Matti Näränen

The documentary Rap and Reindeer follows the life of 18-year-old Sámi rapper Mihkku Laiti, who lives in the northernmost corner of Sámiland. The film is a coming-of-age story, following Mihku on his journey towards a career as a musician and rise to stardom in the midst of varying expectations. He’s charmed the crowd on Talent Suomi and proudly wears the Sámi clothing he has styled himself. He raps and yoiks in harmony, designs his own brand on his computer but also masters the skill of laborious reindeer herding. Above all, he sees his own unique roots and the Sámi language as his greatest strength. The future makes him wonder: to follow his father’s footsteps or to reach for his dreams.

As the host country for the 2018 Winter Olympics, South Korea’s national ice hockey team was automatically given a spot in the Olympic hockey tournament. The team would play at the highest level for the first time, facing the top countries in the sport. The skill gap between them and their opponents was huge, as South Korea had just 180 professional hockey players. Failure and defeat weren’t acceptable results, as losing face is considered the worst thing that could happen in Korean culture. But how to avoid humiliation, when defeat seems certain?

The region of Lake Turkana, located in Kenya and Ethiopia, is considered to be “the Cradle of Humankind”. Among other finds, primate fossils from millions of years ago have been discovered in the region. But what about the region’s modern inhabitants and their relationship to their environment? Iiris Härmä, whose previous work includes the award-winning Leaving Africa, had the chance of joining Helsinki University’s researchers, Álvaro Fernández-Llamazares and Mar Cabeza, on their pre-pandemic trip to study the Daasanach people’s relationship to their environment through traditional animal tales. The researchers hope that storytelling would help to bridge the gap between people’s everyday lives and conservation efforts.

In the Kosovo War, human dignity was shattered by the terrors of the Serbian government and the Albanian liberation army. Truths about the victims’ fates faded away, which is why a Finnish forensic research group led by Helena Ranta got a mission to act as an unbiased agent and investigate the real course of events.

Kids Cup is a character driven coming-of-age family film from the world´s largest sports tournament for kids. We dive into a teenage universe and follow 13-14 year olds from different parts of the world, competing at the football tournament, Norway Cup, in Oslo.

Uplifting snapshots from Finnish summertime’s most beloved and thoroughly hated hobby: mowing the lawn.

Mervi is a gay girl living in the hipster quarters of Helsinki. She has been together with Kata for a year, and now they are encouraged by the circumstances to come out from closet. When they do, Mervi realises that she is not the only one in her family with secrets – her parents have been living in an open-bisexual-swinger-relationship for 20 years. On the other hand Kata is pretty surprised that she might be living with a hetero girl that once was dating a neo-nazi. And the ex-boy friend cannot swallow that Mervi is now with a person both of wrong color, and sex. The real threat appears when Kata’s parents arrive from Berlin and the local skinhead chief finds out that a black muslim celebrity politician has arrived to town.

Documentary about a Finnish reporter, Hannu Karpo. The movie follows Karpo's decades-long career as a journalist, and how he became a phenomenon and known by the whole nation.

“My friends can’t believe I go camping in winter. They think it’s crazy.” But 13-year-old Emika loves it. It’s just as beautiful as in summertime. “You just need a good tent, a sleeping bag and warm clothes.” In every school vacation, she and her cousin Antti, who is kind of like a big brother to Emika, go to the vast Saimaa Lake, an amazing nature reserve with thousands of islands, in Finland. You just have to see the magical frozen lake, woodpeckers in the snowy woods and fish beneath the ice, the starry sky and the Northern Lights to understand why Emika and Antti keep coming back here… A deeply engaging story about our true connection with nature.

Själö means 'the island of souls', and no name could be more fitting for the island in the Baltic Sea, which for centuries was a last stop for women who were considered social outcasts – and who are today forgotten. They were forcibly placed in a closed institution to be studied, measured and weighed – exactly in the way that nature itself was starting to be examined around the same time. Today, the place is a research centre. A young female scientist collects samples on the island, while the whispering voices of the past and never-sent letters echo in the empty hallways.

Two teenagers and their adventures in the breathtaking scenery of lake Saimaa.

Documentary about father coaching his teenage son in skiing.

A documentary exploring the difficulties the newly-independent Estonia faced in the early 1990s after emerging from decades of Soviet rule. The film focuses especially on then-32-year-old and inexperienced Mart Laar, who became country's prime minister while there still were tens of thousands of Soviet soldiers in the country.

Is it possible for a war criminal to find forgiveness and to reconcile with the past? How do you find your way back to what is known as a normal life when you have been convicted of one of the worst crimes of all – a crime against humanity? Esad Landzo has looked for answers for many years, but in vain. He decides to make one last attempt. The Balkan War criminal travels back to Bosnia to meet his former camp-guard friend, his victims and his family. Will he ever be forgiven? Should he?

War and Peace of Mind explores what war does to the human mind and how both, the individuals and the nation as a whole, survive it psychologically. Finland and WWII, locally known as continuation war, is the backdrop of this documentary.

A father of four children gets brutally stabbed several times, with the children present in the family home. During the brutal action, his wife – Anneli Auer – is on the phone to the emergency center. Emergency Call – A Murder Mystery is a documentary film tracking down the story that unfolds after the fatal night. We hear from all emerging sides as the prosecution builds its case against the mother of four. A behind the scenes look into one of the most bizarre unsolved court cases in recent Finnish history.

A Liberian refugee SAM REAYAH and his family have been separated for five years and live in uncertainty waiting for family reunion. While Sam and his younger daughter Ruth continue their lives in Buduburam Refugee camp in Ghana, his wife Decontee and his older daughter Joyce have already started a life in Rochester, USA. The film explores the idea of home. Sam's family had a home in Liberia, but they had to give it up. They were forced to build homes elsewhere. They built a home in Ghana. They build a home in The United States. They built homes together, they build homes separate of each other. But which home does the heart want?

A lonely woman finds an abandoned baby by her apartment house’s garbage bin, and decides to take the baby home with her.

Finnish Kerttu Nuorteva is spying for the Russians in Helsinki during World War II. She is arrested and interrogated in the hope that she will uncover the Soviet Union espionage tactics.