Sami Keski-Vähälä

Movies

Gracious Night
Writer
The three men enjoy the evening at a bar whose fate is threatened by pandemic restrictions. Bartender Heikki offers discussion help to his friend Risto, who works in the first line of healthcare, and who has just finished a difficult shift. The evening gets a new twist when a stranger looking for a mobile phone charger pops in and refuses to leave.
Jill, Joy and the Sleeping Clock
Screenplay
Jill and Joy receive a mission from their neighbors Tingelstein and Tangelstein: the ladies send the girls to look after their absentminded inventor brother Gadgetus. Jill and Joy get to know the wonders of Gadgetus’s farm, but everything is at risk of being destroyed when Samuel Shortcut arrives on his bulldozer, ready to destroy everything so that a new highway can be built in the area. Jill and Joy save the farm with the help of a device invented by Gadgetus, but before that they have to get to know the world of dreams and find help from there. Armstrong, a miniature pig, also takes part in the adventure and helps Jill and Joy, along with the other people living in Rose Alley.
Ryhmäteatteri
Documentary on the history of Ryhmäteatteri theatre company.
Jill, Joy and the Mysterious Stranger
Screenplay
A film based on the popular children's books by Marjatta Kurenniemi about the exploits of Jill And Joy.
Jill and Joy's Winter
Screenplay
Jill and Joy (both 9) live in their own house like any other little girls, except that they might be a little happier than most little girls, as they get to live in their own house specifically designed for the two. One December evening a small car, barely the size of a shoebox, pulls up in front their house, and a teensy-weensy family gets out; it's the McTiny family. The family has become homeless after a road roller smashed their home. Planning to live with the girls temporarily, the family moves in with Jill and Joy but soon finds out that not all big people have good intentions towards them. Jill and Joy's Winter is based on a beloved book by the same name, written by a Finnish writer named Marjatta Kurenniemi.
Homecoming
Screenplay
Tiina decides to reconnect with his aged and bohemian father living alone. With her reluctant daughter and new husband, they move in and start to renovate the old house. However, neither the renovation nor facing the past is effortless.
Jill and Joy
Screenplay
When two best friends Jill and Joy find a huge sum of money on the street on the first day of the summer holiday, they decide to buy a house from the mysterious Mrs. Rosebud. It’s a real dream house: measured and equipped exactly for two little seven-year-old girls’ requirements. Based on a beloved children’s book, Jill and Joy is a story of a dream summer without parents or boundaries. Anything can and will happen as reality and fantasy magically intertwine.
Road North
Writer
A father who was absent for 30 years of his son's life returns and wants to set on a journey through Finland, so they can learn to know each other again.
Säilöttyjä unelmia
Original Concept
A simple can of ravioli propels this spectacular 30,000-kilometre, eight-country journey through all phases of food production and the far flung sources of international ingredients. A dream-like voyage with glimpses of disconcerting realities, the story begins with a single mother toiling in one of the biggest open pit mines in Brazil and ends on the shelf of a grocery store in Finland. Along the way, the workers whose calloused hands mine, raise and harvest each ingredient reveal their dreams and hopes, like the Danish pig farmer who loves his sows but longs for a girlfriend, and the Portuguese tomato picker who wants to stay healthy long enough to pay her daughters way through university. Sumptuous photography and impressive sound design make an eloquent statement about our modern, globalized world, making us aware of the hundreds of invisible people who prepare the food we eat every day. -Gisèle Gordon (HotDocs.ca)
The House of Branching Love
Writer
A sort of "Divorce Finnish Style," Mika Kaurismäki's rambunctious comedy, The House of Branching Love , recounts the breakup of a thirty-something professional couple - Juhani, a family therapist, and his wife, Tuula, a successful business trainer.
Unna and Nuuk
Writer
11-year-old Unna travels in time to the stone age with the help of a magic drum.
Harbour Brothers
Screenplay
Finland in the 50s saw a time where boats from all over the world docked in the harbor city of Kotka. In addition to transporting goods, the sailors brought with them another import: jazz, swing and blues. A tale of music-loving, fearless and passionate young men decide to open Fennia, a jazz bar. Soon Fennia achieves legendary status and the men; the Harbour Brothers, play their music and hold court like emperors.