FINALISTIT / FINALISTS 2023

Kilpailun kansainvälinen raati

Iiti Yli-Harja, Baltic Herring voittaja 2022

Maira Dobele, Latvia Latvian suurlähetystön kulttuuritoiminnan koordinaattori

Giulia Filippi, Italia, Raumars-taiteilija

Taina Myllyharju, Rauman taidemuseo

Tarmo Hotanen, Baltic Herring-koordinaattori

 

AMATÖÖRIT/ AMATEURS

to/ Thu 17.08. at 14.00, Iso-Hannu 2

pe/ Fri 18.08. at 16.00, Iso-Hannu 3

1. Gleb Milyan, Pyotr Shumin, Russia: BLOODSUCKER, horror, 20 min

How does authoritatian country work in times of new media? Anya makes a repost on social network with an appeal to go to the political rally. At night she receives a call from an unknown person, an investigator. Intimidating and manipulating, the stranger convinces Anya to meet him at midnight.

2. Martin Pflanzer, Germany: DEAR MAHSA, animated, 6 min

In reaction to the murder of 22-year old Mahsa Jina Amini by the Iranian Guidance Patrol, the film tells about the terrible situation of the people and especially the women in Iran since the Islamic Revolution. The handdrawn animation illustrates a poem by the author Ayeda Alavie.

3. Evgeny Nikolaev, Russia: KUKUSHKA, horror, 22 min

After moving to a new house, the Hero meets an unknown girl-neighbor and immediately becomes a witness of inexplicable events. Trying to understand the mystical events, the Hero enters into a confrontation with the girl’s father, who keeps a shocking secret.

4. Peter Helm, Germany: IN THE FLOW, animated, 15 min

The film shows flowing, slowly morphing water photographs, which were mainly taken at Lake Constance. A continuous change without a standstill, without text, only accompanied by meditative music, which is also fluid and takes the viewer on a journey without beginning and without end.

5. Darius Skramtai, Lithuania: MARIJA, fiction, 30 min

Marija is a simple peasant woman, the wife of a post-war partisan helper. Bolius believes in the freedom fight, but his best friend, a secret security agent, betrays and kills him. Having lost his husband Marija is exiled to another part of Lithuania, Suvalkija, with her three young daughters. However, she feels the support of her community and her faith in Lithuania’s freedom is strengthened.

6. Riku Keskipoikela, Finland: STORY OF MY LIFE, animated, 2 min

A short film about how my life has developed over the years, and how I have become the person I am today. Film showcases the main important events of my life, and tells my growth through the method of animation. The film was created on the animation course at our university.

7. Perttu Inkilä, Finland: HOW TO TRAP WORKING, comedy, 8 min

Renting a summerhouse becomes harder than expected.

 

OPISKELIJAT/ FILM STUDENTS

STUDENTS I

to/ Thu 17.8. at 16.00, Iso-Hannu 2

pe/ Fri 18.8. at 18.00, Iso-Hannu 3

1. Laura Udra, Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre, Lithuania: BLACK BLACK NIGHT, fiction, 25 min

A middle-aged man Artúras and an eccentric teen Ilona are two strangers meeting at night. Together they seek to find an escape from personal loneliness.

2. Janina Lutter, Hochschule Darmstadt, Germany:

THE SCHOOL IS ON FIRE AND WE KNOW WHY, fiction, 25 min

Rita is a silent observer of the injustices that take place every day at her school. To document these cases, she breaks into the school at night, photographs the scenes and turns them into artistic collages. When her classmate Raquel finds out about her one night, the two join forces in a final attempt to make the power games at her school visible.

3. Hannu-Pekka Peltomaa, Aalto University, Finland: ASAP, fiction, 8 min

There is a first time for everything, and for young Aliisa and Vili, that time is today on their three-month anniversary. How far is one willing to go just to avoid saying ‘’no’’ to their loved one? The film is a part of The Hotel Room -short film series, in which all eight stories are set in the same room and told by different up-and-coming filmmakers.

4. Veera Lamminpää, Aalto University, Finland: DOGGYSTYLE, fiction, 8 min

A middle-aged couple has very different ideas of what it looks like to spice things up in the bedroom. The film is a part of The Hotel Room -short film series, in which all eight stories are set in the same room and told by different up-and-coming filmmakers

5. Jakub Laskowski, Gdynia Film School, Poland: TACKING, tiction, 22 min

Entering adult life Janek works with a psychotherapist through a difficult relationship with his father. When it seems that the boy has found a way to reconcile troubled emotions, the father unexpectedly dies of a heart attack. Janek needs to say goodbye, and an opportunity arises in a dissecting room.

6. Leevi Pienihäkkinen, Metropolia, Finland: PEACE AND SILENCE, documentary, 8 min

An expedition through the City at nighttime. In solitude, the obvious turns uncanny. A short experimental documentary film, which shows normal and obvious things from the perspective of the night. The film makes things look totally different from what you are used to.

7. Josefina Rautiainen, Aalto University, Finland: SATISFYER, fiction, 7 min

Young Alma faces herself in a new light and learns through years of experience what kind of touch she likes.

The film is a part of The Hotel Room short film series, in which all eight stories are set in the same room and told by different up-and-coming filmmakers.

