Top 100 Finnish films chosen by the Finnish people
This is a list of the best Finnish films as voted by the Finnish people in a poll by Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat in 2007.
Source for the list: http://www.hs.fi/kulttuuri/artikkeli/HS-%C3%A4%C3%A4nestyksen+sata+parasta+elokuvaa/1135227575718
Source for the list: http://www.hs.fi/kulttuuri/artikkeli/HS-%C3%A4%C3%A4nestyksen+sata+parasta+elokuvaa/1135227575718
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100 titles
- DirectorEdvin LaineStarsKosti KlemeläHeikki SavolainenReino TolvanenThe tale of a platoon of soldiers during the Continuation War. Based on Väinö Linna's book of the same name.
- DirectorMatti KassilaStarsJoel RinneElina PohjanpääMatti RaninA closed room mystery begins when an infamous tycoon is found dead in his bath tub. The famous police lieutenant Palmu is summoned to investigate.
- StarsTarja-Tuulikki TarsalaMikko NiskanenPaavo PentikäinenSmall-farmer Pasi shoots four policemen who have come to arrest him for raged drunkenness. The movie is a flashback examining the events that finally lead to the tragic shooting. As time goes by, Pasi sinks deeper into poverty, gets into trouble with police and tax officials, all while family arguments grow more and more serious. Based on a real story.
- DirectorAki KaurismäkiStarsMarkku PeltolaKati OutinenAnnikki TähtiM arrives in Helsinki only to be viciously attacked by thugs and pronounced dead by medics. He revives but with no memory of his past or his identity. He rebuilds his life from scratch, but the past inevitably catches up with him.
- DirectorEdvin LaineStarsAarno SulkanenTitta KarakorpiRisto TauloTäällä 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.
- DirectorRisto JarvaStarsAntti LitjaKauko HelovirtaMarkku HuhtamoYoung advertising executive Vatanen suddenly quits his job and his whole life in Helsinki, and decides to spend a while in the Finnish wilderness. A wounded hare hit by a car becomes his travel companion. Together they find reclusion in the Finnish Lapland, soon to be disturbed by a noisy group of foreign tourists and their pretentious Finnish hosts. When the hare gets ill and needs to see a vet, Vatanen must return to the city and finally face the choice between his new and former life.
- DirectorErik BlombergStarsMirjami KuosmanenKalervo NissiläÅke LindmanA newlywed woman goes to the local shaman to get some help with her love life, but instead she gets turned into a white reindeer vampire.
- DirectorMika KaurismäkiStarsMatti PellonpääPirkko HämäläinenJuuso HirvikangasA criminal, his friend and his former girlfriend find their lives intertwining with each other.
- DirectorT.J. SärkkäStarsAnsa IkonenTauno PaloRegina LinnanheimoHunted by the authorities after shooting a Russian prince in a duel in St. Petersburg, a Finnish baron flees to his homeland and disguises as a drifter to avoid getting caught.
- DirectorAki KaurismäkiStarsKati OutinenKari VäänänenElina SaloThe recession hits a couple in Helsinki.
- DirectorMikko NiskanenStarsPentti TarkiainenVesa-Matti LoiriUti SaurioA group of mischievous Finnish boys experience the ups and downs of life during World War 2.
- DirectorMatti KassilaStarsToivo MäkeläEmma VäänänenRauni LuomaViktor Sundvall is a guard of a little channel in the Finnish countryside. He is an unsuccessful playwright who is frustrated with his marriage and his life and therefore he has became an alcoholic. One Saturday-morning in august he is waiting for a visit of an old family-friend Maija Länsilehto with whom he has had a relationship in his youth. But Sundvall does not know that the Saturday will be the last day of his life.
- DirectorPekka ParikkaStarsTaneli MäkeläVesa VierikkoTimo TorikkaIn 1939, two Finnish brothers are conscripted in the army to fight in the war between Finland and the Soviet Union.
- DirectorAki KaurismäkiStarsMatti PellonpääKati OutinenSakari KuosmanenAn episode in the life of Nikander, a garbage man, involving the death of a coworker, a love affair and much more.
- DirectorMikko NiskanenStarsEero MelasniemiKristiina HalkolaPekka AutiovuoriTwo student couples go camping in the Finnish countryside; partner swapping and interpersonal dynamics - with a touch of their philosophy - between them all arise.
