The story of Finnish punk rock band Apulanta.

fico-teitm7s.mkv

General
Container:	Matroska
Runtime:	1h 50mn
Size:	5.47 GiB
DXVA:	Compatible
Minimum settings:	Not met
Video
Codec:	x264
Resolution:	1280x544
Aspect ratio:	2.35:1
Frame rate:	25.000 fps
Bit rate:	6 619 kb/s
Audio
Finnish 5.1ch AC-3 @ 448 kb/s

https://nitro.download/view/84DB36E0826E059/fico-teitm7s.mkv

Language(s):Finnish
Subtitles:English

The post Tuukka Temonen – Teit meistä kauniin AKA Born in Heinola (2016) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Eden is a coming-of-age film about a Protestant Confirmation camp on a summer’s week, set in the archipelago of Helsinki. Aliisa is the intellectually confident non-believer, Jenna is the queen bee and Panu is the scared bird. The experience of these teenagers is affected by Tiina, a young and eager priest.

Eden.2020.576p.BluRay.x264-HANDJOB.mkv

General
Container:  	Matroska
Runtime: 	1 h 31 min
Size: 	2.60 GiB
Video
Codec: 	x264
Resolution: 	1024x552 
Aspect ratio:  	1.85:1
Frame rate: 	23.976 fps
Bit rate: 	3 596 kb/s
BPP: 	0.265
Audio
#1:  	Finnish 5.1ch AC-3 @ 448 kb/s

https://nitro.download/view/7C8EBB3E2B00BCD/Eden.2020.576p.BluRay.x264-HANDJOB.mkv

Language(s):Finnish
Subtitles:English, Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish

The post Ulla Heikkilä – Eden (2020) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Since 1969, masters of cinema have shown their films at the legendary Midnight Sun Film Festival and talked about their art. With choice moments from several hundred hours of these talks, von Bagh created a heavenly symposium on cinema as the most decent way to walk the earth.

Surely the most singular of events in the annual calendar of film culture, the Midnight Sun Film Festival is held every June in the Finnish village of Sodankylä beyond the arctic circle—where the sun never sets. Founded by Aki and Mika Kaurismäki along with Anssi Mänttäri and Peter Von Bagh in 1985, the festival has played host to an international who’s who of directors and each day begins with a two-hour discussion. To mark the festival’s silver anniversary, festival director Peter Von Bagh edited together highlights from these dialogues to create an epic four-part choral history of cinema drawn from the anecdotes, insights, and wisdom of his all-star cast: Coppola, Fuller, Forman, Chabrol, Corman, Demy, Kieslowski, Kiarostami, Varda, Oliveira, Erice, Rouch, Gilliam, Jancso—and 64 more! Ranging across innumerable topics (war, censorship, movie stars, formative influences, America, neorealism) these voices, many now passed away, engage in a personal dialogue across the years that’s by turns charming, profound, hilarious and moving. Call it Finland’s idiosyncratic and playful answer to Godard’s Histoire(s) du cinema!

	
Sodankyla.Forever.-.Part.1..The.Century.of.Cinema.2010.DVD.AC3.2.0.x264-SaL.mkv

General
Container:  	Matroska
Runtime: 	1h 29mn
Size: 	1.38 GiB
Video
Codec: 	x264
Resolution: 	696x572 ~> 741x572
Aspect ratio:  	1.297
Frame rate: 	25.000 fps
Bit rate: 	1 988 Kbps
BPP: 	0.200
Audio
#1:  	Multiple languages 2.0ch AC-3 @ 224 Kbps

https://nitro.download/view/EB3665B5FC73328/Sodankyla.Forever.-.Part.1..The.Century.of.Cinema.2010.DVD.AC3.2.0.x264-SaL.mkv
https://nitro.download/view/D340951F2A0B7D7/Sodankyla.Forever.-.Part.2..The.Yearning.of.the.First.Film.Experience.2010.DVD.AC3.2.0.x264-SaL.mkv
https://nitro.download/view/D6CE486131A0445/Sodankyla.Forever.-.Part.3..Eternal.Time.2010.DVD.AC3.2.0.x264-SaL.mkv
https://nitro.download/view/A25FD4A1389AEEE/Sodankyla.Forever.-.Part.4..Drama.of.Light.2010.DVD.AC3.2.0.x264-SaL.mkv

Language(s):Various (Finnish, English, French, etc.)
Subtitles:English (hardcoded)

The post Peter von Bagh – Sodankylä ikuisesti AKA Sodankylä Forever (2010) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

The return of the son of the film, a thirtysomething Selja (Ylipää) as a young childless mixed with the adopting of everyday life, which is built on work, friends, and relationships around it.

