Kaija Pakarinen

Priest and the Ugly Christmas Tree is a small Christmas tale about a recently appointed pastor, who notices how the suburban residents are struggling in the slushy, Finnish Christmas landscape. He decides to cheer them up, get the largest Christmas tree in the area and recruit the community to help decorate it. Based on true events from a few years ago.

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After the bankruptcy of their fine dining restaurant, the Eerolas are stuck in the seaside village of Nauvo with no clear plan for the future. In the shadow of the father’s depression both the mother and the teenage daughter rebel against the stagnant life, each in their own way. In the magical light of the midnight sun, new loves begin while others come to an end.

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A huge train accident in an idyllic small town shocks the whole of Finland, and accident investigator Marita Kaila is faced with the most difficult case of her career. Under increasing pressure, Marita and her team try to find out what led to the death of dozens of people. But there is also a tragedy in Marita's own past, which the demanding investigation brings to the fore. Will he solve the case before the pressure becomes too much?

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The life of Juulia, a Finnish parliamentarian, is suddenly turned upside down by the discovery of the betrayal by her husband Matias, a Protestant pastor, with the young Enni. After an initial moment of anger and desperation, Juulia realizes that she cannot leave him and she understands that sometimes it is possible to sacrifice a part of one's individual happiness for the good of the people you love. For this reason she suggests to Matias that they open their relationship, a choice that will lead her to meet Miska, a young non-binary, who is also her girlfriend, and to experiment with polyamory naturally and spontaneously, with all the consequences of the case, positive and negative.

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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. Sisters Seija and Sanna are on their way to the airport because Seija is moving to Canada. Silja and Ville are mourning the anniversary of their dead daughter. The comedy duo is off on a tour after a long break, the paramedics are looking forward to a quiz night and Anita is finally ready to scatter the ashes of her deceased loved one in the lake. A strange man hitchhikes along the highway.

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Poromafia is a crime saga tinged with black humor, centered on the internal power struggle of a family ruling the northern wilderness. The northern matriarch leaves behind an inheritance, which divides the family's lands among the family. However, the wills tear the family apart as buried secrets come to light.

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11-year-old Kiti does something forbidden: she secretly opens her Christmas present ahead of time. The package has clearly been switched, and Kiti begins to investigate the matter. Before Christmas Eve comes to an end, the culprit is revealed. Who is the thief, and what is the reason for the theft?

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Hunt for the elusive tofu in the Arctic Circle.

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Wedding planner Joanna needs to find herself a fake boyfriend to cheer up her depressed father. As if on demand, an eccentric undertaker enters Joanna's life with her own motives for looking for a girlfriend. At the same time, Joanna receives some earth-shattering news and nothing can ever go back to the way it was.

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Sininen enkeli vividly depicts the colorful upswing of the 1980s in Helsinki, where money grows on trees, convertibles guarantee the thrill of speed and the solarium is the new sun. Marko Hyyryläinen, who hides his country background, arrives in the city and wants his share of money and love.

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A child goes missing in a drama about child welfare workers and the effects of their work on the lives of these workers. Rita returns to her job in child protection after being furloughed during a police investigation. The child is still missing, and Rita is held responsible for the situation. She was replaced as manager by a new director, Jyrki. When she returns to work, Rita is paired with inexperienced Laura. Together, Rita and Laura become an effective team, but the boundaries between their work and private lives begin to blur.

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Two murders shake the Finnish community of Fuengirola, a group that made this tiny corner of Málaga their own little Finnish paradise on the shores of the Mediterranean. Hilkka Mäntymäki, a veteran crime detective aged 60, is travelling from Helsinki to help the local police on a case that will soon claim new victims. Because escaping the cold and the dark is much easier than leaving your own past behind.

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Summer 2007, Finland. While the Kurtti are spending their annual holidays in their cabins in the land of a thousand lakes, the family is struck by a tragedy: Tommi, 2 years old, is killed by a gunshot. Elias, a 12-year-old neighbour, is blamed for the death of the child. 12 years later, the family receives a threatening anonymous letter and the secrets start to unravel, and show how far each of them are willing to go for their loved ones.

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Eero’s career as an author is spiraling down: he just can’t get started with his new novel. The ambitious actor Pihla is about to get her international break. Neither of them is willing to sacrifice their career even though their relationship is doing worse than ever. Void is a comedy-drama about the price of success and the agony of failure, and about situations where your partner just doesn’t get it.

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When Sofia Karppi, a detective in her 30's who is trying to get over her husband's death, discovers the body of a young woman on a construction site, she triggers a chain of events that threatens to destroy her life again.

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Is love eternal? Or ideology? When erstwhile communists meet at a food course the result is quite the concoction.

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A restaurateur befriends a Syrian refugee who has recently arrived in Finland.

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A successful thirtysomething couple find themselves at a financial dead end; they are faced with an extreme lifestyle change to pay for their debts. The luxury lifestyle ends when they are forced to move into a rented apartment in the suburbs. But to their friends, they hold up a facade and explain it all with downshifting.

