Risto-Pekka Blom’s Please Leave a Message After the Tone (2021, in featured image), Azar Saiyar’s Laila’s Apple (2021), and Mika Taanila’s Failed Emptiness. Time (2021) were selected for the experimental “In Silico” competition at International Film Festival Message to Man, held from October 29 – November 4 2021 on-site and online. The “In Silico” selection will be streamed online due to the severe pandemic situation in Russia.

Calls go to the voice mail. Lonely cars and street lights roam the highway by night. People at the street view are connected by threads. The patient leads a perfect life. Risto-Pekka Blom’s Please leave a message after the tone is a story about disconnection, about the struggle with real life encounters and about living outside of your own life.

Composed of archive footage and interviews, Azar Saiyar’s Laila’s Apple is a video work about childhood, growing up, learning and rules.

Mika Taanila’s Failed Emptiness. Time is a collaboration with poet Harry Salmenniemi and composer Éliane Radique. Suddenly there is an enormous amount of time. At first everything is possible. Anything might happen. Gradually the possible becomes impossible.

International Film Festival Message to Man, October 29 – November 4 2021, St. Petersburg, Russia & online

More information: IFF Message to Man