- DirectorOlli SaarelaStarsPeter FranzénIrina BjörklundKari HeiskanenSet during the World War 2. In the summer of 1941 the Finnish army crosses the border of Russia. A platoon led by Lt. Eero Perkola goes through the wilderness around the Lieksa lake to search for Russian defensive positions. The platoon kills some Russian civilians and rests in a newly conquered village. There Lt. Perkola meets his fiancée Kaarina, who is serving in the Women's Auxilary Corps (Lotta). Then the platoon continues with the mission, but a message about Kaarina's possible death reaches Lt. Perkola. The message causes Perkola to become distracted during the mission.
- DirectorKlaus HäröStarsTopi MajaniemiMarjaana MaijalaMaria LundqvistDuring World War II, more than 70,000 Finnish children were evacuated to neutral Sweden to avoid the conflict. From the award-winning Klaus Härö (Elina: As If I Wasn't There (2002)), "Mother of Mine" tackles that painful patch of history in a tale of 9-year-old Eero, a child who increasingly feels abandoned by his biological Finnish mother and yet not attached to his Swedish surrogate mom. When he is returned to Finland, his confusion intensifies.
- DirectorAku LouhimiesStarsJasper PääkkönenMikko LeppilampiPamela TolaOne bad event begins a chain reaction of misery as problems transfer from one person to another. It starts when a schoolteacher is fired and projects his issues onto his teenage son.
- DirectorMatti KassilaStarsJoel RinneMatti RaninLeo JokelaA rich widow is found dead of gas poisoning in her flat in Helsinki. First the death is thought to be an accident, but lieutenant Palmu notices that the murderer has made a mistake, and Palmu and his assistants Kokki and Virta start an investigation into who has broken into the apartment through the balcony door and opened the gas tap when Mrs. Skrof was sleeping.
- DirectorMatti KassilaStarsTauno PaloAino MantsasEdvin LaineThe everyday life of a small village gets mixed up when a fire breaks out the night after the party, but due to the confusion, putting out the fire turns out to be more complicated than expected.
- DirectorAki KaurismäkiStarsKati OutinenElina SaloEsko NikkariA woman's terribly dull life is upended by a one-night stand pregnancy, causing her to seek retribution.
- DirectorMarkku PölönenStarsMartti SuosaloHenrika AnderssonMatti VarjoPekka returns to his native village to attend a wedding. The village has lost its younger generations, and the movie tells the story of the last wedding in the village.
- DirectorMarkku PölönenStarsKatariina KaituePertti KoivulaAnja PohjolaIn the 1960s, a family's story is seen from the perspective of a young boy leaving for school.
- DirectorMarkku PölönenStarsPeter FranzénTaisto ReimaluotoAhti KuoppalaBright young soldier Mertsi suffers a permanent brain injury in the Second World War. In the late 1940s he wanders around the Finnish countryside looking for simple work and relying on other people's help. A workmate, Ville, tells him about his clever Spitz dog back home and the problems with her overlong dew claws. Together with his helpful war buddy Eetvi, Mertsi joins a lumber camp in the middle of a freezing winter, tries hard but finds the work there too strenuous for his body and mind. While he still sees nightmares about the war, in the daytime he keeps dreaming and worrying about the dog...
- DirectorAleksi MäkeläStarsSamuli EdelmannJuha VeijonenTeemu LehtiläHäjyt tells a story of two friends who have a hard time finding their place in the society. Antti and Jussi are released from jail. While they were doing time for bank robbery, the third man involved in the robbery, the one who was not convicted, has become a policeman. He tries to help his friends to settle into the small town in Pohjanmaa, but the boys start a black market liquor business instead. The road seems to lead back to the jail.
- DirectorMatti IjäsStarsVesa VierikkoSulevi PeltolaMarkku MaalismaaViltteri, a balding guy in his thirties living in rural northern Finland, is hopelessly clueless about his new role as a married man and the father of a newborn son. A perfect escape from family responsibilities is having to get his old Hillman Minx repaired and inspected for road-worthiness, with a little help from an eccentric bunch of friends who never seem to have grown up either.
