Preludes to Ecstasy

A Finnish man goes to the city to find a job after the mine where he worked is closed and his father commits suicide.

The ever-poker-faced Ilona loses her job as a restaurant hostess, as her tram driver husband, Lauri, also finds himself out of work. Together they must hit the streets of Helsinki, facing up to hardship and humiliation in their quest for survival, guided through the gloom by a ray of hope.

A fisherman's son accidentally ends up in a leper colony in 1742.

Antti and Ville arrive in Stockholm to seek adventure, to entertain, to meet girls and to live in a new youth culture. However, when they get off the ship, they get into the wrong track and come across prostitution and drug crime.

A private detective engages in a sexually-charged relationship with a real estate broker.

1943: Nine-year-old Eero whose father is killed during the war is brought to Sweden to foster parents to his protection like thousands of other Finnish children. Eero feels lost, particularly as his foster mother Signe behaves very unfriendly. She was expecting a little girl and still mourns for her daughter who drowned in the sea.

When Hamlet discovers his father’s deceased body, he finds himself pulled into a power struggle as his scheming uncle attempts to secure a monopoly on the Scandinavian rubber duck industry. Will Hamlet avenge his father? Will he become the king of rubber ducks? Does any of it really matter?

Middle-aged Maire's husband spends most of his time abroad on business. Alone in their large house, Maire fills her empty life by absorbing other people's tragedies from tabloid newspapers. Obsessed by the story about a young single mother whose husband was killed and the killer got away with it, she befriends the young widow who would rather forget the whole event and go on with her life.

The title of the Finnish film Elokuu translates to August. Directed by Matti Kassila, one of Finland's premiere filmmakers, Elokuu was adapted from a novel by Nobel prize winning finnish author F.E. Sillanpää. Simply put, the story concerns the decline and fall of a once-proud family, thanks to the alcoholism of its paterfamilias. Toivo Makela delivers a powerfully effective performance as the inebriated protagonist, avoiding the usual "drunken" cliches. The overlong running time, coupled with the downbeat nature of the subject, limited the film's worldwide appeal.

The municipal council of Pinsiö tries to get Taavetti, the 'baron of Pinsiö', to move into a retirement home. However, the baron refuses and flees to Tampere to stay with his nephew Heikki and his wife Liisa. Heikki and his family dream of building their own house, but obtaining a mortgage loan is difficult. Their financial worries deepen when Heikki, as a union representative, has to deal with a strike at his workplace and illegal work practices.

Underaged girls hitch-hike across Finland.

Kaius Kannisto a bachelor who has experienced hard on the love front, goes through his relationships with his four former female friends, the four queens of the deck of cards.

A Finnish adaptation of Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky.

1765. Regina Tuomaantytär is engaged to Juha. However, she is also courted by Martti Heikkilä, soldier Matti Modig and Kalle Brockman. Regina's two sisters and Sikala's maid Maria have fallen in love with Martti again.

Tells the story of a young couple using flashbacks.

Ritva Hakala the single parent of a little boy is working in the office. While Ritva talks lightly about men and her future plans with other women at the office and coffees, she has to avoid her jealous and violent ex-husband, who threatens a relationship with her new male friend Kale.

A former Red Rebellion leader returns home after being imprisoned for his participation in the Finnish Civil War, but soon finds out that wartime mindsets still linger in the heads of people.

Katri is hired as a maid in Ruuhiniemi. Over the years, she works hard and even dares to dream of love and being the owner of the farm, but the scheming in the division of the inheritance complicate the future.

Niskavuori's Aarne (Arne från Niskavuori) is a Finnish drama film from 1954. It is based on Hella Wuolijoki's play Niskavuori's Bread. In chronological order of the Niskavuori series, the film is the fourth. Aarne has married Ilona and left the house in Niskavuori, which he hosts, where his former wife Martta still lives, while the old mistress is holding the reins. Aarne and Ilona live in Helsinki, but Aarne has not been able to completely break away from Niskavuori, but keeps secretly in touch with the headmaster and gives instructions on the farm management.

Paavo and Eeva, two young people who have moved from the countryside to the city, meet a gang led by Kalle, who spend their time loitering and committing petty crimes. A fateful evening on a motorboat irrevocably changes the young people's lives.

Täällä Pohjantähden alla is based on the book with the same title. It is a story of the little village. The movie starts in the 1890's and it ends to the Finnish civil war in 1918. Story concentrates around a tenant farmer family, although it gives us a good look at the society at whole. While the class struggle depends, people of the village are driven to bloody civil war.

Dr. 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 follows 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.

A story set over one night in a small rural community we watch various relationships and actions among local people; these include birth, death, and conflicts fuelled by alcohol. The fates of various characters become interlaced over a long and light-filled summer night in the Finnish countryside. Lumberjacks, a deer-eyed young man Nokia, a family of poor farmers, a young girl and her lover. New life is born, old life dies, man is slain in his prime, and his widow continues her life.