General
Container:	Matroska
Runtime:	1h 45mn
Size:	4.37 GiB
DXVA:	Compatible
Minimum settings:	Not met
Video
Codec:	x264
Resolution:	1280x544
Aspect ratio:	2.35:1
Frame rate:	23.976 fps
Bit rate:	5 187 Kbps
Audio
Finnish 5.1ch DTS @ 768 Kbp

https://nitro.download/view/100B51DAC61586E/Urban.Family.2015.720p.BluRay.x264-FiCO.mkv

Language(s):Finnish
Subtitles:English

The post Oskari Sipola – Ollaan vapaita AKA Urban Family (2015) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

A Gothic romance directed by Valentin Vaala, based on a 1880 novella by Zachris Topelius.

Peter von Bagh’s essay on the film from Suomalaisen elokuvan kultainen kirja (“The Golden Book of Finnish Cinema”, 1992), with some additions:

Zachris Topelius’s romantic novelette from 1859 – practically a forerunner of the modern detective novel – was the source material for a costume drama produced by Suomi-Filmi for nearly four years in the exceptional conditions of Finland’s Continuation War (1941–44). There was a clear social call for this film, which [like Marcel Carné’s Les Enfants du paradis, released the same year] was set some hundred years in the past, in the 1840s. The story of an ancient family castle, its secrets and ghosts, fascinated the critics of the time as much as it did the public. “A romantic mist enshrouds the inhabitants of the noble castle and their guests – a charming, idyllic view of ages past, enhanced by the excellent set design by Roy and the splendid costumes typical for that time”, wrote one of them.

During his long career, Valentin Vaala made only a few historical films, but this film – just like the earlier Man from Sysmä (1938) – is a work that clearly bears his handprint. The star of the film is not History with a capital H, as in other similarly grandiose productions made by the same studio at that time, but rather small enchanting details that bring the past to the present: the sleigh ride of Kaarle Lithau (Rauli Tuomi) and Ringa Littow (Kaija Rahola), other rides through the night, the candelabras, history glowing romantically in candlelight. Rauli Tuomi was an actor whose brief and fervent career as a film star was launched by his portrayal in this movie of the mysterious architect Kaarle Lithau.

Vaala’s directorial touches are at their purest in the long sequences without much action, just shots of Lithau wandering around and searching for something. For whole minutes, all we have on the screen is the actor, the effects of light and sound, the ghostly presence of objects, and amidst all that also loneliness and the mystery of one’s own self: “In order to forget, a man needs to be either very happy or very unhappy – and I don’t know which one I am.”

One of the most important relationships in the movie is that between the two Littow sisters, of whom the older, Anna (Regina Linnanheimo), becomes more and more violent in her tendency to dominate her younger sister, Ringa, who in the end has to give up her love. As Lithau puts it, Ringa “loves her sister more than she does me”. The sisters’ relationship is characterized by many of the dominant themes of the war years – community, sacrifice, unselfishness – but it’s not without some erotic elements, too. Some of the shots, like a long tracking shot towards one of the beds of the mansion, have a subtle eroticism about them not far removed from such classics of the same time as The Cat People by Jacques Tourneur.

What other elements make The Green Chamber of Linnais a film of its time? (The film had its premiere on 4 February 1945, just five months after World War II ended for Finland.) One detail worth adding is the abundance of food and the joy of eating depicted in the film, a distant memory for most Finns, who were still dealing with the strict wartime ratios. And also the last line of the film, accompanied by a kiss: “The past is no longer, there is only a happy future.” A wish that would surely have struck a chord in the audiences of that time.

