04/11/2013 - New movies from Finnish directors Mika Kaurismäki, Antti J Jokinen, Taavi Vartia and Marko Äijö receive 50/50 funding from the Finnish Film Foundation

While The Girl King [+see also:
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film profile] – his new version of US director Ruben Mamoulian’s Queen Christina (1933), starring Swedish screen legend Greta Garbo – is still in pre-production, Finnish director Mika Kaurismäki will film a local family drama, Coming Home. (The Girl King, with Swedish actress Malin Buska, will eventually receive Eurimages backing, as it was announced last month).

Coming Home is one of four new features, which the Finnish Film Foundation will subsidise with €2.3 million from the new 50/50 scheme, instigated partly to accelerate the decision-making for productions that have already raised 50% of the budget, partly to encourage new financiers outside the film industry. If the 50% is there, the foundation comes up with the missing 50%.

Scripted by Kaurismäki and Sami-Keski Vähälä, and produced by Kaurismäki for his Marianna Films, the film follows a 43-year-old man who wants to leave the hectic life of Helsinki and return to his small native hometown in the countryside. After a difficult divorce, stress and alcoholism, he looks forward to find his real self again with his new stepfamily – a perfect plan, it seems, until life hits the fan. The film will be released on December 12 by SF Film Finland.

Finnish director Antti J Jokinen, whose Purge [+see also:
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film profile] this year won five Jussis – the Finnish national film prizes – is readying Helena, from Katja Kettu’s novel, depicting a love story with the Lapland War of 1944-1945, a conflict between Finland and Germany, as a backdrop. Scripted by Jokinen and Katja Kettu, it will be produced by Markus Selin and Jukka Helle for Solar Films, and released by Nordisk Film Finland in December 2014.

After his Rolli and the Golden Key [+see also:
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film profile], which is second on the 2013 charts with 202,000 admissions, Finnish director Taavi Vartia will film Adventure Abroad, from his own script about a newly-formed family on their first holiday trip together - not without complications. Jarkko Hentula will produce for Yellow Film & TV, and Nordisk Film Finland has set the premiere for December 2014.

Finnish director Marko Äijö will shoot a sequel for his 2012 thriller, Nightmare, from a script by Tiina Tanskanen and Teemu Salonen – someone is after Peppi again, this time at a Summer Nights’ Moose Bar on a holiday island. SF Film Finland will launch Äijö’s production forFremantlemedia Finland late next year.