- DirectorTapio SuominenStarsEsa NiemeläTony HolmströmKati OutinenIn the punk rock era of the late 1970s three restless teenagers, two boys and a girl, spend their time in and out of a special class for problem kids. Jussi seldom sees his parents at home, so he is free to indulge in petty crimes, pranks, and getting drunk with his friend Pete. Jussi falls in love with equally rebellious classmate Lissu (Aki Kaurismäki's favourite actress Kati Outinen in her debut role), but the lovers' plan to run away together fails dramatically.
- DirectorJohanna VuoksenmaaStarsTiina LymiPetteri SummanenKari-Pekka ToivonenKatri and Janne want to make a trip, which none of their friends have made. They end up in Jakomäki.
- DirectorAki KaurismäkiStarsTimo EränköKari HeiskanenAsmo HurulaAn exodus to a better life in Eira.
- DirectorPekka ParikkaStarsTaneli MäkeläEsko SalminenEsko NikkariBased on the novel of the same name by Finnish author Antti Tuuri, this delicious late-'80s comedy builds its dark humour on the stereotypical mentality of the northern part of Finland. While perhaps not as entertaining to a person unfamiliar with Finnish traditions, the brilliant acting and directing, plus the warm, beautiful Finnish summer more than make up for the cultural gap. The story begins with a group of brothers and their families coming to honour the memory of their recently-deceased father. Spending time together, opening old wounds and creating new ones--it all boils down to brotherhood. No matter what happens, brothers take care of their own. Considering that the events of the movie all take place within a 24-hour period, nothing feels rushed. The film rolls on naturally. The best part about this film is the cast that they managed to put together for the movie. Esko Salminen, Taneli Mäkelä, Vesa Vierikko, and Esko Nikkari are all well-known, extremely-talented Finnish actors, but this movie contains among the best performances of their careers. Especially Mäkelä and Nikkari are brilliant; Mäkelä's quiet and contemplative character has depth that you can just feel--and Nikkari's convincing portrayal of a town drunk. Funny, dramatic, entertaining and definitely a movie that makes you FEEL.
- DirectorEdvin LaineStarsRauni LuomaKaarlo HalttunenMirjam Novero
- DirectorValentin VaalaStarsEila PehkonenMartti KatajistoEmma VäänänenA visual poem based on a story by Nobel laureate F.E. Sillanpää. 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.
- DirectorJarmo LampelaStarsSanna HietalaAntti IkkalaJyri OjansivuEpisodic study of feelings where six stories intertwine over one Saturday in a small town. Two boys save a young woman, Anni, and her baby from suicide by drowning. Esa, a down-on-his-luck musician in need of a loan, arrives to his father's 60th birthday party. Waitress Leena tries to stir up a romance between her co-workers at a pizza parlor. Middle-aged Ilpo comes home early from the paper mill and finds a strange man in their bedroom. Old Milja waits for her daughter Merja at the hospital where she is visiting her terminally ill husband Henri. Teenage Santeri tries to cope with his homosexuality.
- DirectorRauni MollbergStarsMaritta ViitamäkiPauli JauhojärviAimo SaukkoA young woman has an intense affair with a womanizing reindeer herdsman.
- DirectorValentin VaalaStarsIrma SeikkulaTauno PaloTopo LeisteläPoor but ambitious country girl Hulda arrives in the country's capital and gets a job as a maid for a bachelor Member of Parliament, Judge Soratie. She works hard, never loses her common sense, and starts taking evening classes. Keeping her studies secret from her employer for years, she eventually graduates from the university and becomes candidate in the parliamentary election, stressing women's and working people's rights. Romance with Judge Soratie finally ensues.
- DirectorRisto JarvaStarsAntti LitjaKirsti WallasvaaraMatti RuoholaA young priest returns from America to work in an old Helsinki neighbourhood with idyllic wooden houses. The shy but handsome bachelor is assigned the duty of marriage counseling but is soon overwhelmed by the ladies' romantic interest directed at himself. Trying to please everybody, he also creates confusion by taking both sides in the issue of whether to preserve the neighbourhood or to go along with the modernisation plans offered by property developers.
- DirectorAku LouhimiesStarsMikko NousiainenLaura MalmivaaraPetteri SummanenFor Ari, nothing feels like anything. He doesn't do relationships, doesn't do attachments. There's only sex. That is until he meets Tiina. Together with Tiina and her closest circle of friends, this could be their last summer of freedom.
- DirectorAuli MantilaStarsLeea KlemolaElina HurmeRea MauranenEevi's life isn't going the way she would want it to, so she runs away, leaving destruction in her wake. No one will ever say no to her again.