Linnaisten.vihrea.kamari.1945.WEB-DL.1080p.x264.mkv

General
Container:  	Matroska
Runtime: 	1 h 38 min
Size: 	2.03 GiB
Video
Codec: 	x264
Resolution: 	1480x1080 
Aspect ratio:  	1.370
Frame rate: 	24.000 fps
Bit rate: 	2 696 kb/s
BPP: 	0.070
Audio
#1:  	2.0ch AAC @ 253 kb/s

https://nitro.download/view/13E91D6864C2E9D/Linnaisten.vihrea.kamari.1945.WEB-DL.1080p.x264.mkv

Language(s):Finnish
Subtitles:English

The post Valentin Vaala – Linnaisten vihreä kamari AKA The Green Chamber of Linnais (1945) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Quote:
Concrete Night is a dream-like odyssey through beautiful Helsinki over the course of one night. The protagonist of the film is a 14-year-old boy named Simo who is still searching for a sense of self and the ability to protect himself from his surroundings. He lacks his own identity. Simo and his big brother Ilkka are the sons of a helpless and unpredictable single mother. Their chaotic home is located deep in the heart of a concrete jungle in Helsinki. Ilkka has one day of freedom left before starting his prison sentence. The mother persuades Simo to spend the last night with his brother.

During the course of the day and night spent roaming around Helsinki, the brothers witness incidents they would rather not see. Vulnerable Simo is not equipped to justify what he sees or delude himself – seeing things accurately as they are. To him, the unfiltered world seems unbearable. Finally a casual encounter with a photographer, whose intentions Simo misreads, launches him into blind fear. In the panic-stricken violence that ensues, Simo finds his missing identity, his true face.

Director Pirjo Honkasalo wrote the film script based on the merciless novel Concrete Night by Pirkko Saisio, which was published in 1981. The script has been adapted to modern times. The 30-year-old novel foreshadows life today.

	
Betoniyö.AKA.Concrete.Night.2013.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DD+2.0.x264-Cinefeel.mkv

General
Container:  	Matroska
Runtime: 	1 h 36 min
Size: 	2.44 GiB
Video
Codec: 	h264
Resolution: 	1920x800 
Aspect ratio:  	2.40:1
Frame rate: 	24.000 fps
Bit rate: 	3 395 kb/s
BPP: 	0.092
Audio
#1:  	Finnish 2.0ch E-AC-3 @ 224 kb/s

https://nitro.download/view/F332C0505F0A3D6/Betoniyo.AKA.Concrete.Night.2013.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DD+2.0.x264-Cinefeel.mkv

Language(s):Finnish
Subtitles:English [Hardcoded]

The post Pirjo Honkasalo – Betoniyö AKA Concrete Night (2013) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

“Eight Deadly Shots is perhaps the most nuanced picture of the working of the economic system in the history of our cinema: a close-up of a man up against the wall, at the most basic level of breathing.”
–Peter von Bagh, Kansan Uutiset

While Mikko Niskanen’s Skin, Skin is light, Eight Deadly Shots is the essence of dark. Born in 1929, the actor and director made 14 features before his death in 1990. The British Film Institute, in 1972’s New Cinema in Finland, describes this B&W effort as his “most important film so far.” One of filmmaker Aki Kaurismäki’s favorites, it remains Niskanen’s most important–even if it isn’t really a “film” (more on that below). A powerful work of social protest, it’s among the finest Finnish pictures ever produced.

Originally commissioned for television, Eight Deadly Shots was broadcast in four installments totaling five hours and 16 minutes. Like the abridged edition of Ingmar Bergman’s 1973 small-screen series Scenes from a Marriage, this theatrical version plays as if it was always meant to be a movie. The BFI proclaimed it “a triumph” and a “minor masterpiece.”

By way of comparison, the BFI proclaimed 1966’s Skin, Skin as “smooth, lively, and unpretentious”–qualifying that it’s a “somewhat overrated youth picture”–while 1971’s Song of the Scarlet Flower (which screens on Saturday) is “a disaster.” The BFI also raved about Niskanen’s first feature, 1962’s Boys, made after two years of study at Moscow’s State Institute of Cinematography, but it isn’t screening as part of the Northwest Film Forum’s Sisu Cinema: Nine from the Finnish New Wave.

To judge by the first week of screenings, including Jörn Donner’s charmingly titled Fuck Off! Images of Finland (1971), the series has been an unqualified success, and those who missed the opening week still have two left during which to get caught up. Summer Rebellion, Diary of a Worker, and Poor Maria brings things to a close next weekend.

