The 50 finnish cult films, you have to see.
Finnish cinema is waste of your time. When i heard that i just knew i have to make this list. I want to show the oddities, so bad they are great, underrated, rare and lesser known finnish movies. ps. I also include some mini tv-series on this list.
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- DirectorErik BlombergStarsMirjami KuosmanenKalervo NissiläÅke LindmanA newlywed woman goes to the local shaman to get some help with her love life, but instead she gets turned into a white reindeer vampire.
- DirectorJari HalonenStarsJorma TommilaAntti ReiniRauno JuvonenMike is getting out of prison after serving four years for a bank robbery. Bona is arranging the party of all parties for him: a Christmas party.
- DirectorTeuvo TulioStarsMarianne MardiOssi ElsteläMauritz ÅkermanA Lappish girl, the only daughter of a reindeer herder, rescues a crashed German fighter pilot during WW2. The two develop warm feelings for each other during his convalescence.
- DirectorSeppo HuunonenStarsLeo LastumäkiHeikki KinnunenPentti AuerValtteri and Sepe, two ordinary white-collar guys from southern Finland drive up north to implement a plan they've been hatching for months. Because they simply love the taste of lamb, baked "robber-style" in a hole dug under a campfire, they forge their car's number plates and other important documents just to be able to poach sheep grazing on the roadside without getting caught. Lots of man talk around the campfire, aided by lots of booze. The summer may be wet, but the vodka is definitely dry.
- DirectorVisa MäkinenStarsKauko HelovirtaIlmari SaarelainenMatti MäntyläA small gang of criminals is planning to commit a gold heist not knowing that the new member of their gang is actually a police detective. But when his true identity is revealed to the gang they act like they wouldn't know about it and decide to use the detective to accomplish their plans about the heist.
- DirectorMatti KassilaStarsTauno PaloGunvor SandkvistHelen EldeDoctor Aitamaa is spending holiday with his family at their summer villa. He accidentally reads a letter that was meant to his wife. The letter is from another man. Aitamaa fallows his wife to the city and finds out that she has a lover. Later the wife is found killed and Aitamaa becomes the prime suspect.
- StarsEero MelasniemiAnna-Leena HärkönenEsa AnttilaPainter Kai Merilä wakes up from a 7-month coma after being in a road accident while Driving Under the Influence. Suffering from amnesia, he returns to his villa in the Finnish countryside, where the accident took place the previous year. Every villager remembers the painter, but he remembers no one. Merilä receives an assignment from one Mrs. Sundel to paint a portrait of their daughter Nina, who has gone missing. The horrible memories from his past come back to him little by little as he paints Nina's portrait using only photographs of her.
- DirectorOlli SoinioStarsTiina BjörkmanKari SorvaliKim GunellA female fashion model Anni Stark (played by Tiina Björkman) takes leave from the fashion business and goes to Finland's Lappland (a wilderness region in Northern Finland, better known as the home of Santa Claus) for a vacation. Little does she know that there's a totally lunatic bunch of local hillbillies living in a nearby farmhouse. The plot thickens as one of the residents begins to harass Anni, who is left alone in the wilderness with only her dog to protect her. Too bad for her that her dog turns out to have divided loyalties..
- DirectorOlli SoinioStarsSoli LabbartKari SorvaliMikko Kivinen
- DirectorJari HalonenStarsJorma TommilaTarja-Tuulikki TarsalaHannu HuuskaThe 21st-century tale centers on taciturn detective Lipton Cockton as he looks into a series of murders involving exploding victims.
- DirectorMatti KassilaStarsHannu LauriLaila RäikkäAntti LitjaAsko Mertanen is a waiter who is very interested in shooting. He gets fed up how the things are run in Finland, so he thinks that the best way to change them is to shoot the Finnish president.
- DirectorJörn DonnerStarsRitva VepsäJörn DonnerKirsti WallasvaaraFinnish 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, notorious for a graphic long shot of his penis pointing northeast.
- DirectorJack WitikkaStarsMartti KatajistoHillevi LagerstamHeikki SavolainenA wide-eyed doll salesman is mistaken for a bomb-wielding anarchist by the oppressive forces of the totalitarian state.
- DirectorRoland af HällströmStarsMirja ManeToivo MäkeläHillevi LagerstamArchaeological team unearths a body of a young woman, who was told to be a witch buried in the bog some 300 years ago. Soon a naked woman appears and drives the men of the village crazy. Everybody is certain that this really is the witch killed in days of yore. At the end the wild happenings during those few days appeared to be a dream of the professor leading the excavations.
- DirectorTeuvo TulioStarsRegina LinnanheimoOscar TengströmVille SalminenThe daughter of a lighthouse keeper runs away with a shipwrecked businessman to the city. But instead of her dreams, she finds herself selling herself in the streets, until a painter finds her as an ideal model for his next painting.
- DirectorMika KaurismäkiStarsJolyon BakerJürgen ProchnowFanny BastienOne man's quest for revenge in a post-apocalyptic world
- DirectorIsmo SajakorpiStarsSatu SilvoEero MelasniemiGeorg DolivoAfter a suicide attempt, a woman finds herself haunted by a ghostly figure.
- DirectorRisto JarvaStarsArto TuominenRitva VepsäTarja MarkusA historian in a futuristic dystopian world is researching the death of a free-spirited model who died under mysterious circumstances. He finds Saara's identical double Kisse and convinces her to re-enact Saara's life and death for TV.
