An ideal setting for domestic production
Finnish filmmakers have been shooting in Lapland since the 1950s, like Erik Blomberg who directed The White Reindeer
, an unusual genre film: a hunter marries a witch who turns into a vampire reindeer, which he must kill in spite of himself. It received the "Legendary Film Award" at the Cannes Film Festival in 1953. This film still offers sublime images that have not aged a bit, like the wind sweeping the snow dunes of the icy expanses, its expressionist frames reminiscent of the cult masterpieces of horror. Snow shines on the screen in this black and white film, and Lapland offers an unprecedented setting for a genre film, which cinema has too often confined to gothic interiors. The tundra lends itself rather well to fantasy stories, so Aleksandr Ptushko and Risto Orko filmed Sampo there in 1959, a tale inspired by Finnish mythology, relating the exploits of Lemminkainen against the witch Louhi.Finnish director Jalmari Helander is about to shoot a blockbuster in Lapland: Sisu, starring British actor Paul Anderson(Peaky Blinders), depicts the struggle of a man against a Nazi extermination patrol in the Lapland. On the series side, we note the brand new Arctic Circle (2018), a Finnish-German co-production, co-created by Olli Haikka, which unveils a dark thriller set against the backdrop of the spread of a deadly virus and human trafficking in Lapland
Miia Tervo, local director
The filmmaker is a native of Rovaniemi, the capital of Lapland. Born in 1980, she is part of the new generation of Finnish cinema. She recently made a name for herself with Aurora, released in 2019, which tells the adventure of Aurora and Darian, a Lappish woman and an Iranian man who meet at a hot dog stand in Lapland. Aurora is a party girl who has never been in a committed relationship, but her meeting with Darian will shake up her lifestyle and preconceived notions. Miia Tervo also directed a fragment of the seven-chapter collective film Force of Habit, released the same year. This film depicts moments in the lives of different women over the course of a day that are usually kept quiet or hidden
Some foreign successes
Aïlo, an odyssey in Lapland (2019) by Guillaume Maidatchevsky. This Franco-Finnish production follows the odyssey of a little reindeer and his mother through the landscapes of Lapland, to join their herd. The little Aïlo must face the multiple dangers that await him in the Finnish tundra. His first days are a race against time to find the safety of the group, a series of trials masterfully recorded in this animal and polar fiction. The first months of this little reindeer were captured on no less than 600 hours of rushes, from which the film was edited. Aïlo offers the viewer the splendor of Lapland's endless sunsets, enveloping the snow in an incomparably blue atmosphere, its majestic expanses suddenly illuminated by the marvelous colors of the northern lights. In short, everything you would expect from a film shot in the region!
With Lovers of the Arctic Circle (1998), the Spaniard Julio Medem once again brought Lapland up to date with this touching tale of the romantic reunion of Otto and Ana, who have known each other since their childhood but who had lost sight of each other, finally reunited in the polar region. For a change, War (2019), a Bollywood film with Indian star Hrithik Roshan, was partly shot in this northern region
