21/01/2008

Eighteen years after Pekka Parikka’s The Winter War, Finland is back this year in the prestigious main competition programme of the Berlinale with Petri Kotwica’s Black Ice [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Kai Nordberg
interview: Petri Kotwica
film profile].

The gripping portrayal of jealousy and its ravages is Kotwica’s second feature film following Homesick, a low budget film that won several international awards in 2005. Both films were produced by Making Movies, one of Finland’s top production houses.

Based on Kotwica’s original script, Black Ice focuses on Saara, a 40 year-old woman who suspects her husband, an architect and lecturer at the University of Technology, is having an affair with one of his students. Saara makes friends with her rival, using a false identity.

The €1.8m film was produced by Making Movies in co-production with Germany’s Schmidtz Katze Filmkollektiv. Launched last September at the Helsinki International Film Festival, the film was an instant hit with local critics and was last year’s fourth bigger local hit in Finland, with nearly 95,000 admissions

Black Ice is also one of the top favourites for the local Jussi Awards as it has picked up nominations for Best Film, Director, and Script. And its two leading actresses, Ria Kataja and Outi Mäenpää, both have a chance of winning in their category.

The film is being sold internationally by Bavaria Film International.