Content from Illume

During the Continuation War, there were dozens of POW camps in Finland. About the third of 70,000 prisoners died during the first year of war. Most of the archives of the camps were destroyed and the majority of the war crimes were never revealed.

In 1917 Finnish explorer Sakari Pälsi travelled to Northeastern Siberia carrying a cinematograph and 13,000 feet of film with him. The journey produced a unique documentary film and a travelogue. A hundred years later director Kira Jääskeläinen returns to the Bering Strait in Pälsi's footsteps. Combining old and new film footage, Pälsi's notes and the stories of the local indigenous peoples, the film highlights the story of the Chukchi and Siberian Eskimos from bygone days till today.

A documentary film about Martta Koskinen, the last executed woman in Finland during the war in 1943. Martta was a Seamstress who lived in Helsinki during the Second World War. She was one of the post-civil war (in 1918) generation for whom the war had meant a disappointment in the system and failure in unity of the Finnish nation. The legacy of the civil war had left systems of persecution in place for those with socialist ideals. Martta and her fellow revolutionaries were determined to continue the resistance movement although they knew that at worst it could cost their lives. Martta was imprisoned twice before she was shot. She was an idealist, whose seemingly harmless, naive beliefs in peace and justice were the most dangerous traits a person could have at the time.

A film about the monster of Lapland, Mr. Lordi, who after winning the Eurovision Song Contest loses everything, almost everything.

This documentary follows a bustrip from Tallinn to Kaliningrad. A route that was so common in the Soviet times now passes through 4 different countries and crosses 3 different borders.

Five years in the making, based on six lengthy interviews filmed on six different locations in Saint Petersburg, we meet an outspoken artist who covers here his entire life and prolific career. The locations were Sokurov’s own favourites, where he felt at home.

A movie about two women who are mothers to the same child, and a child who belongs to two different worlds.

Helsinki, Forever is a montage film about the city of Helsinki by the award-winning Finnish film director and academic Peter von Bagh. The film draws a portrait of Helsinki and also acts as an essay on Finnish culture in a wider sense. It shows Helsinki as captured by leading Finnish feature film and documentary makers over a period of one hundred years.

A documentary on the executions that took place during and after the Finnish civil war in 1918.

A sensitive and intimate portrait of Ivanna, a nomadic reindeer herder in the Russian Arctic and mother of five small kids. Ivanna is forced to leave the traditional way of life and emigrate to the city, following her own dreams, due to the quickly deteriorating conditions of life in the tundra. We follow her life for several years.

Many men in the world in order to support their families have to leave families. Our characters go J the North as shift w3ockers and produce gas. Dimity is ambitious engineer in the middle of his career. Alex is a plumber. He does not pump gas, he pinups feces, but he's old polar wolf. Andrew3, young guy, comes to the North for the first time. Each of our protagonists has his challenges and problems and family story lines. Each of them makes his mean's choice and pay for it. Their stories develop in front of our eyes.

Peter von Bagh's documentary about Juhani Aho and people around him.

Documentary about Finnish film theaters - about their past, disappearance and future. And at the same time universal story how cinema is undeniably connected with life.

The story of Agit Prop, communist band established in 1970.

How to Fix the World? is a comprehensive and informative documentary about direct action in the 1990s and 2000s, directed by Jouko Aaltonen. In the documentary, anarchists, climate activists, and squatters openly describe their experiences and link them to mainstream phenomena in society. A wide range of archive material sheds a light on the history of direct action and activism in the Finnish society.

Strangers in the Dark is an experimental film about how light pollution makes a glow-worm’s love life a living hell. Combining different techniques from animation to archive material the film follows glow-worm’s attempts to find a partner in an environment that is no longer dark at night. The story about light and darkness moves from the scale of planetary to microscopic, from the calmness of nature to a hectic city and from artificial light to the green shimmer of a glow-worm’s behind.

The documentary follows Finnish MPs in spring 2008 during committee debates on a bill raising health‑care and daycare fees. Over several intense months, it offers a close-up on four parliamentarians navigating closed-door discussions, party strategies, and public opposition. Despite heated arguments and political maneuvering, the bill proceeds largely unchanged.

For the first time in its history, Finland became an autonomous state when it broke away from a crumbling Russian empire in 1917. Witnessing the upheaval of the First World War and all too aware of the threat posed both outside and within its borders, the newly installed government initiated harsh and draconian policies for its younger generation. All children and youths were drilled in the importance of discipline, rectitude and nationalism. With no exceptions.

A documentary about two cities, Turku past and present. They are united by a constant struggle over who owns the city and how and under what conditions it will change. What was Turku like before it disappeared when the cityscape was modernized and the old was destroyed? How did that happen? Who benefited from it? What kind of disease was the Turku disease? And how are young people today trying to take control of urban space? Why are they occupying buildings? Who does the built environment belong to and who decides on it?