Mika Taanila’s The World (2017) will have its UK premiere at Flatpack Film Festival, Birmingham. The 11th edition of the festival is held form April 4–9.
The World is included in the programme Aural Aesthetics, screened on Sunday, April 9 in Birmingham Midland Institute.
Premiered in the Nuts & Bolts programme of the International Film Festival Rotterdam, The World revisits The Man Who Fell to Earth (dir. Nicolas Roeg 1976) evacuated and flipped. In abandoned landscapes, animals, furniture and empty vehicles are left awaiting for disaster. ”We must have died alone, a long long time ago.” (D.B.).
Mika Taanila (s. 1965) is a filmmaker and visual artist based in Helsinki, Finland. He works with documentaries, experimental film and visual arts. Human engineering, utopias, failures and man-machines are recurring themes in his films and installations. Taanila’s works have been shown at major international group shows, such as Aichi Triennale (2013), dOCUMENTA (2012), Shanghai Biennale (2006), Berlin Biennale (2004), Manifesta (2002) and Istanbul Biennial (2001). Solo shows include the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma in Helsinki (2013–14), Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis (2013), TENT, Rotterdam (2013) and Galleria Heino, Helsinki (2010). Taanila’s short films have been screened altogether at more than 300 international film festivals and special events. In 2015, Taanila was awarded with the prestigious Ars Fennica Award, the biggest Finnish art award. In the summer 2017, Mika Taanila contributes to the exhibition Mirrored in the Nordic Pavilion of the Venice Biennale.
Flatpack Film Festival, Birmingham, UK, April 4–9
More information: Flatpack FF