
Jussi Eerola’s Blue Honda Civic (2020) was awarded as the Best Film LABO in the experimental competition of Prague Shorts, held as a hybrid festival from June 2–27 2021. The jury states:
“A jury of representatives from the domestic art scene Sára Vondrášková, Michal Cimala a Tomáš Souček chose among the nine entrants the festival’s best experimental film. Best Film LABO award goes to Blue Honda Civic by Jussi Eerola.
‘Blue Honda Civic won us over through its restrained composition and rhythmic arrangement of the simple shots. Minimum means have been used to maximum effect. Viewers were left thinking, ‘I could shoot that, too!’ Familiar approaches and form have been applied in a concentrated manner and worked into an easily understood whole.‘”
Romantic landscape paintings often portrayed weather condition, topography of national landscape, religious themes, spirituality of nature and hunting scenes. Blue Honda Civic is a minimalistic road movie mirroring the emotions of the driver through the landscapes (s)he has chosen to look at.
Finnish filmmaker and cinematographer Jussi Eerola (1969) has worked as director of photography on many international award-winning films from prominent Finnish directors and artists. His directorial debut was in 2009 with Refugees of Technocracy, a documentary about electro-hypersensitive people. Return of the Atom (2015) received the Best Nordic Film prize at CPH:DOX and it was co-directed with Mika Taanila, one of the people with whom Eerola founded Elokuvayhtiö Testifilmi, a Finnish film production company. Blue Honda Civic is his directorial short film debut.
The film was just recently awarded with the third prize in the international competition of Short Waves Festival, held in Poland.
Prague Shorts, June 2–27 2021, Czech Republic & online
More information: Prague Shorts