Like any other film festival, Espoo Ciné also hosts a group of guests on-site. During the festival, the guests attend screenings of their films and, depending on the film, introduce their work and/or participate in a Q&A after the screening. Screenings with filmmaker guests are gathered under the "Guests" theme on the Espoo Ciné website. On each film's presentation page, it's explained in more detail which screening will have filmmaker guests and who will be present.
For director Saara Cantell's film Siblings, the director herself and actors Henna Tanskanen and Lauri Tanskanen will be present. After the screening, the filmmaker guests will answer questions in a Q&A session.
In Cantell's film, thirty-year-old twins Jenna (Henna Tanskanen) and Joni (Lauri Tanskanen) discover that their father has a third child. Sister Jóna (Elin Petersdottir) lives in Iceland, where the siblings' father lived in his youth. The story of family relationships, filmed over a span of seven years, catches the viewer’s attention like Iceland's breathtaking nature. The screening of Siblings will take place on Sunday, August 20th.
Also, on Tuesday, August 22nd, there will be filmmaker guests present at the Hotel Shorts film screening. The short films in the screening are made by students from Aalto University's Department of Film, Television, and Scenography, and they explore the entire spectrum of sexuality in a fresh and creative way. A Q&A session with the filmmakers will be held after the screening.
On Friday, August 25th, director Anastasia Lobkovski, actress Alina Tomnikov, and screenwriter Jarkko Olavi Virtanen will attend the screening of Solar Wind Alley. The Finnish indie drama follows what happens to people when electricity disappears due to a strong solar flare. The screening, organized in collaboration with Yle Teema, is free but requires redeeming a free ticket from Espoo Ciné’s website or ticket sales point.
On the festival's last day, August 27th, director Sami van Ingen will come to Kino Tapiola to present his documentary Monica in the South Seas. This puzzle-like documentary follows van Ingen's great-aunt Monica Flaherty's journey to Samoa, where Flaherty tries to recreate the sound landscape for her parents' silent film Moana (1926).
You can see all the screenings with filmmaker guests by clicking here.
