Skönärit (Seafarers)

Jalmar, a young seafarer—called skönäri in sailor slang—introduces five distant ports to his loved ones back home, as the sea carries him from deserts to icebergs. In Brazil, the deckhand learns about slave ships, and in China, about flightless silkworms. The wonders of the sea are brought to life by an albatross slicing through the heavens and human-sized salamanders lurking in the blue depths. The intimacy of the seafarer life and its sacred rituals are not forgotten either.

Footage collected from the 1960s to the 1990s, together with brass music swaying between enchantment and longing, blend with the letters and logbooks of a 17-year-old deckhand who set sail a hundred years ago. The viewer with Jallu feels how the world stretches and stretches—seemingly without end—until his tragic final moments.

Milja Viita’s work, awarded an honorable mention at the DocPoint festival, flows as fresh and melancholic as the deep blue sea itself.

Saarlotta Halme

Q&A with Milja Viita after the movie.

The film will be screened as a special Baltic Sea Day screening. Proceeds from ticket sales will be donated to the John Nurminen Foundation to support the protection of marine nature.