Drifting Shadows: Masterpieces of Finnish Cinema

Antti Alanen and I have put together a programme celebrating Finnish film history. Drifting Shadows -- a title borrowed from a book by Peter von Bagh to whom this programme is dedicated -- features 17 titles, short and feature length, documentary and fiction, to be screened from newly restored DCPs or vintage prints (both 16 and 35mm) at Close-Up Film Centre in London, 18-30 January 2019. A selection of six titles will be screened at Edinburgh's Filmhouse in January and February 2019.

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Cinema in Finland got a flying start with a visit of the Lumière company in 1896, and in 1907 fiction film production was launched to great success, but for a long time Finnish cinema remained a treasure for domestic consumption only. Before the Kaurismäki phenomenon the best-known Finnish film was Erik Blomberg’s The White Reindeer, but there is much more to discover. This programme sheds light on one of the most overlooked Nordic national cinemas which is currently enjoying a boom in audience success, production volume, and versatility.



Drifting Shadows: Masterpieces of Finnish Cinema
Curated by Antti Alanen and Ehsan Khoshbakht
Close-Up Film Centre, London

The Village Shoemakers | Erkki Karu, 1923, 83 min, 35mm (silent with live accompaniment by Stephen Horne)

The Broad Way | Valentin Vaala, 1931, 96 min

Stolen Death | Nyrki Tapiovaara, 1938, 100 min

Women of Niskavuori | Valentin Vaala, 1938, 85 min

People in the Summer Night | Valentin Vaala, 1948, 66 min

The Way You Wanted Me | Teuvo Tulio, 1944, 102 min

The White Reindeer | Erik Blomberg, 1952, 74 min

The Unknown Soldier | Edvin Laine, 1955, 177 min

Inspector Palmu’s Error | Matti Kassila, 1960, 109 min

The Diary of a Worker | Risto Jarva, 1967, 92 min, 35mm

Alvar Aalto | Eino Ruutsalo, 1972, 19 min, 16mm

The Worthless | Mika Kaurismäki, 1982, 110 min

Shadows in Paradise | Aki Kaurismäki, 1986, 76 min

Midnight Sun Film Festival | Heikki Ortamo, 1987, 9 min, 35mm

Helsinki, Forever | Peter von Bagh, 2008, 74 min

Kaisa's Enchanted Forest | Katja Gauriloff, 2016, 86 min

The Eternal Road | Antti-Jussi Annila, 2017, 103 min

FREE EVENT: Finland's Enchanted Cinema, a talk by Antti Alanen at Birkbeck Institute for the Moving Image. Book here.