Kirsi Tykkyläinen 32 KByte	You graduated as a Russian and English major, held lectures at the Helsinki University and later on went to the Finnish Film Foundation where you now are the head of the International Department. In the meantime you have appeared in several Finnish films, among them Kaurismäki's Take care of your Scarf Tatiana in which you played Klavdia, one of two the leading ladies. I also happened to know that sometimes you sing and occasionally perform as a belly dancer. Impressive biography. How do you find time and energy for all this different activities? You see, I do not regard work as work, it is form of life. I just do things which I like. By the way, belly dancing is a very good way of staying fit. Although you find time for occasional acting and singing, your main activity is at the Finnish Film Foundation. Would you please give us a brief description of what your position includes? My main task is to promote Finnish films abroad. I call myself a cultural exporter of the Finnish film. I try to get as many good Finnish films as possible to the various film festivals, I organise film weeks around the world. I am also responsible for information of Finnish films, both in Finland and abroad. My activities at home include the promotion of what the Foundation does and I participate in the decision-making of the Foundation. Our organisation is quite small, we have 20 people only. The homepage of the Foundation calls you the foreign face of the Finnish film. You must travel a lot... Yes, I do. When we organise film weeks or when the Finnish films are in the biggest scale at the big film festivals I think it is very useful that there is somebody to explain from which kind of country these films actually come from, what the situation is. As the head of the International Department I suppose you have a very clear overview of the foreign distribution of Finnish films. What countries buy your films most often? European countries, of course. But what is very interesting, Japan and the Asian countries are very interested in our films. In Japan there are so many fans of Aki Kaurismäki and the Leningrad Cowboys. But not only Kaurismäki films, all the good Finnish films succeed in getting to the Japanese film festivals and some are bought in that country. We must have something in common... The most difficult place to sell our movies is America. The reason you are in Hungary now is that at the 9th Europe Film Week in Budapest Finnish contemporary cinema is the focal point. The audience can meet 8 of the most recent Finnish films. Unfortunately only during this very one week, since none of those films are distributed in our cinemas, for the time being. As the head of the International Department can you do anything to change this? I can organise another film week, and informing foreign countries better of what we do... That is the only thing we can do. The Foundation does not sell, but inform. Of course without us nobody would sell. I think that the better we promote the higher possibilities there are for our films to get sold. Although the program here at the Europe Film Week was finalised by Budapest Film, we had given them a wider program to choose from. The films reflect quite well the situation in Finland, because they are really very different. There are films which are made for big audiences and which in Finland have indeed reached big audiences, for instance Ambush, Tommy and the Wild Cat, A Summer by the River, Gold Fever in Lapland have got both good critics and big audiences. The other four were made for a smaller audience, and they have indeed reached their target audience. These films have been travelling to various film festivals and are received with good critics. Some of them have been sold abroad, for instance Juha goes very well, which was a big miracle for me. You see, all of Kaurismäki's films are liked by foreign viewers but who would have thought that a black-and-white silent movie would go that well, with critics better than ever? A Summer by the River had 270 000 admissions in 1998. It is very high number, isn't it? Yes, and this year was even better in terms of numbers. This year has really been the year of Finnish cinema both at home and abroad as well. Ambush has had more than 400 000 admissions, Tommy and the Wild Cat is close to 400 000. The admissions in Finland has gone up from 6.4 to 7 million and the audience share for Finnish film will be 25 % this year. Among the top 10 films there will be five Finnish films. It seems that the last two years was indeed a turning point in both the Finnish film industry's and the Foundation's history. What are the reasons? I think it is the result of a very tough and active work during the past three years. We have had a clear aim to do better films, more professionally, to make clear to whom the films are made and then to help the producers and the filmmakers in making the films they want to and in reaching the target audience. This year particularly we have succeeded. Of course there are many-many factors that have helped. First of all we have very good management. You see, the managing director and the head of production must change in every three years, they cannot work there forever because they are the ones to deal with money. The „dictator", the head of production deals with the subsidies and other financing to the actual productions, so the person cannot sit forever. In addition, we have got a little more money from the government. We did not increase the number of productions - we make 10-14 features per year, which in my opinion is an ideal number - with that additional money we have been able to give more to each project. And although still the production costs in Finland are very low compared to other European film productions, an average