Knock, Knock
Leila is a recently divorced woman, who’s husband’s gone and their apartment’s been sold. She looks around the empty rooms and finds it difficult to understand that this is her life.
Little Wing
Tyttö nimeltä varpu
Little Wing is a film about Varpu 12, who lives with her mother and wants to find her father and be a child. It is a debut feature by Academy Award® nominated Selma Vilhunen and it won the Nordic Council Film Prize in 2017.
Varpu is a 12-year-old girl who rides ponies and goes to school. Her mother Siru works as a home care worker and tries desperately to pass her driver’s test. The relationship between her and her daughter is warm and full of humor, but there’s one flaw: Siru doesn’t know how to treat her daughter as a child; instead, she treats Varpu as her equal. Varpu doesn’t get to live the life of a child.
Varpu has never met her father. At the riding stables she feels different because the other girls are from wealthier families and live in another world. One night Varpu gets fed up with her mother complaining about everything and her riding buddies teasing her and feels disappointed in a boy she has a crush on. She steals a car and drives across the country to Oulu, in northern Finland; she remembers her mother mentioning that her father lives there. She finds her father, but he isn’t exactly what she had expected him to be. But the encounter with her father and his surprise arrival in Helsinki triggers something in Varpu and Siru’s life; it helps them realize what their roles in their relationship and in the world are.
INFO
Movie title
Little Wing
Original title
Tyttö nimeltä varpu
Production year
2016
Genre
Drama
Length
100 min
Languages
Finnish
Director
Selma Vilhunen
Screenplay
Selma Vilhunen
Cast
Varpu
Linnea Skog
Varpu's mother
Paula Vesala
Varpu's Father
Lauri Maijala
Ilmari Hukkanen
Antti Luusuaniemi
Riding Instructor
Outi Mäenpää
Bo
Santtu Karvonen
Crew
Cinematography
Tuomo Hutri
Production Design
Sattva-Hanna Toiviainen
Costume Design
Tiina Kaukanen
Key Make-up Artist
Pia Mikkonen
Editing
Samu Heikkilä
Sound Design
Tuomas Klaavo
Music
Jori Sjöroos, Paula Vesala
Producers
Kai Nordberg, Kaarle Aho
Awards
NORDIC COUNCIL’S FILM PRIZE
2017
BEST ACTRESS – LINNEA SKOG
JUSSI AWARDS FINLAND 2017
BEST NARRATIVE FEATURE
RIVERRUN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL USA 2017
GOLDEN CAMERA TAODUE AWARD
ALICE NELLA CITTA FILM FESTIVAL ITALY 2016
Festivals
Toronto International Film Festival, Canada 2016
Scanorama European Film Forum, Lithuania 2016
Northern Film Festival, The Netherlands 2016
Braunschweig International Film Festival, Germany 2016
Una Finestra Sul Nord, Italy 2016
Bosphorus International Film Festival, Turkey 2016
Les Arcs European Film Festival, France 2016
Palm Springs International Film Festival, USA 2017
Göteborg International Film Festival, Sweden 2017
Finnish Film Days, Budapest, Hungary 2017
DFI and Danish Film Archive, Finnish Film Series, Denmark 2016
BUFF, Sweden 2017
Finnish Film Week, Paris, France, 2017
TIFF Kids 04/2017
EU Film Festival in India 2017
Reel Talk LA, USA 2017
Scandinavian Film Festival, LA, USA 2017
Aswan International Women Film Festival, Egypt 2017
Finnish Film Days, Hungary 2017
Santa Barbara International Film Festival, USA 2017
Cleveland International Film Festival, USA 2017
Finnish Film Festival, Russia 2017
Kosmorama Trondheim International Film Festival, Norway 2017
RiverRun Film Festival, USA 2017
Sguardi Altrove Film Festival, Milano, Italy 2017
Stockholm Feminist Film Festival, Sweden 2017
Wisconsin Film Festival, USA 2017
Kristiansand Children International Film Festival, Norway 2017
Minneapolis St. Paul International Film Festival, USA 2017
New Finnish Films Tyneside, UK 2017
Northern Lights Nordic Film Festival, Belarus 2017
Women+Film Festival Denver, USA 2017
Cinema In Sneakers Film Festival, Poland 2017
Flying Broom Women International Film Festival, Turkey 2017
Liege Festival International du Film Policier de Liège, Belgium 2017
Nordic Film Fest Rome, Italy 2017
Starring Europe LA, USA 2017
Zlin Film Festival, Czech Republic 2017
Oslo Pix, Norway 2017
Tromso Children International Film Festival, Norway 2017
Stony Brook Film Festival, USA 2017
Bridge of Arts Motivational International Film Festival, Rostov-on-Don, Russia 2017
Carl International Film Festival, Sweden 2017
FIFFS, Morocco 2017
Cinemagic IFF, Ireland 2017
Sao Paulo IFF, Brazil 2017
Youth Film Fest Michel, Hamburg, Germany 2017
Arctic Moving Image and Film Festival, Norway 2017
Umeå Film Festival, Sweden 2017
Finnish Consulates Screenings, Canada 2017
International Children’s Festival Vienna, Austria 2017
Ale Kino! Young Audience International Film Festival, Poland 2017
EU Film Festival, Lebanon 2018
European Youth Festival, Belgium 2018
Sehpferdchen, Germany 2018
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