Country: Finland
Year: 2010
Duration: 59'
the painting sellers It’s Christmastime and Luukkonen, Emppu and Toni decide to earn some money: they load up a car with the paintings Luukkonen has made and head off to sell them door to door throughout Finland. During this impromptu expedition, Emppu takes care of sales while Toni, who will soon be going off to do his military service, drives the car. But the project doesn’t go as planned: the economic crisis hampers sales, it is freezing cold and the car breaks down, leaving them at the mercy of the winter weather. To Toni, the ensuing conflict is more educational than any military service. “Taulukauppiaat is not a comedy, even though it is very ironic. It’s more like a tragedy, a western that takes place in eastern Europe, a road movie about the ability of a community to invent work for itself during the economic crisis. The cast is entirely made of non-professional actors who have thrown themselves into their characters, all the while maintaining their secrets. I think that we don’t really express our emotions, we prefer to hide them. Or at least that’s what we do in Finland.”
Biography
film director
Juho Kuosmanen
Juho Kuosmanen (Finland, 1979) studied directing at Aalto University in Helsinki, where he made his first animated short, Knights of the Galaxy, followed by Roadmarkers, which came in third in the Cinéfondation selection at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival. That same year, another of his shorts, Citizens, received the Silver Leopard at the Locarno Film Festival and, two years later, his graduation film, the medium-length The Painting Sellers, won the Cinéfondation Award at Cannes; the film was then presented in the Waves section at the Torino Film Festival. The Happiest Day in the Life of Olly Mäki is his first feature film. Besides directing movies, he works in theatre as a stage director and actor and also collaborates with the experimental ensemble West Coast Kokkola Opera.
FILMOGRAFIA
Galaksien Ritari (Knight of the Galaxy, cm, anim., 2006), Kestomerkitsijät (Roadmarkers, cm, 2007), Kaupunkilaisia (Citizens, cm, 2008), Taulukauppiaat (The Painting Sellers, mm, 2010), Hymyilevä Mies (The Happiest Day in the Life of Olly Mäki, 2016).
Cast
& Credits
regia/director
Juho Kuosmanen
sceneggiatura, fotografia/screenplay, cinematography
JP Passi
montaggio/film editing
Jussi Rautaniemi
suono/sound
Pietu Korhonen
interpreti e personaggi/cast and characters
Teppo Manner (Toni), Auli Mantila (Luukkonen), Tuomas Airola (Emppu)
produttore/producer
Jussi Rantamäki
produzione, vendita all’estero/production, world sales
Aamu Filmcompany