production cost stays at USD 1 000 000. So now we are able to make bigger films as well as to finance them better. The Foundation supports not only features but all other types of films, too. Do you have partners in supporting the film productions? Yes, the Finnish television channels. The result why the situation is so good is that during the last three years we have been finally able to make better agreements with all the four Finnish television channels, two state and two commercial channels. They put more money into film productions. After two years of showing the films in cinemas, the films are presented on television and they are always the most popular programs there. The situation in distribution has improved as well lately, because now there are five private distributors. Some years ago there was one big distributor only, so there was no competition, which is never good. There is no state-owned distributor company? No, only private ones. You said, that 10-14 films are made per year. All of those films are distributed domestically? In average, yes. Of course, sometimes not all of them reach the target audience, so ideal the situation can never be. But this year we have been lucky, there is only one failure maybe, but all the others - both with small and larger target audiences - have made their goals. How is the available sum of money divided? Which part of filmmaking gives the Foundation support to? All steps can be supported. The largest sum of money goes to the production of course. But we also finance pre-production, developing and writing the script and all the other periods of the process. Same applies to the production itself and the post-production. In addition, we finance marketing as well. We give the marketing subsidy to the producer once the film has been finished and the producer showed us the agreements with the distributor as well as the marketing plans how to proceed. It includes a very detailed plan about the target audience, how many prints they should have and in which cinemas the film would be shown, where would it be premiered, would they advertise on television or only in newspapers, which kind of marketing tours the producers and the filmmakers, actors would do and so on. You mentioned the number of prints. How many prints are usually made per film? It depends. For instance in this Finnish program you can see The Collector which was made for a small audience. That type of film starts with 3-4 prints, but right away we see that there is an interest and the producer or the distributor asks for extra money for extra prints we can give the money right away. In case of big hits such as Ambush or Tommy and the Wild Cat there are 27-30 prints or more. How high percentage of all costs is covered by the Foundation? It varies. In average I would say our share is 40 %. In addition to this comes television's, producer's and distributor's share and sometimes Nordic Film and Euroimages gives financial support, too. In case of a first time director our share can be bigger. How do you decide about which film plan you give the support to? That's the wisdom. Here comes the „dictator" into the picture. One young but very experienced person with good visions who decides. Before we used to have those committees but democracy cannot decide about these kind of things. The decision-making of committees always means compromising, the tastes of 4-5 people are always different. They look at the filmmaking from different angles. That's why we very radically changed that three years ago, now there is only one person who decides about the money. This one „dictator" is there for three years and then the person will be replaced with another. This way we can deal with temptations which are unavoidable –we all are humans who can develop sympathies and antipathies, so it is better not to have the same person there forever. So there is one person for big audience-films, another for small audience-films and long documentaries to be shown in cinemas and a third person for films to be distributed through television only, usually short films and documentaries and one-hour-long features. Let's say I am a young Finnish filmmaker who wants to make a movie. Whom should I call first? First you have to find yourself a producer and the producer comes to us. He can bring the whole detailed plan for how to proceed but also a simple idea, the synopsis or the script only. Either way, he has to convince us that the film plan is worth to be financed. From that point on it is up to the producer, he tells us how many days the shooting will take, what are the locations, who are the actors and so on. Producers play an important role in the process. Do I have to be a professional filmmaker with official education? Of course you ought to be professional, but it does not necessary mean that you have graduated in one of our film schools. Many people have been educated abroad or are simply born-talents. But we have film schools, for instance the one established in the end of the 50's, the time when all movements in cinema flourished. The main professions are taught there, for instance directing, editing, sound-engineering, cinematography and so on. Acting is thought at The Theatre Academy . What is an average duration of completing a film? Well, it varies, but two years, I would say. We do not have a deadline for applying, it is open all year around. It means that the filmmaker can come to us any time. So many factors operate at the same time when shooting a film, you cannot set strict deadlines if you want to help the work. We want to finance the productions always at the ideal moment regarding how the project is developing. That's one of the main goals of the Foundation. We try to help and we do it with a positive attitude. Apropos: attitude. In