Asko Sarkola

Midsummer in Sweden; somewhere above the Arctic Circle. Many curious stories unfold in a small Finnish-speaking village, while the sun never sets.

The Finnish psychiatrist, politician, poet and musician Claes Andersson analyzes himself. At the same time, we dive into the history of Finland and Helsinki from the 1930s to modern times.

The story of an overly protective and controlling father who suspects incest is taking place between his own son and daughter. These growing suspicions and concerns cause the father to become delusional and unrelenting in his quest to end the love affair between his children.

A story of one unlucky man's descent into disaster, a dramatic, human-destiny thriller with contemporary social undertones.

Pekka Malmikunnas is a bankrupt, penniless man, who has convinced his family that he is still the CEO of a large IT company. Maintaining this façade in order to save face has become something of a full-time job for him. When Pekka’s parents unexpectedly come for a visit, he throws a lavish family dinner party in order to dispel any doubts. The soirée is a success until Pekka’s god-daughter gets run over by a car. The reckless driver becomes a mutual enemy for the family. The driver tries to atone for his actions, but the situation spirals out of control and Pekka attacks the man. Pekka realizes things have gone too far and decides to tell his family the truth. It does not hurt as much as Pekka thought, bringing the pieces of a once broken family back together.

A teenage orphan girl Salome lives within a sect lead by charismatic and ruthless Maria Åkerblom. During a pivotal summer, Salome is faced with standing up against Maria, the woman who had saved her.

Live action comedy about a fictional town and it's uncommon people, based on a comic strip 'Fingerpori', by Pertti Jarla.

The Soviet army breaks through the Finnish defences on the Karelian Isthmus in June 1944, advancing with overwhelming force. Somehow, the Finnish troops must find the strength to fight back, with all odds against them. The Battle of Tali-Ihantala was the largest battle ever fought in the history of the Nordic countries. This film depicts the true events through five separate stories.

A fictitious biography of Aira Samulin, the goddess of dance and importer of all the international dance crazes to Finland for some fifty years. The life story of this extravagant ever-teen, well beyond the usual retirement age, is told inside a fictitious plot about a Master of Ceremonies trying to persuade Aira to stage a show at his cabaret restaurant. Besides Aira Samulin, many other Finnish celebrities appear among the eccentric lineup auditioning for the show, playing more or less their fictionalised selves.

A comedy of crime, romance and deception played out against the background of a vacation under the Mediterranean sun.

Recovering from a nail gun shot to the head and 13 months of coma, doctor Pekka Valinta starts to unravel the mystery of his past, still suffering from total amnesia.

Jüri Rumm is a hot-tempered young peasant who is not afraid of either German barons or the Russian czar, barfights or disobedience to his master's orders. Mari, a gentle peasant girl, loves Jüri despite the fact that he is very popular among young women. Evelin is a quick-tempered baron's daughter who is used to get everything she wants, including a peasant boyfriend who considers himself a free man. Yet, the free man becomes an outlaw. Where will the runaway's love lead him?

Izabella Scorupco plays Carla, who is a con-artist somewhere in mediavel Sweden. Carla is disguised as a man and she is selling a "product" called Petri tårar (Tears of St. Peter). This product cures every sickness. In order to promote her product she promises to wake up from the dead all citizens of the town who have died within the last ten years. Both the bishop and the mayor are alarmed as they fear loss of influence over them and try to work against Carla. There are also many citizens who don't want to see their "loved ones" wake up from the dead. In order to make things more confusing, Carla and the son of the mayor, Mark, fall in love with each other.

After Kickan and Ritz's wedding in the North Archipelago, the after-party members drink heavily, resulting in conflicts and introspection. However, the event ends in reconciliation and the newlyweds can leave the island happily in a helicopter.

Crime caper involving two con artists who team up to pull off a super scam. Complications arise when the female member of the team falls in love with the male partner, who is mainly interested in the money.

A Finnish live action adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale, The Snow Queen. The tale centers on the struggle between good and evil as experienced by a little boy and girl, Kai and Kerttu.

