11/02/2016 - Lauri Nurkse’s new thriller, starring Samuli Edelmann (Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol), is among the Finnish Film Foundation’s market screenings

Finnish director Lauri Nurkse’s first thriller based on Matti Rönkä’s novels, The Look of a Killer [+see also:
trailer
film profile], will have its international premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival (11-21 February), as it is in the Finnish Film Foundation’s selection for the European Film Market, which includes seven new Finnish movies.

This year, Finland is represented in the official Berlinale programme by Finnish director Mika Taanila’s Tectonic Plate, an experimental film about the fear of flying, security checks and time zones; produced by Jussi Eerola, for Elokuvayhtiö Testifilmi, it will screen in the Forum.

The Look of a Killer, represented at the market by Sweden’s Eyewell, is the first feature in a series based on Rönkä’s novels about former Red Army elite soldier Viktor Kärppä, who has now settled in Finland to become a respectable family man. Not all of his projects are completely legal, and when he unwillingly becomes involved in a plan to assassinate Russia’s new president, he is chased by both the security police and contract killers. The lead in the Teea Hyytiä and Sari Lempiäinen production for Zodiak Finland is played by Finnish actor Samuli Edelmann, who starred in the 2011 Hollywood action film Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol.

Finnish director Aleksi Salmenperä’s thriller The Mine [+see also:
trailer
film profile], which was launched in the Dragon Award competition at the Göteborg International Film Festival, will also screen in the market for Finland’s The Yellow Affair. It stars Joonas Saartamo as a young, ambitious civil servant in charge of the environmental permit of a huge nickel and uranium mine in Northern Finland, who discovers that he is being led astray.

Already a Finnish producer with 38 titles to his credit, mainly for his Röhr & Matila Helsinki outlet, Marko Röhr is also a director, and his Tale of a Lake has, after four weeks, become the second most seen Finnish documentary, with over 90,000 admissions. Presented at the EFM by Denmark’s LevelK, the film is about the thousands of lakes that Finland is known for, told through the myths, legends and old beliefs of Finnish folklore. 

The Finnish Film Foundation package also includes Mikko Kuparinen's 2 Nights till Morning [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Mikko Kuparinen
film profile] (from Wide Management), Christy Garland's Cheer Up [+see also:
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film profile] (Wide House), Mika Kaurismäki's Homecoming [+see also:
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film profile] (The Yellow Affair) and Esa Illi's Other Girls [+see also:
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film profile] (EastWest Filmdistribution).