Johanna af Schultén
Wedding planner Joanna needs to find herself a fake boyfriend to cheer up her depressed father. As if on demand, an eccentric undertaker enters Joanna's life with her own motives for looking for a girlfriend. At the same time, Joanna receives some earth-shattering news and nothing can ever go back to the way it was.
Tuomo, who works as a taxi driver, has buried her mother Laila last week. However, there is not too much time to grief because Tuomo's father Kalevi waits for him in a retirement home just outside the city. Because of Kalevi's dementia, he imagines himself to be the late king of rock and roll, Elvis Presley. He dresses, moves and has the same gestures as the idol of his youth. Tuomo is maintaining his relationship with his father by taking him every Sunday to a nearby karaoke bar where Kalevi performs as Elvis. Playing along with his father's imaginary world feels this time too heavy on Tuomo. In mixed emotions, he tries to make his father understand the death of his mother. The consequences are nearly fatal.
Anna’s story takes place on Åland Island in 1666, during the beginning of the most widespread and systematic witch-hunts in Scandinavian history. In all, 16 women were convicted of being in league with the devil, and seven of them were executed. For Judge Psilander, who has mastered the newest witch theories of the time, the trials are meant to cleanse the island of superstition, to have science and common sense prevail. The main character, the intelligent and stubborn Anna, gets an intimate view of the events, having just started working as a maid in the judge’s house. To Anna’s misfortune, she falls intensely in love with her friend Rakel’s husband Elias, but his infatuation with her quickly fades. A hurt and jealous Anna decides to get revenge and falsely reports Rakel to Judge Psilander. It’s only when Rakel is arrested, and things get out of hand, that Anna realizes the gravity of her doings.
"Encounter". Seven stories of women. Occasionally intersecting with each other in everyday situations. Parallel episodes of hope and abandonment, addiction and infidelity, but also friendship and trust.
Sari is a young, beautiful and intelligent girl who is busy studying at university,but she suffers from epilepsy and has to face death on a daily basis. Mikko is hersomewhat older university teacher, who is tired of life, and who one day decides toabandon his wife, children and idea of a perfect life. Both characters have been tooscared to live their lives to the brim for too long. But they meet, and in spite oftheir prejudices and reserved natures, they manage to create a dramatic and movingmodern romance which confronts numerous taboos. While the imagery explores theboundary between life and death in a most poetic way, the odd couple's romance istold with both bite and humour. Society - be it in the shape of angry ex-wives,overprotective parents, conservative aunts or embittered colleagues - is doing whatit can to put a spanner in the works."
Epic tale about two generations of men in a wealthy Finnish family, spanning from the 1960s all the way through the early 1990s. The father has achieved his position as director of the family business through marrying the heiress. Their eldest son Dani, hoped to succeed his father, succumbs to drugs while pursuing a career in rock music. Younger Riku grows up under the shadow of his more talented big brother and slowly drifts into the late 1980s, noticing then how many of his friends have managed to take advantage of the economic upswing.
A week-long glimpse into the wretched existence of Ripa, a long-haired, hard-drinking lug. He is also a filmmaker-wannabee, whose last two projects were condemned for their sex and violence. A Parasite Deluxe, who barely recalls his previous night, Ripa cruises the bars and meets bank-teller Tiina.
Waitress Saara meets handsome journalist Joni, and soon moves in to live with him. Joni tries his best to satisfy Saara sexually but, disturbed by violent lesbian fantasies, she is unable to experience orgasm. Trying to cope with the situation, Saara has another brief affair back in her old home town.