- DirectorRauni MollbergStarsRisto TuorilaPirkka-Pekka PeteliusPaavo LiskiThis film is the second silver screen adaption of the Finnish war book by Väinö Linna with the same name as the film. The story is based on Linna's experiences as an infantry man in the Finnish army during the so called "Continuation War" (1941-1944). The film tells the story of the fate of a machine gun platoon made up of young conscripts from various parts of Finland fighting against the Russian army from the beginning (summer 1941) to the end (summer/autumn 1944) of the war. Many of the characters are based on author Linna's brothers in arms.
- DirectorEre KokkonenStarsVesa-Matti LoiriMarjatta RaitaSpede PasanenUuno Turhapuro is a man who can convince anyone of anything by simply talking them into submission. Uuno learns to play the violin and becomes famous, but discovers that fame is both a gift and a curse.
- DirectorMatti KassilaStarsJoel RinneMatti RaninLeo JokelaInspector Palmu investigates the death of an old astronomer, whose body is found on Helsinki's Observatory Hill, but the investigation is complicated by the media's spreading of false information concerning the case.
- DirectorJack WitikkaStarsLeif AaltonenAapeliKaarlo HalttunenIn a small Finnish town in the 1920s, 12-year-old Pietari Jormalainen lives in a lively courtyard surrounded by wooden houses. While God sees everything and everyone - and takes care of his Mother up in heaven - Pietari too has a lot of interesting and eccentric people to observe. The newest addition to the bustling neighbourhood is Father's new wife Karoliina who is determined to put all things in order.
- DirectorValentin VaalaStarsEmma VäänänenTauno PaloKirsti HurmeYoung Loviisa and a group of hard-working women run the Niskavuori farm, while the men is busy chasing girls or future brides.
- DirectorLeonid GaidaiRisto OrkoStarsEvgeniy LeonovVyacheslav NevinnyyRita PolsterIn Eastern Finland, in Liperi to be exact, Anna-Liisa Ihalainen asks her husband Antti to get some matches from the Ihalainen household. Unfortunately that trip takes a little longer than expected.
- DirectorPerttu LeppäStarsUnto HeloHanna-Mari KarhinenMikko HakolaThe story of a rock band "Kalle Päätalo" in the 1980s.
- DirectorEdvin LaineStarsAarne LaineMirjam NoveroAnnika Sipilä
- DirectorPirjo HonkasaloStarsPirkko SaisioA searing examination of the unrelenting Chechen conflict, observed through the prisms of a Russian military boys academy, a war-torn town and a children's refugee camp.
- DirectorMatti KassilaStarsGunvor SandkvistMatti OravistoToivo MäkeläA Bergmanesque triangle drama. After a weekend of dancing and camping on a recreation island near the city, a young factory worker decides to stay and cut work for a day. Walking around the now deserted island, he meets a beautiful woman camping alone and sunbathing in the nude on the beach. A hot romance flares up between the worker and the more upper-class married lady, lasting through the light-filled nights of the whole summer week until the woman's much older husband returns to the island the next weekend.
- DirectorVeikko KerttulaStarsAhti KuoppalaPekka RätyLeni KatajakoskiImppa has to leave home and finds a job at the farm. There he meets an enigmatic hired hand known as Simpauttaja.
- DirectorRisto JarvaStarsEeva-Maija HaukinenErkki PajalaHeikki HämäläinenA physiotherapist's life is wrecked when her private life is exposed in a sensation magazine.
- DirectorRisto JarvaStarsAntti LitjaTuula NymanEija PokkinenA shy Finn boards a wrong plane and ends up on a beach holiday instead of skiing.
- DirectorMika KaurismäkiStarsKari VäänänenMartti SyrjäLeena HarjupatanaGiancarlo Rosso, a Sicilian hit man, gets a job to kill someone in Finland, Maria. He arrives in Helsinki, buys weapons, and invades her apartment, but it's deserted. He runs into her brother Martti and, although they don't speak each other's languages, they go to search for her together.
- DirectorKlaus HäröStarsNatalie MinnevikBibi AnderssonMarjaana MaijalaElina is sinking in the quicksand and she is going under and she got the white thing on her hair.
- DirectorHannu LeminenStarsHelena KaraTauno PaloAku KorhonenThe uncredited adaptation of Stefan Zweig's novel (1922), made five years before Max Ophüls' more widely recognized "Letter from an Unknown Woman" (1948).