In this somber, psychological drama about the conflict between a man's innermost feelings and a society that puts these feelings in a strait jacket, the mood is ruminative and depressing throughout. Alone, Viktor (Sven Wolter) heads off for his usual summer vacation to some islands where he can ostensibly look for antiques for his wife's shop in Stockholm. His marriage is a failure or worse -- he raped his wife before he left home, and he is obsessed by erotic imaginings. Once on the islands, he makes friends with a little girl whose mother is mentally disturbed and is kept by her husband in a locked room. The islanders are as tight-lipped as Viktor, and any communication is stiff and artificial. Viktor's own alienation begins to slip as he takes surprising, violent action to turn around the imprisoned mother's life -- but it does not work, nothing seems to work -- and his last actions indicate that he may not be willing to simply give up.

The Kiljunen family wins a holiday trip to Helsinki and the city will never be the same again.

The Persian ruler Shah Nadir has only one daughter. Princess Lindagull is kind-hearted, but feels trapped in her palace life. The vengeful King Bom-Bali sends a Lappish witch disguised as a tiger to kidnap the beloved Princess.

35-year old Erik Engman, aka Pinnen, is the local fool. He picks up garbage and eats at the old people's home. One day he is asked to try the high-jump at the sport's field. He becomes fascinated and starts to train every day. Being fool-hardy, it doesn't take long before he is one of the best in the country and is asked to compete at the Stockholm Stadion.

The King Without a Heart is a fairytale about of a happy king who has a young daughter and a lovely wife. After the sudden death of his wife, the king becomes so sad that he wants his heart taken out of his chest. The kingdom is turned into an effective society based on reason, and there is no longer place for emotions. When she grows up, the princess tries to make her father see the importance of play and emotions.

This biographical film celebrates the little-known life of the Finnish novelist and revolutionary Maiju Lassila (Asko Sarkola), born in 1868. Lassila's early years are briefly shown, then the film richly details his active and paradoxically reclusive adult life, beginning with his sojourn in St. Petersburg, working as a businessman. Unable to stay away from politics, he caused the assassination of a high-ranking Czarist and as a result, had to run back to Finland to hide. Once established in the comparative safety of a small village, he taught school in order to support his real vocation as a writer. Always living on the edge of poverty, if not square in the middle of it, Lassila continues to avoid public contact - he keeps his identity low-key and camoflages it by publishing under a variety of pseudonyms.

Johannes, an ex-con now working as a antiques dealer, is faced with a huge debt. He is put under pressure to pay and agrees to steal the Russian crown jewels on exhibition onboard a cruise ship.

One day when Ruben Stiller is playing in a bath, he gets an alien talking to Nadja, who asks him to find out the fate of Charly's dog. Ruben agrees because Charly's host was Mauritz Stiller, and Ruben is the grandson of Mauritz's brother.

A child acquires a magical video game that he uses to influence the world around him.

Art documentary film.

A woman who has been raped by a man at a party plots and executes an elaborate and humiliating revenge.

Harri is one of Sweden's many Finnish immigrant-workers. While in Sweden, the illiterate Harri marries and has a child. After accidentally killing a man in a fight, he flees back across the border to Finland and begins to pick up the pieces of his life, but soon, the police come looking for him.

Manillaköysi is a cult status holding TV-movie adaptation of the satirical war novel by Veijo Meri. Manillaköysi has an endless list of classic one-liners, but it is still not based on cheap laughs or anything like that. The whole humouristic aspect of it comes from describing the absurdity of war, and the whole military system, by looking it with the eyes of a simple man, who's thrown into it, and who simply does not give a rats ass of it all. The tone of it is not overly preachy or moralizing. If I would have to describe it with one word, it would be: unglamourizing. The main point of Manillaköysi is pretty much compressed in one of the most famous quotes of it: There is nothing supernatural about war, it is just work like anything else.

The film follows a boy and the relationship between his birth mother and step mother. Based on the novels by Aapeli.

Illustrates the effects of hereditary muscle degeneration disease on a family.