Suodji
Helander Marja
Shelter (Suodji) is an adaptation of an old story from Utsjoki, Sápmi, to the present. It is a legend of the director’s relative, Ovllá-Ivvár Helander, and about what he did during the Spanish flu epidemic in 1918 in Utsjoki. Ovllá-Ivvár decided to fool Death and take his fate into his own hands. Today we are facing a similar threat in the form of coronavirus Covid-19 pandemic. The protagonist of the film is walking in Ovllá-Ivvár’s footsteps. But at the end, who is really who?
Production Year
2020
Duration
00:04:25
Tyyppi
Asiasana
COVID-19, death, documentarism, documentary films, experimental films, fiction, gender, graves, Helsinki, indigenous people, legends, media art, pandemics, Sami culture, sami language, Sami native region, Samis, Spanish flu, stories, threats, Utsjoki, video art, viruses
Original Title
Suodji
Production Countries
Finland,Norway
Dialogue
Yes
Sound
Yes
Cast
Marja Helander (Author), Mauri Lähdesmäki (Cinematographer), Uyarakq (Composer), Marja Helander (Director), Mauri Lähdesmäki (Editor), Marja Helander / Studio Marja Helander (Producer), Marja Helander (Script), Mauri Lähdesmäki (Script), Pekka Aikio (Sound Design), Marja Helander (Actor), Aslak Paltto (Actor), Pia Andell (Actor), Esa Illi (Actor), Niiles-Ánde Harlin (Actor), International Sami Film Institute ISFI (Funder), Studio Marja Helander (Funder)
Press Photos
Marja Helander
Born: 1965
Marja Helander (b.1965) is a Finnish photographic and video artist. She graduated from the University of Art and Design in Helsinki in 1999. Her earlier work explored her own identity between the Finnish and the Sámi culture. Helander’s recent photographic work has focused on Northern landscape. The accent of the work is on the postcolonial topics in the Sámi area, focusing particularly on the global mining industry. The encounter between nature and mankind is not harmonious, but destructive. On the other hand, her video works are playful, exploring the contradiction between the traditional Sámi way of life and the modern society. Her recent short film Birds in the Earth won the Risto Jarva Prize and the main prize of the National Competition at Tampere Film Festival 2018. Marja Helander has participated in solo and group exhibitions and her works have been acquired for various public collections in Finland and abroad.
6 works