- DirectorRaimo O. NiemiVille SuhonenStarsKonsta HietanenRisto TuorilaJarmo MäkinenTwelve-year-old Tommy reluctantly moves with his father from the big city to a small Lapp village - the childhood home of his mother, who has recently died. The village is close to the northernmost wildlife reserve in the world, where Tommy's father will be working on a project to release a captive lynx into the wild. The boy gradually falls under the spell of his new surroundings, and discovers that his mother was involved in protecting the local lynx, and, when his father's project fails, and the lynx is about to be sold, he decides to set it free himself. A dramatic series of events ensues, and Tommy, through his brave actions, regains the trust and respect of his family and the village.
- DirectorJari HalonenStarsMarko TiusanenJari SalmiKaroliina KudjoiFinland in the 1850's take the first steps towards independence. The Finnish-language authors introduce themselves.
- DirectorAleksi MäkeläStarsPeter FranzénNiko SaarelaLauri NurkseFour well-mannered but poorly grown brothers drift into a life of crime when their schizophrenic father is sent to the mental hospital.
- DirectorMarkku PölönenStarsJanne ReinikainenKaroliina BlackburnPeter FranzénThe life of Rauli "Badding" Somerjoki, a Finnish singer.
- DirectorNyrki TapiovaaraStarsTuulikki PaananenIlmari MäntySanteri KariloA thriller set in turn-of-the-century Helsinki, Stolen Death uses elements of German expressionism to tell the story of Finnish resistance fighters smuggling arms to overthrow the Tsarist occupiers of Finland. Tapiovaara stresses the divided loyalties of the Finnish bourgeoisie, torn between preserving their privileged economic position and taking a risky stand for an independent Finland.
- DirectorAki KaurismäkiStarsMatti PellonpääEvelyne DidiAndré WilmsThree struggling artists try to make passable livings in Paris despite setbacks and tragedies.
- DirectorRauni MollbergStarsOlavi AhonenLauri ArajuuriOssi AronenRhapsodic story from a small Finnish town in the 1920s. The wounds of the civil war in 1918 are not yet fully healed. The current ban legislation on alcohol triggers a diligently moon-shining.
- DirectorMikko NiskanenStarsHeikki PaavilainenTimo TorikkaTero NivaJuuso, Late, and Pyry return from military service to their small village in the Finnish countryside. Finding work is difficult there, so Juuso decides to take a job on a Norwegian oil-drilling platform. Late could start working on his family's chicken farm, but he wants to break free from his father, who has a new wife. Looking for work in Gothenburg, Sweden, he only runs into more problems and is deported back to Finland. Pyry would like to take over his late father's farm, but family quarrels over the estate make him quit his agricultural studies, and he and drifter Late take jobs in a steel mill in southern Finland.
- DirectorVeikko AaltonenStarsHannu KiviojaEsko SalminenLeea KlemolaEsa is a small time crook who has been precisely released from prison. He starts to make money by mugging people. One day psychiatrist Lindström rings Esa's doorbell. He has a very strange request: he wants Esa to maltreat him. Esa accepts this request, but he is not aware of Lindström's bad intentions.
- DirectorJarmo LampelaStarsJoonas BraggeArttu KapulainenPihla PenttinenTwo teenagers from Helsinki are sent on a mission by their drug dealer.
- DirectorMika KaurismäkiStarsMarkku HalmeMinna SoisaloSakari RouvinenThe great merit of film is that it never starts to moralize or give forced explanations, as is customary in many films about crimes.
- DirectorMatti KassilaStarsHannes HäyrinenRitva ArveloKullervo KalskeEager young radio reporter Teräsvuori stages a one-man burglary into the Helsinki Art Museum, recorded on tape for a later broadcast by his friend Laakso. Things go awry when a gang of real criminals overhear their plans and book their heist to coincide. Teräsvuori gets caught but escapes from police custody to start his private investigations together with female radio colleague Eila.
- DirectorMatti KassilaStarsTauno PaloGunvor SandkvistHelen EldeDoctor 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 fallows 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.
