100 LITRAA SAHTIA

More than just a rural comedy, Teemu Nikki's 100 Litres of Gold is also a melancholic meditation on ageing, family guilt, and the customs of rural Finland. In the film, shot in his home village of Sysmä, Nikki impressively combines the melancholy of unresolved conflicts with Finland's laconic humour.

The film centres on the two sisters Pirkko and Taina, who promise 100 litres of their famous Sahti – an aromatic Finnish beer rich in tradition – for their sister Päivi's wedding. Yet the Sahti is simply too good, and so they drink it themselves; and what could have been a road movie featuring tractors instead of sports cars is transformed into something much bigger. Nikki's style is at once deeply local and accessible: Western visual imagery meets Nordic fields and tranquil lakes, low-angle camera perspectives, endless country roads – and even cowboy hats. Whilst the sisters still carry the mental burden of an accident that once tore their family apart, a tension between the competing yearnings of nostalgia and new beginnings evolves.

Elina Knihtilä and Pirjo Lonka personify the two sisters with a disarming candour: much more than mere figures of fun, they allow pain and humour, mishaps and tenacity to shine through in equal measure. Under Nikki's direction, their contradictions develop a truth of their own.

Text: Simran Kashyap

Tue 04.11. I 17:00 I KAMMERBÜHNE I original version with English subtitles + simultaneous German translation

Fri 07.11. I 20:30 I GLAD-HOUSE I original version with English subtitles + simultaneous German translation