Klaus Heydemann

Patrolman Loyan tries to find his place in the new police department while keeping his friend Warsame, newly released from prison, on the right track. Loyan's ambition is to get into detective training, but his supervisor Jokisalo thinks he'd be better off patrolling the familiar neighbourhoods with his partner Johanna. The patrol gets down to business when they start investigating what looks like a suicide. Antero Päiviö, a professional criminal and racial bigot involved in drug trafficking, has jumped from his balcony. The man who was first pronounced dead suddenly wakes up and is taken to hospital. Loyan finds it hard to believe the man's story and decides to find out the truth at any cost. As the plot unravels, it's hard to know who to trust anymore, when Warsame seems to be up to something behind Loyan's back.

On the verge of her marital life, a young woman makes a journey into the night to find out why she has lost her heartbeat and turned golden.

Parikka, the actor once called the Funniest Man in Finland, and his troupe are about to be executed for the atrocities committed during the Civil War in Finland. Jaeger Lieutenant Nyborg, an admirer of Parikka, suspects a definite miscarriage of justice. He wants to save the actors. The forthcoming visit of the German General von der Goltz to the prison island provides him with a suitable opportunity. Nyborg suggests that the actors prepare a comical performance for the visitor and not be shot. Instead, they will be given a new trial. Preparing a comedy in the horrible circumstances, in the midst of hunger and death, seems quite an overwhelming task. Only a handful of real actors are still alive, the rest of the troupe consists of stagehands. Parikka has to use all his inventive skills to be able to produce something funny.

StoryTent was set up in market places around Finland to collect stories from random passers-by without any thematic limitations imposed by the film-makers. Thus, something unexpected happened, personal stories became stories within a story.

The 14th of June 1941, Soviet-occupied Latvia: Without warning, the authorities break into the house of Melanie and her husband Aleksandr and force them to leave everything behind. Together with more than 15 000 Latvians, Melanie and her son get deported to Siberia. In her fight against cold, famine and cruelty, she only gains new strength through the letters she writes to Aleksandr, full of hope for a free Latvia and a better tomorrow.

Living in the Herttoniemi suburb in Eastern Helsinki, 12 year olds Antti and Muhis have been best friends since kindergarten. Muhis is from a Somali background, and the boys’ friendship is put to test when a local racist lays his hands on Muhis. A struggle ensues, and Antti accidentally shoves the man off of a cliff, into the sea. The boys swear never ever to tell anyone and to take their secret to their graves. Changes is a life-affirming film about friendship, growing up, tolerance and courage.

The many problems of marriage and relationships may sometimes condense into something as trivial an affair as parking a car

Eco-terrorists attack a ship carrying toxic waste.

Tram driver Lauri loses his job. Shortly later, the restaurant where his wife Ilona works as a headwaitress is closed. Too proud, to receive money from the social welfare system, they hardly try to find new jobs. But they are completely unlucky and clumsy, one disaster is followed by the next. Finally, their courage, confidence, and their unbreakable love triumph over the fate.

Finland 1917. Aapo is a single peasantry who tries to live a good life before the finnish civil war begins.

A week-long glimpse into the wretched existence of Ripa, a long-haired, hard-drinking lug. He is also a filmmaker-wannabee, whose last two projects were condemned for their sex and violence. A Parasite Deluxe, who barely recalls his previous night, Ripa cruises the bars and meets bank-teller Tiina.

Small-town boys Vähy and Hapa are best friends who swear an eternal blood oath. As they grow up, however, their paths drift apart and they both find themselves searching for their place in the world.

Three penniless artists become friends in modern-day Paris: Rodolfo, an Albanian painter with no visa, Marcel, a playwright and magazine editor with no publisher, and Schaunard, a post-modernist composer of execrable noise.

An anthology of 5 different cab drivers in 5 American and European cities and their remarkable fares on the same eventful night.

Antti "Zombie" Autiomaa does two things well: play the bass guitar and drink. After several months' sleeping on the streets of Istanbul, he returns to Helsinki where he's called into the army but discharged on mental health grounds after adding turpentine to the officers' soup. Zombie lives bleary-eyed in an apartment off his parents' house where his lonely, unemployed father suffers from heart disease. His girl-friend Marjo has taken up with a hairdresser but comes back to Zombie. His friend Harri hires him as a roadie for his band "Harry and the Mulefukkers" then gives him a chance as a bass player. He has his girl and he has a gig, but can Zombie put the bottle down?

Antti "Zombie" Autiomaa does two things well: play the bass guitar and drink. After several months' sleeping on the streets of Istanbul, he returns to Helsinki where he's called into the army but discharged on mental health grounds after adding turpentine to the officers' soup. Zombie lives bleary-eyed in an apartment off his parents' house where his lonely, unemployed father suffers from heart disease. His girl-friend Marjo has taken up with a hairdresser but comes back to Zombie. His friend Harri hires him as a roadie for his band "Harry and the Mulefukkers" then gives him a chance as a bass player. He has his girl and he has a gig, but can Zombie put the bottle down?

After losing his job and realizing that he is alone in the world, a businessman opts to voluntarily end his life. Lacking courage, he hires a contract killer to do the job. Then, while awaiting his demise, he meets a woman and promptly falls in love.

A young woman with nothing to look forward to in life discovers that she has been impregnated by a man who wants nothing to do with it.

A young woman with nothing to look forward to in life discovers that she has been impregnated by a man who wants nothing to do with it.

The Leningrad Cowboys, a group of Siberian musicians, and their manager, travel to America seeking fame and fortune. As they cross the country, trying to get to a wedding in Mexico, they are followed by the village idiot, who wishes to join the band.

During one spring day, nine people dreaming of life or running away from it, plus a dog on the run, either meet, pass or collide on a certain road. Each of them confronted with the randomness of life, they come to see the value and power of their own limited lives.