- DirectorAki KaurismäkiStarsKati OutinenMatti PellonpääKirsi TykkyläinenLugubrious Finns Valto and Reino take to the road in search of coffee and vodka, without which their lives are not worth living. But their reveries are interrupted by the arrival of garrulous Russian Klaudia and Estonian Tatiana - who are clearly interested in the two men, despite the language barrier. But what are the chances of getting a response from men who prefer staring at vodka bottles to talking?
- DirectorValentin VaalaStarsTarmo ManniEmma VäänänenSalli KarunaA handsome young womanizer deceive tender women by first charming them and then take their money.
- DirectorJukka VirtanenStarsSpede PasanenSimo SalminenEsko SalminenLosing faith in their original idea for a movie to celebrate Finland's 50 years of independence, a film crew decides to hire a typical Finnish taxpayer to tell them what to shoot. The result becomes a comedic cavalcade of Finnish promotional clichés - Lapland, sauna, moose hunting, beautiful blond women etc. - as presented by a slick entourage following on the heels of William Nurmi, a Finnish-American hair tonic millionaire on a visit to his ancestors' homeland. Add some half-baked criminal hanky-panky, and towards the end even one of the main characters has to confess to the camera that he's lost track of this movie's plot about fifteen minutes ago.
- DirectorAki KaurismäkiStarsTuro PajalaSusanna HaavistoMatti PellonpääA Finnish man goes to the city to find a job after the mine where he worked is closed and his father commits suicide.
- DirectorAki KaurismäkiStarsJanne HyytiäinenMaria JärvenhelmiMaria HeiskanenIn Helsinki, a lonely night watchman is caught up in a series of misadventures with a femme fatale and a crooked businessman.
- DirectorAki KaurismäkiStarsJean-Pierre LéaudMargi ClarkeKenneth ColleyHenri is depressed after losing his job, but finds himself too afraid to go through with suicide. He hires a contract killer to do the job for him instead - but what happens if he changes his mind?
- DirectorJari HalonenStarsJorma TommilaAntti ReiniRauno JuvonenMike is getting out of prison after serving four years for a bank robbery. Bona is arranging the party of all parties for him: a Christmas party.
- DirectorTimo KoivusaloStarsTapio LiinojaMartti SuosaloHeikki NousiainenThe film tells the story of two very popular Finnish singer/songwriters: Tapio Rautavaara (Tapio Liinoja) and Repe Helismaa (Martti Suosalo), who worked together until their relationship got frictious for a long time. The film covers the years from 1949 to 1965 (Helismaa's death). Since the film is based on real-life persons it also tells much about the change in Finland during those years and of course much about Finnish popular music.
- DirectorMaunu KurkvaaraStarsSointu AngervoNils BrandtKyllikki ForssellA young colleague of a successful architect tries to find a reason for the architect's unexpected suicide.
- DirectorTimo KoivusaloStarsMartti SuosaloIlkka KoivulaVexi SalmiThe life of Irwin Goodman, a Finnish singer.
- DirectorPerttu LeppäStarsMikko LeppilampiLaura BirnAmanda PilkeWhen their bootlegging father ends up in jail, four twenty-something brothers need money to pay his debts to local crooks. Next, their 9-year-old half-sister is dumped on their doorstep by her prostitute mother. A karaoke set helps reveal that the little girl is quite a singer, just as a talent contest for children is coming up on national television offering more than enough money to the winner. If only the kid weren't so hopelessly shy...
- DirectorPirjo HonkasaloStarsElina HurmeTiina WeckströmElena LeeveTwin sisters Helena and Irene are born in Helsinki during World War II. A few months later their mother Sirkka leaves the girls in the care of their grandmother, an old Communist, and runs away with a German soldier. Their life under the protection of their grandmother and the teachings of communism ends first with the death of Stalin, then with that of their grandmother. The girls are eight years old when they are put in an orphanage. Their mother shows up at the orphanage in the company of Ramon, a Spanish trapeze artist. They are on a talent search for a German circus. Ramon trains the reluctant Irene during circus tours in Central Europe, and she becomes the trapeze star of the circus. The hard work soon exhausts Irene and she falls from heights, as if on purpose. Helena has secretly learned the art of fire-eating. Now she is burdened with both her mother and her sister. The violent life, however, separates the three from one another. In present-day Helsinki, middle-aged Helena has looked into her past, ceased to hate, and now, for the first time in her life, voluntarily accepts responsibility for another human being.
