expressions. Probably the roles he is cast to.

"Living" is a heart warming story of a man (Bill Nighy) who is given six months to live due to cancer. Realizing he has lived his life sitting at an office, wasting both his time and opportunity, he finds the chance to do some good before leaving the world.

I don't think there was a single mean character in this film. Which is probably why it was so heart warming, even the the son and his wife, who initially felt mean towards the cancer doomed father, eventually seemed that they had been distanced by the coldness of the father, rather than being mean themselves.

This film wont leave you sad after watching it.

Rebel (2022)

Do you feel disconnected from the brutalities of the world? Are you failing to understand what it is like to be engulfed by war? Are you generally wanting to stick knives into your heart in a dark room (ie movie theater)?

Then you've come to the right place. "Rebel" tells the story of a Belgian muslim family who gets engulfed in the Syrian conflict. Bad choices, being in the wrong place at the wrong time and a society that doesn't care, leads to two brothers and their mother being swallowed by ISIS. And like all war in the world, this film does not have a happy ending. There are no happy endings in war outside of Hollywood films. This is why you need to see this film, this is why history needs to be taught.

As films go, this was probably the hardest thing to watch for a long time. It was useless telling myself it's just a film. This stuff happens all the time, in Syria, in Ukraine, in areas of conflict all around the world. Somewhat confusingly the film had dance scenes. They didn't take away any of the pain in the story.

Polite Society (2023)

After spending half an hour after the previous film sulking in dark corners, pondering whether humanity should actually be given a chance, thankfully my next film set things straight back into happy land. Forget the war and the ugliness of humanity, welcome kung-fu with a bollywood touch!

"Polite Society" tells of two sisters, one arranged to marriage, one intent on stopping it. Well, not completely arranged, the other sister actually has fallen in love and wants to marry. Our wannabe martial arts enthusiast little sister smells foul play, and the truth is weirder than anyone would guess. Lots of fighting, cool moves and humour ensues, ending with a standing ovation at the cinema. And this film does have a happy ending, of course.

Really recommend this film if it comes near you, you wont be disappointed :)

Next two films on Wednesday, tomorrow is Näpit irti! day.

#hiff #films #movies #british #syria #ukraine #war #humanity #kungfu #bollywood

I feel the #HIFF (Helsinki International Film Festival) programme is particularly successful this year. Given I just went through the programme to flag movies or short film collections I would like to see, and ended up with 32 open browser tabs 🙈

... going to be a busy time I guess. Luckily I took a holiday for the latter part of the festival! Of course #Elokapina decided to organize a rebellion week for the same week. Maybe I could protest against inaction of the government towards #climatechange from a film screening?

And does this week also include Lyyti, the Freaky #bike parade and my birthday? Sure, fit it all in!

• HIFF: https://hiff.fi/en/info/programme/
• Lyyti: https://tavastiaklubi.fi/events/2023-09-21/lyyti-levyjulkkarit/90533/
• Forest rebellion: https://metsakapina.fi/en/
• Freaky bike parade: https://pyorapaja.info/freakybikeparade

#HIFF movies, last day of the festival, movie 2/2.

A musical and a visual roller coaster, "Neptune Frost" was certainly an interesting and powerful film. It was a bit hard to follow at times, moving in a poetic and artful way without any clear narrative to follow. As a line from the movie itself puts it, "Maybe you're asking yourself, WTF is this?". Yes, I was quite a few times. But it was also a fascinating journey of wtf.

The film highlights the colonialism still happening through mining of metals for electronics for the west. It also makes several references to corrupt politics and state oppression. I wasn't at all surprised to see the name of Saul Williams as the writer and one of the directors.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acfBNIXovww

#movies #scifi #musical #wtf

#HIFF movies, last day of the festival, movie 1/2.

Movies based on historical events are always a soft spot for me. "The Woman King" felt an interesting one being based in Africa, in the slave trade times, and with the story being around an all-female elite kings guard. The story takes part in the kingdom of Dahomey, at the time a tributary to the Oyo Empire. Both the Dahomey and the Oyo states participate in the slave trade, selling captured foreign citizens to the European and American slave traders, gaining in return modern weapons to wage more war against their neighbours. A vicious circle, and we all know how it all ended, pretty much all of Africa under European colonial rule.

The lead of the film is general Nanisca, a tough as nails warrior leading the Agojie soldiers, an elite kings guard unit of female warriors. The role is played well and the story is well written. This is a very serious film with very few laughs and lots of rather brutal fight scenes.

Spoilers follow!

It was nice to read that a lot of the details in the film are in fact quite accurate. The kingdom of Dahomey existed, and still does, though it's called Benin these days. The king Ghezo, portrayed early in the film as kind of weak but later showing strong character, was also a real character. Unlike in the film, he didn't abolish slave trade after the defeat of the Oyo Empire. In the film the Dahomey end up raiding the port used for slave trading by Europeans, and chase them to their ships. In reality, the Dahomey kingdom ended the practice of selling their own citizens as slaves to the Europeans under king Ghezo, but did not limit slave trade of Africans captured in raids. They also used slaves themselves for work labor and had some human sacrifice rituals where slaves were used. The ending speech of the king promising no more slave trade was empowering, but also completely false in historical accuracy.

General Nanisca is also a fictional character, though the Agojie female warriors were a central part of the Dahomey kingdom, as per the film.

All in all a very interesting film, highly recommend for anyone interested in history based films. Now I want to immediately go home and play Europa Universalis IV, and see what I can do with the Dahomey kingdom myself.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RDaPV_rJ1Y

Wikipedia (for historical facts): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Woman_King#Historical_accuracy

#movies #history #dahomey #benin

#HIFF movie recap for today. Two screenings again. Work is getting in the way of watching films, would do more otherwise!