STUDENTS II

to/ Thu 17.8. at 19.00, Iso-Hannu 2

pe/Fri 18.8. at 20.00, Iso-Hannu 3

1.Veera Lamminpää, Aalto University, Finland: SAUNAPIRU, fiction/ fantasy, 4 min

Santeri wishes to bathe in his old sauna, but a troll which lives under its benches causes him trouble.

2. Veikko Timonen, Aalto University, Finland: ILO P. ILLERIN TAIKATEMPPU, fiction, 14 min

Joy the Magic Clown is a middle-aged clown magician, who despite her enthusiasm is not the best at her job. Ilo has started to doubt her choice of career and after one bad day she’s ready to quit, unaware of the magic powers that are bubbling underneath.

3. Jan Bujnowski, Polish National Film, Television and Theatre School in Lodz, Poland:

THE DEVIL, fiction, 20 min

In research on the religiosity of Polesconducted in the 1990s by OBOP, the percentage of believers has always fluctuated around 95%. At the same time, the unemployment rates also reached record values. The crisis strengthened the society’s need for spirituality, which allowed things not necessarily possible to happen in other times.

4. Lulu Pomorova, Gdynia Film School, Poland: EVERYTHING FOR MY FRIEND, fiction, 25 min

Ania is in a quarrel with her best friend, Kasia. When Kasia destroys her graduation paintings, Ania feels guilty and decides to apologize to her friend. But it turns out that the problem is much deeper than just their quarrel. How far can Ania go for their friendship?

5. Elias Kahla, Aalto University, Finland: BRAINS OUT BASH, experimental, 18 min

Woman suffering from shopping addiction is tied into a world ruled by television and its sensory stimulus. After her relationship turns sour, the woman falls deeper into trance created by television until she finally wakes up and becomes more aware of her feelings and humanity.

6. Reeta Annala, Aalto University, Finland: NALLE IKKUNASSA, animated, 6 min

Teddy Bear is seated to the window during the pandemic to cheer up the children, but soon Teddy Bear discovers that the loneliness of being in the window is deadly. The loneliness is relieved when Teddy encounters another teddy bear in the opposite window.

7. Leonard Rottok: Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg, Germany: BRAINFUCK, fiction, 17 min

Two teenagers secretly arrange to have sex for the first time. He bragsto his boys about his near deflowering and realizes too late that he should have kept his secret. The drama takes its course: he puts himself under performance pressure, when he can’t get it up, his BRAINFUCK is perfect.

 

AMMATTILAISET/ PROFESSIONALS

to/ Thu 17.8. at 21.00, Iso-Hannu 2

pe/ Fri 18.8. at 22.00, Iso-Hannu 3

1. PV Lehtinen, Finland: ALLAS, fiction, 15 min

A speechless story of a young boy in a skeleton costume and his father’s swimming trip to a lido. It seems like an ordinary trip until a strange woman with sunglasses joins the father at the pool.

2. Lars Vega, Sweden: ARNE MEETS DEATH, comedy, 29 min

The year is 1995. There is a knock on the door of Greedy-Arne Nyman’s battered house, it is Death who has come to get him. Greedy-Arne manages to get a reprieve to get rid of his debts, what Death doesn’t know is that Greedy-Arne has other plans than paying back his debts.

3. Antoine Antabi, Germany: REST IN PIECE, animated, 10 min

Midyan is on the run from his wartorn country. His unbearable hunger forces him to start eating his beloved possessions. The side effects are monstrous but keep him going.

4. Fabian Munsterhjelm, Finland: THANK YOU IN YOUR LANGUAGE, fiction, 14 min

Thank you in your language is a story of an actress recording an audition tape for a role of her life.

5. Leonore Poth, Germany: THE FISHY, animated, 9 min

In an upside-down world there lives a water-shy fish child, who at first only dares to go into the water with a swimming tube. A trawler fishes away all the humans and the child returns to the beach in shock. There he manages to save one little human, but what about all those colorful pieces of plastic?

6. Maria Bolme, Sweden: EMERICH – NO MAN IS BORN A FASCIST, documentary, 11 min

About the unique approach of Emerich Roth, one of our last survivors of Hitler’s Holocaust. After his retirement he devoted 30 years of his life to spread his message of love and reconciliation. Since Emerich passed away during the filming he is partly portrayed by a puppet.

7. Siri Bråtveit, Norway: CAN SOMEBODY TELL ME THAT EVERYTHING WILL BE FINE, comedy, 14 min

Are men attracted to women with saggy breasts? Have you ever killed anyone? On the internet we can be anonymous and completely open about our inner dilemmas, but what would happen if we were just as brutally honest in the physical world? The authentic dialogue in this experimental comedy is borrowed from Norway’s largest chat forum.

8. Matthias Daenschel, Germany: DROWNED VILLAGES, animated, 4 min

A dive along drowned towns and cities opens a window to the past. For the design of the underwater world, I used historical engravings, from J. Homann, L. Richter and A. Dürer. The story of the film is historical, but the subject of the flood disaster is more topical than ever in view of man-made climate change. The film was produced for the international exhibition DE KRAAK.

9. Klaus Hoefs, Germany: BALTIC SEA, animated, 5 min

Now there’s an end to wiggling with the dachshund. Also an end to smooching with the poodle. Bonnie & Clyde have finally had enough of the farm – they flee from there, dream of a juicy fish sandwich and race in a cardboard box to the Baltic Sea. There is black rain and it is overcrowded.