Inspired by a 1969 incident concerning Tauno Veikko Pasanen (with whom Niskanen consulted), Eight Deadly Shots examines the rigors of rural life from the inside out. It’s one thing to live off the fat of the land, but it’s another when that land ceases to yield produce of any value, especially when there are no other income-generating options available.

Farmer Pasi (Niskanen looking every inch the Bressonian anti-hero) lives with his wife (Tarja-Tuulikki Tarsala) and children in Konginkangas, an isolated mountain village. There’s plenty of love to go around, but times are tight. To supplement their income, Pasi distills liquor stronger than the stuff the government provides. After a hard day’s work, he gathers with his buddies, brews up a batch, sells a few bottles, and drinks himself into oblivion.

His perceptive, unnamed wife understands the situation all too clearly. The money is a boon, but the operation represents a serious liability. The authorities have been keeping tabs on the community, and the penalties for bootlegging are stiff. Worse yet, Pasi’s drinking is taking its toll by destroying his family and, through distribution, the entire town.

The BFI: “The illegal distilling of spirits, an important part of the film’s action, becomes a social protest, the last trial of strength for a powerless small farmer, an illusory flame of freedom and life but which, according to the class laws of society, irrevocably destroys the protester himself.”

Like Shohei Imamura’s 1966 The Pornographers, which blames a repressive regime for stunted sexual maturity, Eight Deadly Shots eschews speechifying to make its point. The focus is always on the farmer, but where are the government programs that could help re-train workers for non-agricultural trades? Where are the substance abuse counselors?

Eventually, the police catch the distillers in the act, and Pasi’s downward spiral accelerates until an act of violence seals his fate. Nobody makes him pull the trigger, but nor does anyone help him when he’s down.

About the neo-realist thriller, the BFI adds, “One of the great achievements of Niskanen is that he is able to portray the basic positiveness of the leading character of this grim story–also his belief in the possibilities of nature and work–and all this without the wrong kind of romanticism, without traditional poetic clichés of film humanism–and without pity, since pity would have meant placing oneself outside the situation.”

Aside from the carefully observed writing, Niskanen’s deeply felt performance makes Eight Deadly Shots hard to deny. It may not sound like a fun night at the movies, but the film is so attentive to time and place that it feels universal (Niskanen grew up in the same part of Finland).

Whether or not there’s a history of alcoholism in his family, Pasi’s reasons for drinking are always understandable. And his efforts to deny it recall Ray Milland’s prevaricator in The Lost Weekend. As in Billy Wilder’s 1945 feature, Niskanen doesn’t waste time with Freudian psychobabble–dad was withholding, mom was controlling–but gets in under Pasi’s skin, allowing the audience access to his feelings of hopelessness and despair.

Eight.Deadly.Shots.S01E01.1080p.MUBI.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-KUCHU.mkv

General
Container:  	Matroska
Runtime: 	1 h 17 min
Size: 	2.83 GiB
Video
Codec: 	x264
Resolution: 	1800x1080 
Aspect ratio:  	5:3
Frame rate: 	25.000 fps
Bit rate: 	4 882 kb/s
BPP: 	0.100
Audio
#1:  	Finnish 2.0ch AAC LC @ 320 kb/s

https://nitro.download/view/F2AB9A5F732C2D9/Eight.Deadly.Shots.S01E01.1080p.MUBI.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-KUCHU.mkv
https://nitro.download/view/E37BDBB8CD4FFE4/Eight.Deadly.Shots.S01E02.1080p.MUBI.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-KUCHU.mkv
https://nitro.download/view/DE2DCDDB91CCA9F/Eight.Deadly.Shots.S01E03.1080p.MUBI.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-KUCHU.mkv
https://nitro.download/view/7DCD70B2E9F774D/Eight.Deadly.Shots.S01E04.1080p.MUBI.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-KUCHU.mkv

Language(s):Finnish
Subtitles:English, Spanish, Dutch, Portuguese, Turkish

The post Mikko Niskanen – Kahdeksan surmanluotia AKA Eight Deadly Shots (1972) (HD) first appeared on Cinema of the World.