RushRhees

I wasn't really familiar with Lars Molin when I watched this movie. That is not a problem. Molin's movie is a very entertaining, a bit twisted little film about a 60-ish woman who suddenly seizes the opportunity to spend her life as she wants to. She moves away from her husband, a self-pitying drunk, and she has affairs with several men. But most of all, this is a film about unusual people, some of which have lost all hope in life, others who have just found their path. Stylistically, this is an interesting experience, too. There are a lot of sweet images of Swedish nature, and as if this is not enough Molin adds a layer of slightly sentimental music. If that was what the entire movie is all about, it would have ended up being an annoyingly romantic, rosy affair. But after these nature-celebratory images we are served scenes that display human relations in a very raw, unsentimental manner. "You are a f**** pompous head of s**t. I loved you as soon as I laid my eyes on you." is one memorable quote that rubs up against what would otherwise easily have become too sweet, too sentimental.

Night in China, a documentary by Ju An-Qi, was broadcast on Finnish television a few months ago. I must say, it's one of the better documentaries I've seen. The concept of the film may not seem very intriguing at first; the director has simply chosen to film some people at night, somewhere in China. But the result is nothing short of stunning. There is the couple living in a crammed apartment. He is a shoe-repairer, while she works in a Karaoke bar. They talk about day-to-day life. Getting by somehow. There is the woman who works in a place that takes care of cats. We see another woman talking about her job, cleaning two streets in the middle of the night. What caught my attention was not only the atmosphere of the film (for some reason I was thinking of Jarmusch and Night on Earth) but also the stories the people of the film were telling. They all appeared very real to me and the lack of a coherent "plot" connecting the different stories was, in my opinion, no problem at all

It's a shame that Tove Jansson is mostly associated with the Moomin characters she created. Not to say that these books and cartoons weren't great - they are. It's just that her other books, and her art, have remained quite off the radar. My sister has talked a lot about her and Tuulikki Pietilä's book "Anteckningar från en ö", published in 1996. I read the book, and was awestruck by it. In "Haru, yksinäisten saari", video clips filmed by Jansson & Pietilä are accompanied by Birgitta Ulfsson's reading of some of the texts in the book. Ulfsson's humorous delivery (in Finnish, for some reason, or are there two copies?) fits the material since it brings out its warmth and no-nonsense perception of life in the archipelago. Jansson & Pietilä spent many summers in the archipelago, on an island inhabited by nobody else.

Tove Jansson writes about their day-to-day life on a secluded island. She talks about the surroundings, but there's no hint of pastoral sentimentalism. Her observations are dry, and very evocative. But it is the pictures, the clips, that truly make the text come alive. The transformations of nature; wind, sunshine, rain, but also their daily activities. Fishing, resting, boat trips - dancing.

When I read the book, my immediate reaction was that this is one of the most moving accounts of love I've ever come across in my life. That impression stuck with me when watching the film - watching how one of the women films the other. Watching their faces, usually smiling, cracking up into a hearty, beaming smile.

RinneRadio, a Finnish jazz/electronica band, performs most of the music. A good choice of music, if you ask me. The only thing that puzzled me - amused me! - was the use of Scott McKenzie's "San Franscisco" in combination with pictures of one of the women's joyous dancing movements. It's a long way from Frisco to Pellinge. But maybe that's the point.

I also want to recommend the documentary about Pietilä's and Jansson's travels together.