- DirectorTapio SuominenStarsEsa NiemeläTony HolmströmKati OutinenIn the punk rock era of the late 1970s three restless teenagers, two boys and a girl, spend their time in and out of a special class for problem kids. Jussi seldom sees his parents at home, so he is free to indulge in petty crimes, pranks, and getting drunk with his friend Pete. Jussi falls in love with equally rebellious classmate Lissu (Aki Kaurismäki's favourite actress Kati Outinen in her debut role), but the lovers' plan to run away together fails dramatically.
- DirectorJörn DonnerErkki SeiroJaakko TalaskiviStarsJörn DonnerIrmeli LoikalaJussi NiininenThree 30-something Finnish filmmakers travel around Finland to interview ordinary people and paint a picture of Finland in the year 1970.
- DirectorJari HalonenStarsJorma TommilaUlla KoivurantaSanna-Maria SalmiIt is glasnost in the USSR. Reima August is the last communist. A lonely outcast that does not agree with the new world around him.
- StarsMerja LarivaaraTaisto ReimaluotoKai LehtinenAbout three cops, one married couple--Marita and Hessu--and Marita's old love Oiva. After years, Marita and Oiva meet and escape into the woods during a police operation. In the soft heat of August, the cops are trying to find a place of fulfillment and save the world from evil. In the whirlwind of a triangle drama, they encounter missions, murderers, priests and betrayers--rage, crime, tears.
- DirectorLars G. ThelestamStarsKate O'MaraBruno O'YaÅke LindmanThe cold and ruthless Bruno is married to Karen. Together they seek out poor and defenseless people offering them life insurance policies. Bruna and Karen make sure that it pays off.
- DirectorTeuvo PuroStarsEinar RinneHeidi BlåfieldIrmeli ViherjuuriA newlywed couple suffer from the effects of a curse a witch put on the place they live in centuries earlier.
- DirectorMatti IjäsStarsVesa VierikkoSulevi PeltolaMarkku MaalismaaViltteri, a balding guy in his thirties living in rural northern Finland, is hopelessly clueless about his new role as a married man and the father of a newborn son. A perfect escape from family responsibilities is having to get his old Hillman Minx repaired and inspected for road-worthiness, with a little help from an eccentric bunch of friends who never seem to have grown up either.
- DirectorSeppo HuunonenStarsMikko MajanlahtiArja VirtanenPauli VirtanenA middle-aged man becomes deeply involved with the affairs and criminal connections of a mysterious girl.
- DirectorErkko KivikoskiStarsUrpo PoikolainenAarne HakulinenPentti ViljakainenThe events surrounding a factory in a small town are gone through in documentary style.
- DirectorMatti IjäsStarsEsko HukkanenEsko PesonenKalevi KahraAgeing wrestler and circus strongman is put in an institution located somewhere in a world of its own, next to an abandoned railway station with pigs running loose on the tracks in almost constant rain. The institution is filled with the most diverse characters, all trying to go on with their own familiar ways instead of giving way to apathy or to mockery by others -- a retired cellist, war veterans, and an artistic old lady with whom the Wrestler slowly becomes romantically attached. After showing her all the strongman feats he's still capable of, the Wrestler sets out with her on a dramatic escape, pulling a railway car behind him with his teeth.
- DirectorJari HalonenStarsMarko TiusanenJari SalmiKaroliina KudjoiFinland in the 1850's take the first steps towards independence. The Finnish-language authors introduce themselves.
- DirectorJörn DonnerStarsRitva VepsäSven-Bertil TaubeSeija TyniTuula's husband Jukka takes care of all domestic chores. Tuula seems to have no idea that her husband spends his evenings working as a major league ice hockey referee. She also finds out about his extra-marital affair with a female rally driver. In revenge, Tuula starts seeing her gynecologist Timo Paasi, a married man with six children.
- DirectorValentin VaalaStarsRauli TuomiRegina LinnanheimoKaija RaholaA nobleman in 1830's Finland has to contend with stuck-up relatives, his daughters' suitors, dark secrets from his family's past, mistaken identities and a haunted wing of his mansion.
- DirectorAleksandr PtushkoStarsUrho SomersalmiAnna OrochkoIvan VoronovThe evil witch Louhi kidnaps Lemminkäinen's sister to build for her a Sampo, a device that creates salt, grain, and gold. When Lemminkäinen fails to recover the Sampo, Louhi steals the sun, plunging the world into frozen darkness.
- DirectorPekka ParikkaStarsTaneli MäkeläEsko SalminenEsko NikkariBased on the novel of the same name by Finnish author Antti Tuuri, this delicious late-'80s comedy builds its dark humour on the stereotypical mentality of the northern part of Finland. While perhaps not as entertaining to a person unfamiliar with Finnish traditions, the brilliant acting and directing, plus the warm, beautiful Finnish summer more than make up for the cultural gap. The story begins with a group of brothers and their families coming to honour the memory of their recently-deceased father. Spending time together, opening old wounds and creating new ones--it all boils down to brotherhood. No matter what happens, brothers take care of their own. Considering that the events of the movie all take place within a 24-hour period, nothing feels rushed. The film rolls on naturally. The best part about this film is the cast that they managed to put together for the movie. Esko Salminen, Taneli Mäkelä, Vesa Vierikko, and Esko Nikkari are all well-known, extremely-talented Finnish actors, but this movie contains among the best performances of their careers. Especially Mäkelä and Nikkari are brilliant; Mäkelä's quiet and contemplative character has depth that you can just feel--and Nikkari's convincing portrayal of a town drunk. Funny, dramatic, entertaining and definitely a movie that makes you FEEL.