First movie was a documentary called "Mariupolis 2". I spent a lot of time while watching it gathering my thoughts on what I would write about it. The pace was ... slow. See the clip for a good example. One could have easily had a laptop and written a whole review while watching without missing anything. The documentary was filmed by Lithuanian director Mantas Kvedaravičiusin who never got to see his documentary finished. He was taken captive and killed by Russian troops while trying to leave Mariupol after the filming. Through the documentary we follow a group of people taking shelter at a church. There are no soldiers, no tanks. Only the people, the church, constant bombing and rubble. The first 10 minutes the bombing makes you jump on the seat. Then you get used to it, and watch the people in the film gather firewood to make food and make small talk while the explosions go on, and wonder how long it took for them to get used to it.

The film makes great effort to show you the mind numbing endless days of living in the rubble while scavenging to survive. War as it is for the common people whose lives are destroyed whoever wins. Quite a few times through the two hours of explosions and looking at rubble I wondered what I was spending my days doing during March when the filming was done. And how I would cope in the situation these people were in. How would I explain to my kids why their houses are turned into rubble and they need to shelter in a basement for days at times? Humans really have not changed at all during the tens of thousands of years we've been given time to.

Clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQIqGFPwda0

Second movie was something I was expecting be a bit of a silly one, something to easy up the mood after something I was sure wasn't going to be an easy experience. "Raging Fire" is an action film from Hong Kong. Sadly, director Benny Chan of this film also died before the film was released, possibly not killed by Russia though. I loved this film! Some really cool well designed and filmed action scenes. With just that little bit of humour once in a while without taking it over the top, maintaining a rather serious feeling to the film. The plot was also pretty well thought out, giving the characters a reason for doing what they were doing. The absolute best epic scene since a long time has to be the main hero, forced in an epic motorcycle vs car battle to crash his car towards a small child, jams the car sideways at the last minute, catapulting himself out of the car and grabbing the kid before the car slams into the wall, both of them landing safely on top of the car. Pure gold.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kbQn8-W78o

#movies #mariupolis #hongkong #russia

Today I went to see two screenings at #HIFF.

First was a collection of short films. One of my reasons for this screening was it had the short film "Kapinalliset - Rebels with a cause" in it (trailer: https://vimeo.com/747144460). This is a film about two activists from Extinction Rebellion Finland (Elokapina). Being also in the movement it was naturally an interesting short film to see. May have even been visible myself on the scenes from Mannerheimintie road block autumn 2021. All in all a pretty well made little documentary, for sure not representing everything about Elokapina, but showing it from the perspective of a few rebels in the movement. There is also another similar TV series production of four episodes which came out earlier in the year, funnily enough also called "Kapinalliset". Recommend watching that too, it's available on YLE Areena (though maybe only in Finland) at https://areena.yle.fi/1-62172400.

The other short films were also pretty good, especially liked "Pyykkitupa" (also in YLE Areena https://areena.yle.fi/1-62100728), telling the story of a divorced man moving to his own apartment, struggling to get his laundry done in the building common washroom. It's great when a simple narrative like this comes to life in a funny and entertaining way. Another one to mention, "7pm on a Sunday", was well done but harsh to watch, being a parent. The life of a family permanently changes when a teenage daughter causes the death of her friend.

The other screening was an Ukrainian film called "Butterfly Vision" (trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uD2r9ZtRPp8). The film tells the story of a female Ukrainian soldier who falls captive during the war against the Russian supported separatists in Luhansk, before the full scale Russian invasion. It's not hard to guess her captivity wasn't an easy one. The film tells the struggle of her return into society after a prisoner exchange, haunted by mental and physical effects of her captivity. Wasn't an easy one to watch. Well written and made though.

#films #elokapina #ukraine

Vesper

My second movie of #HIFF. As dystopias go, this movie is on the far corners if dark. Yet with lots of beauty in it too, with a feeling of being more in a fantasy world than something in a possible future. Wasn't bored for one second, had to grip the seat a few times 😬

https://youtu.be/9dajBhMSd00

#movies #scifi

Start of the "Helsinki International Film Festival" for me! First film, "Once upon a time in Uganda" is a funny and heart warming story of a film studio in the Ghetto of Kampala in Uganda called "Wakaliwood". Now I want to see all their films 😅

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoaoH_6Povg

#films #hiff #wakaliwood

This year I set a reminder for #HIFF and managed to get tickets to all the films I am interested in and that I could tetris into the free days I have. Movies incoming, yay! It also seems I'll be spending my birthday night in the movies, which is great!

• Once upon a Time in Uganda - 19.09.2022
• Vesper - 20.09.2022
• Butterfly Vision - 22.09.2022
• Mariupolis 2 - 23.09.2022
• Raging Fire - 23.09.2022
• Neptune Frost - 25.09.2022

After many years of missing it, finally attending Helsinki International Film Festival again 🎉 Don't have too many days I can attend unfortunately due to kids, but I managed to slot in five movies. A bit sad I was too slow for a few of the headlining movies that looked interesting.

My shows are:

Bad Hair (Friday 17th evening) - https://hiff.fi/elokuvat/bad-hair/

The Other Side of the River (Saturday 18th afternoon) - https://hiff.fi/elokuvat/joen-toisella-puolen/

The First 54 Years – An Abbreviated Manual for Military Occupation (Saturday 18th evening) - https://hiff.fi/elokuvat/the-first-54-years-an-abbreviated-manual-for-military-occupation/

Invisible Demons (Sunday 19th evening) - https://hiff.fi/elokuvat/invisible-demons-tuhon-merkit/

Souad (Saturday 25th afternoon) - https://hiff.fi/elokuvat/souad/

#hiff #movies #films #helsinki