Emilia is a suburban kid. She goes to school, lives with her Mom and sometimes her Dad, and her life couldn’t be more ordinary. But one day Emilia’s pet hamster bites her finger. Emilia gets a secret superpower to transform into Super Furball, who can fly and solve problems with her superpowers. At the same time, the herrings in the nearby Baltic Sea bay are screaming for help because of poisoned water. As the Super Furball, Emilia takes it upon herself to fix the situation and finds ways to be more courageous in her own life.

"Vesku from Finland" is a film about Vesa-Matti Loiri alias Vesku, probably the most popular film and TV comedian in Finland. He has created a significant career also as a singer, performer, writer and as a sportsman. He has recorded several albums, from folk songs and couplets to tangos. Some of his recordings are based on the lyrics of Hermann Hesse or Eino Leino, the infamous Finnish poet. During his unique career he has played in more than 60 films and recorded 30 albums.

Aging professor of mathematics completes his life's work, a research project that has taken him decades, and climbs up from the boiler room (his study) and back to real life. He can hardly recognize his rebellious teenage kids and materialistic wife who hardly seem to notice his existence. The only person who is interested in the professor's work is Marja, his son's girlfriend and freshman at the university. An innocent infatuation flares up between the old man and the young girl, while the professor's family is only interested in the prize money awarded to the professor by an international jury for his academic achievements.

Valtteri 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.

Second adaptation of Teuvo Pakkala's popular play about Finnish lumberjacks.

A film that pushes every stereotype imaginable about Finland, and then some. Indeed, coming in the same year as Finland’s 50th anniversary, the film’s whole premise is about presenting Finland in hilarious fashion to foreigners and perhaps also making fun of some of the myths of Finnish culture for Finns themselves.

Pirkko Mannola and Esko Salminen play young pop stars of the same name, who develop a secret romance that is kept hidden from the other musicians in the pop orchestra. Between musical scenes, Pirkko introduces Esko to Ville Salminen, Toivo Kärki, and Reino Helismaa, among others, and gets him a spot in a big pop music show.

An archaeological 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...

Uuno Turhapuro's younger brother Peni arrives in Helsinki. Uuno helps his brother in management duties.

The musical comedy tells the story of two friends about Usko and Toivo, both of whom happen to have same surname, Lahtinen.

Life on a farm in Kitkankoski is disrupted when construction of a hydroelectric power plant begins in the area. Determined Emma, who has returned from America, and stubborn local farmer Jeremias Junnila clash when Junnila refuses to produce milk for the construction site. At the same time, a romance blossoms between Junnila's daughter Hillevi and Eero, who works at the construction site, but Eero is not the only worker who seeks Hillevi's love.

A famous glass artist escapes his busy city life and takes to the road.

Arrested for a murder he didn't commit, American adventurer Bart Lanigan is about to be deported from Finland on a freighter. In the Helsinki harbor, he himself becomes a target for a hit man but manages to escape back to land. Lanigan contacts Arvo Mäki, a womanizing local con man recommended to him as a man he could trust. Lanigan is in Finland to catch an American millionaire businessman, Leonard Weston alias Lawrence Walker, who has fled the USA with the company's monies and begun investing them in Finland. Looking for the mysterious L.W. character while trying to get rid of various hit men, Lanigan and Mäki travel around picturesque southern Finland, joined by a pretty night club singer Marja Salo who won't leave Lanigan alone and insists on marrying him.

Elmeri Vara from the General Stabilization Party, Selma Vuorinen from the Free Enlightenment Party, and Irja Solanen from the Independent Women's Party are competing for seats in parliament. When young Pertti and his classmates start a campaign with caricatures against Vara and Vuorinen, whom they consider unfit, Principal Reino has to decide whether to support the parliamentary candidates or his students, and how he feels about the candidacy of his beloved Irja.

A closed room mystery begins when an infamous tycoon is found dead in his bath tub. The famous police lieutenant Palmu is summoned to investigate.

Tar Steam Princess Armada travels along Lake Saimaa to St. Petersburg and back during the years of Russian rule over Finland. The ship's crew gets tired of their sophisticated coffee maker and replaces her with Roma girl Veera, who has escaped from an arranged marriage. On the way back, mysterious passengers appear on the ship.

An uptight all-girl school teacher Leena Kataja stumbles upon a handsome artist Pertti Rinne who paints her face on a nude portrait, much to her chagrin. She is intent on keeping the painting out of circulation by stealing it from an art gallery, but the aftermath turns out to be more complex than she anticipated, leading Leena to become involved in various misunderstandings featuring a gang of criminals, inept cops and false murder charges among other things.

Kalle leaves with his wife for their honeymoon in Airisto, but instead of a rental car, he mistakenly takes the getaway car stolen by robbers for a diamond heist.

A story of a mink coat passing from one owner to another binding their fates.