International Film Festival Rotterdam will be held from January 25 – February 5 2023 as an on-site edition. Several films by AV-arkki’s artists were selected for different strands of the festival.
Matti Harju’s Natura (2023) was selected for the Bright Future competition, showcasing feature-length debuts, characterised by original subject matter and an individual style, representing the cutting edge of contemporary filmmaking. Natura is a contemporary post-COVID rumination on the deception of envy and the isolation of our interconnected world. Nihilistically boasting about the abandonment of ideology, two ostracised Finnish men find each other online. Recreating themselves as active protagonists, they take charge of their lives and their fortunes by planning to break into a crypto-millionaire’s remote home.
- Saturday, January 28, 12:30 Cinerama 2 For professionals
- Sunday, January 29, 17:30 Pathé 4
- Monday, January 30, 21:30 Cinerama 2
- Friday, February 3, 12:15 de Doelen Jurriaanse Zaal
Sami van Ingen’s and Mika Taanila’s feature-length documentary film Monica in the South Seas (2023) will have its world premiere in Cinema Regained selection. It will also be screened at Göteborg Film Festival and DocPoint – Helsinki International Documentary Film Festival. Monica in the South Seas is an elegant, ironic and melancholic essay on the vexing and perplexing nature of authenticity. Crafted from film and video recordings Monica Flaherty sourced for her work on a sound version of her father Robert’s 1926 docu-fiction film Moana.
- Saturday, January 28, 18:45, LantarenVenster 5
- Sunday, January 29, 12:30 LantarenVenster 4
- Thursday, February 2, 21:45 Cinerama 7
Hanna Hovitie’s Square the Circle (2023) was selected for the Ammodo Tiger Short Competition. Square the Circle is a self-searching comedy about infinity, space and procrastination, innovatively framed as a circle.
- Friday, January 27, 20:00 Pathé 3
- Saturday, January 28, 12:30 Pathé 2
- Wednesday, February 1, 16:15 KINO 4
- Saturday, February 4, 10:00 KINO 1
Jussi Eerola’s Grasshopper (2023) will be screened in tandem with Winnie Cheung’s feature-length film Residency (2023) in two screenings. Grasshopper enchants empty urban spaces via a mysterious machine.
- Monday, January 30, 15:15 Cinerama 3
- Friday, February 3, 13:15 Pathé 3
This year, AV-arkki will present Mervi Kytösalmi-Buhl’s (previously Mervi Deylitz-Kytösalmi) Sinisukka 1948 (1984, in featured image) in the DINAMO screening DINAMO: Blues, on Friday, January 27, 18:45 in KINO 4 . Mervi Kytösalmi-Buhl is one of the pioneers of Finnish video art. Sinisukka 1948 is an unusual dance choreography that goes beyond full human bodies and into a micro-universe of fragmented parts, prostheses and relational aesthetics.
Tytti Rantanen, the programme coordinator of AV-arkki will attend the festival and the annual meeting of the DINAMO network.
International Film Festival Rotterdam, January 25 – February 5 2023, The Netherlands
More information: IFFR
AV-arkki has promoted and distributed Finnish media art since 1989. AV-arkki’s promotional efforts have made the artists’ participation in this event possible.