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In 1980s Helsinki, a city about to burst with young energy and rebellion, two young writers determined to conquer the world fall madly in love. For Inka, the love affair puts everything in motion: she finds her own voice, publishes her first novel, and becomes a sensation. The intensity of their relationship has a different affect on Juhana, who starts to lose his grip on writing and, finally, life. At the height of the love affair Inka starts to suspect that their mad love might actually be real madness.

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Anna is a 16-year old in a village where women are accused of witchcraft. It's based on the witch hunts on Åland, Finland in the 1600s.

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A young and ambitious civil servant Jussi finds himself being in charge of the environmental permit of a huge nickel and uranium mine in Northern Finland. The Talvivaara mine, led by a charismatic globe trotting visioner Pekka Perä is introducing an entirely new method of collecting minerals whilst creating jobs in one of the poorest areas in Scandinavia. Jussi slowly discovers that he has been led astray by several people and that the new method has serious downsides he did not forsee. The mine is causing environmental hazards that are being hushed down. A new application for another permit is brough to his table by the same mine. Along with the application comes an interesting job offer and a chance of a new beginning. Jussi has to decide whether he will play along and if so, with whom.

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A political drama set in the fictional country of Illyria between 1943 and 1945, the story is about the assassination of a leading politician. The country, an ally of Nazi Germany, is on the verge of being annexed to the Eastern Bloc. Kaurismäki's TV adaptation of Jean-Paul Sartre's play Les Mains Sales (Dirty Hands) tells the story of Hugo (Matti Pellonpää) who has just been released from prison. Before going to prison, he has worked as a journalist at his party's newspaper. This timid journalist, who uses the pseudonym Raskolnikov, wants to advance in his career and gets his chance when Hoederer (Sulevi Peltola), the leader of the party, has to be eliminated.

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Like good soldiers in a war-zone, hospital staff are expected to respect the chain of command when dealing with life and death situations. But what happens when smug doctors, arrogant surgeons, and out-of-touch administrators make that easier said than done? Nurses deals with the professional and personal lives of four female colleagues who cope in different ways with the challenges of life on the trauma ward. With determination, strength, and a dark sense of humor, they achieve the demanding and inspiring task of saving lives in a system that sometimes seems designed to do the opposite.

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Mikko Virtanen feels like a Swedish soul trapped in a Finnish body. Full of disgust for everything Finnish, he sees Sweden as heaven. Upon meeting a suicidal Swedish psychologist Mikael Anderson, he seizes an opportunity for an identity switch. Raspberry Boat Refugee is a comedy about cultural differences in the Nordic countries, their nationalism and, not least, prejudices about our neighbours. It also proves how futile it is to try to escape oneself.

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8-Ball tells the story of single mother Pike who, having just been released from prison, is trying to start her life anew. When her former boyfriend Lalli comes back from abroad, it opens a window into a past that Pike wants to put behind her.

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Stigu and Ella have a just-sex relationship. Stigu is secretly in love but settles for what he can get because Ella wants nothing more. Until they find themselves in a same work project: designing an advertisement for the Family Federation on sustainable relationships. It seems like mission impossible since Ella doesn't believe in the whole concept and Stigu knows nothing about it.

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The name of the person is a thirtysomething, work shy and relaxed Kimmo.

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Sakari and Veera get engaged, madly in love. Not long after, Veera asks Sakari to help her in a matter relating to her father, and in a way that completely shocks Sakari. He does everything in his power to stop her from pursuing her plan. But before the story is over, Sakari will be been forced to make choices he thought he'd never have to face.

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Karri, Pete, André, Akseli and Joni dream, party, love and boast like only teenage males can. They're dealing with the same issues as every other young man — fears and hopes for future, disillusions and problems with parents.

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Stars above follows the stories of three women from the same family across three different decades. The main characters – Saima, Tuulikki and Salla – each lives in the same country house. Saima´s story takes place in the war time 1942, when Finland fought against Soviet Union, Tuulikki´s story in colourful year 1978 and Salla´s story in the present day. Each woman is between 30 and 40. This deep and beautiful, yet humorous film pictures the encounters between people and the possibilities for choice. How much does the time we live in affect us - and our ability to hold on to our dreams? What are those things which we pass on from one generation to the next? What changes, what remains the same? And to what extent do mothers´ choices, let alone their unspoken secrets, affect their daughters´ lives?

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The life of a heroine. The life and work of Hella Wuolijoki. A poet, spy and millionaire, she turned into an internationally acclaimed businesswoman, politician and playwright, who collaborated with Europe's leading writers such as Bertolt Brecht and Maxim Gorky, but faced the harshness of a changing world as the Finnish, Soviet and British secret services focus on her life, family and work.

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With few options, newly pardoned convict Leila agrees to work as an assistant to a blind pastor. Father Jacob spends his days answering the letters of the needy, which Leila finds pointless. But when the letters stop, the pastor is devastated and Leila finds herself cast in a new role.

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For the longest time, Anja Huovinen has been putting up with her husband’s (Juuso Hirvikangas) drinking and slackness. But she has reached the limit. Elonkorjuu is a tragicomedy about what happens when a person stops being useful to anyone. The story is black and warm as freshly brewed Finnish coffee.

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