- DirectorYrjö NortaT.J. SärkkäStarsAku KorhonenLaila RihteEino KaipainenA lazy but resourceful Lapatossu is solving problems with his simple friend Vinski.
- DirectorWilho IlmariStarsKaisu LeppänenEino KaipainenAku KorhonenThe landlady Astrid Jönsson of a forest farm, hires a job seeker posing as Aaltonen as a farm manager when her mentally ill husband Alfred is unable to work.
- DirectorNyrki TapiovaaraStarsHannes NärhiIrma SeikkulaWalle SaikkoEastern Finland in 18th century. Farmer Juha has raised an orphan girl Marja and married her. Karelian trader Shemeikka visits the farm and starts to make advances to young and beautiful Marja, tempting her to run away with him.
- DirectorTimo KoivusaloStarsMartti SuosaloLiisa MustonenSeela SellaA middle-aged mental patient suffering from a split personality travels to Italy where his two personalities set off all kinds of confusing developments.
- DirectorJukka SipiläStarsSiiri AngerkoskiSelma MiettinenVarma LahtinenAliisa is a poor pensioner struggling to survive in the 1970s' Helsinki. This was the last role of the prolific finnish actor Siiri Angerkoski.
- DirectorRisto JarvaStarsEero RinneTuula NymanTauno HautaniemiMan leaves his factory job and sells everything to buy an earth mover and start his own business, travelling from place to place with his wife and child. There is not enough work and he is eventually forced to emigrate after many hardships.
- DirectorRenny HarlinStarsMike NorrisSteve DurhamDavid CoburnA trio of vacationing American students cross the border from Finland to the USSR during the Cold War and are soon imprisoned after a skirmish with Soviet soldiers.
- DirectorTeuvo PuroStarsEinar RinneHeidi BlåfieldIrmeli ViherjuuriA newlywed couple suffer from the effects of a curse a witch put on the place they live in centuries earlier.
- DirectorPäivi HartzellStarsSatu SilvoOuti VainionkulmaSebastian KaatrasaloIn this adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen's longest story, the beautiful Snow Queen has captured two children and now keeps them apart. She has inserted a sliver of her own special ice into the eye of the boy, so that his heart will turn to ice and will be a proper match for hers. The boy's sister, meanwhile, has won free and attempts to find her brother. When she does, the warmth of her love for him melts his frozen heart and defeats the Snow Queen decisively.
- DirectorMika KaurismäkiStarsAki KaurismäkiPirkko HämäläinenJuuso HirvikangasTalkative, hyperactive young drifter Ville Alfa goes around Helsinki, basically trying to borrow money from friends and strangers by means of an incessant delivery of quirky and snappy quasi-intellectual lines and fabricated excuses.
- DirectorAleksi MäkeläStarsJuha VeijonenLaura MalmivaaraJari HalonenOn the trail of a woman, Vares finds himself caught up with underworld characters who are on the trail of hidden millions.
- DirectorTeuvo TulioStarsKirsti HurmeLauri KorpelaNestori LampiInnocent girl gets lead astray by Lothario, not only into adultery, because he's already married, but devilish drink, too. Lothario's good friend, the fine upstanding seaman takes a fancy to make her his wife, but he's not enough to save her. On the way, her daughter becomes a victim of her wayward drunken ways. Romance and warnings on the perils downfall of drink, delivered in melodramatic, 'eye popping' (by lead actress) style.
- DirectorAki KaurismäkiStarsMatti PellonpääKari VäänänenSakke JärvenpääSiberian rock band Leningrad Cowboys go to the USA in pursuit of fame.
- DirectorVesa-Matti LoiriSpede PasanenStarsVesa-Matti LoiriSimo SalminenSpede PasanenTwo outlaws, The Lonely Rider and the Indian Tonto, have caught (at least they think they have) Speedy Gonzales, a ruthless gunfighter from the town of Njietponimaistadi. They start to travel to another town for the reward, through the desert without water and fighting against Indians. And just to find out that they have made a full circle back to origin.
- DirectorJanne KuusiStarsTeijo ElorantaSari HavasJarmo HyttinenSmall town butchers and florists grow tired of local sausage factory owner. They want to teach him a lesson but things get out of hand.
- DirectorVeikko AaltonenStarsEeva LitmanenMinna HaapkyläMatti OnnismaaMiddle-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. Gradually, however, persistent Maire convinces her that the man must be made to pay for what he did.