Kaurismäki's films we see his people as never-talking losers, heavy drinker men, weak and servile women. Sometimes I wonder: in this ironic way does Aki Kaurismäki want to meet the expectations of some foreign stereotypes or does he really see his fellow countrymen this way? I think both. He has a wonderful sense of humour and a perfect way to show serious things with irony and at the same time with understanding. On the other hand he is mocking his fellow countrymen, of course. He has a very special view and attitude which is characteristic for him only. Are there efforts among Finnish filmmakers to create a different image of the country or they take it in the healthy way and don't think about changing stereotypes? No. There are no such concerns. Life will change it anyway... if not – well, why bother? By the way: the Foundation's website is very rich in information of prominent figures in Finnish cinema. I especially enjoyed reading of Pietari ... Oh, yes, the dog from Drifting Clouds...! Well, I have to admit, I am responsible for that. It was so cheering to see his „professional curriculum vitae" because it is a serious organisation with serious goals and still has the courage to put it on the Net... I am happy to hear that you liked it. Finnish is a wonderful language, which unfortunately almost totally „Greek" to any other nation. Therefore I suppose Finland is somewhat closed inside its own culture and it is not easy to present that culture to the rest of the world. What problems do you meet most often when trying to introduce Finnish films to a foreign audience or, in that respect, foreign distributors? Language is a barrier, it is a problem when trying to promote our films. But we are aware that nothing can be done, we have to live with it. But we are the only people who can make Finnish films! We are proud of it and we want to continue to make Finnish films. Because first of all: we make them for us, for Finnish audience. The nation and the country cannot be free and independent and strong if it does not have a strong cultural life and very strong identity. Without art and culture you cannot have strong identity. When it comes to going abroad to promote Finnish films I do not concentrate on the minuses but the pluses. It is never the language or other barriers that sell the films but the pluses. But to answer your question: I do meet difficulties when trying to introduce a film to countries which are not at all used to listen at other languages. It is almost impossible. And it is not only the spoken language, it is also the visual medium. We are more „slow" than other nations, it is an attitude, a way of seeing the world. But it is wonderful and appeals to some people, and it can be strange to others. Both are fine. The solution is: the producer has to accept that the films will be dubbed. Aki Kaurismäki has accepted that, for instance. Otherwise you cannot reach big audiences, not even in Europe. Films with subtitles are distributed in a very limited circle. I do not believe in that all, although some people say, that we should make films in English, but I am not in favour of this. Sometimes it is natural to do films in foreign languages, for instance if the set is somewhere else, or if it combines people from different nations, it can be done with success. We do films in Swedish, though, because our second official language is this one. Please allow me to go back to your active role in some actual Finnish films. You have frequently appeared with the Leningrad Cowboys , the funny rock band, of which Kaurismäki made a film. One of the Cowboys, Mato Valtonen also appeared in other Kaurismäki films (for example Drifting Clouds) and was your partner in Tatiana. It seems that „all roads lead to Rome". Is it only a working partnership or are you all close friends as well? It is the same family, so to say. At the moment there are no active plans to work together again but maybe in the future Aki will have some plans to do something. Usually Aki Kaurismäki works with the same people, even the crew is the same with minor changes. Everyone knows what to do, so to say, this close partnership „has no time for anyone to go to the bar"... But seriously: his films are very homogeneous, and he needs the same crew, that's his way of working. Other productions do not operate this way and we have wonderful actors and crew members besides the ones Kaurismäki works with. There are regular faces in Finnish films, though, for instance Kari Väänänen. I could go on with the names but since the films are very different, the faces are different as well and every director tries to find the ones who are the best for each role. Among the films presented at the 9th Europe Film Week which are the ones you recommend the most? Well, all of them. But I love Juha which is a small masterpiece. I would recommend The Collector made by a young female director Auli Mantila with a wonderful actress in the leading role. I also loved the music in that film which was premiered in Venice two years ago. I am sure that we are going to hear more of the director in the future. The Fire Eater is also very interesting visually, again by a female director Pirjo Honkasalo but she is one of our „veterans" already. A Summer by the River by Markuu Pölönen is so Finnish, I can recommend to everyone.. This year's biggest hit is Ambush from a young male director, Olli Saarela. It deals with the questions of what war can make of us. I hope that at the next year's Film Week we can present you some other Finnish films as well.
The logo of the 9th Europe Film Week in Budapest 63 KByte
88 KByte
Olli Saarela: Ambush (1999) 12 KByte
Raimo O Niemi: Tommy and the Wild Cat (1998) 94 KByte
Ake Lindman: Gold Fever in Lapland (1999) 83 KByte
Aki Kaurismäki: Juha (1999) 62 KByte