“Artistic freedom is everything for a film-maker. Maybe it’s easier to ask for it once you have proved yourself to be trustworthy”, wonders film director Juho Kuosmanen.

His movie The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Mäki won the prize of Un Certain Regard at the Cannes Film Festival, and great success has been predicted for the movie and its director.

The overall effect of the publicity the movie has got thanks to Cannes will only become clear later, but Kuosmanen says that at least the partners in the movie have liked the attention. According to Kuosmanen, The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Mäki seems to be selling well overseas, and the director is also happy if other Finnish film-makers receive attention thanks to the film.

“When one film-maker from a country is noticed, it usually means that people start looking at the whole country.”

An exceptional man, an exceptional movie

The idea for The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Mäki came in 2011. Kuosmanen tried to write a couple of scripts, but they just did not seem to progress. Taulukauppiaat (The Painting Sellers), the movie Kuosmanen directed as his graduate work, had won best student movie award at Cannes earlier.  This meant that Kuosmanen’s first full-length feature film would also be shown at the festival, putting even more pressure on the work. The Kuosmanen came across the story of boxer Olli Mäki.

“I thought that through it I could address the same feelings, i.e. pressure and success, and what it means to different people.”

The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Mäki depicts Mäki’s preparations for his upcoming world title fight. At the same, he realises that he has fallen in love.

Kuosmanen was interested in how before the fight Mäki was built up to be a national hero, even though the boxer himself was expecting something less than heroic.

“Olli Mäki was a good boxer, but his kind nature was in conflict with the harshness of the sport.” As he was an exceptional boxer, it was necessary to make an exceptional boxing movie.

Recreation from silent movies

Now Kuosmanen is working on two scripts, and over the winter he is shooting a silent movie for the Loud Silents festival. In store is a new version of Finland’s oldest film, Salaviinanpolttajat from 1907.

Kuosmanen has previous experience of making silent movies; in 2012 he made the movie Romu-Mattila ja Kaunis Nainen. It is being shown again in Paris, at the film archive in conjunction with the premiere of  The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Mäki.

“The periods between films are long, as are the processes, especially when you want to be involved in everything. For this reason it is good to have some shorter projects in between, so that there is still that feeling of doing things together and a bit of playfulness. Silent movies are refreshing projects and they also bring with them ideas.”

The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Mäki is in theatres from 2 September 2016.

– The best way to reach Chinese tourists is to use their own social media channels, explains researcher Yu Guopeng.

Between 50,000 and 60,000 Chinese tourists visit Finland every year, and the Chinese are the biggest spenders in their travel destinations. The Chinese often pick their destinations on social media.

– For this reason, Finnish tourist companies, too, should learn how Chinese tourists use social media, says Yu.

– Social media in China is very different from Western social media because it is under strict state control. Nevertheless, Chinese tourists use it more or less in the same way as Westerners.

Facebook and Twitter, which are familiar to Finns, are banned in China, but the Chinese have their own channels, some of which are even more influential than their Western counterparts. The most popular of them is WeChat, which resembles Facebook.

– The Chinese know little about the sites used in the West, and for this reason publishing information on them is futile even if the content is excellent. For example, YouTube videos are useless because the whole channel is banned in China.

Translating company websites or Facebook updates into Chinese is therefore not practicable, and tourist companies should have a presence in the services used in China. Links to other sites rarely function, which means that they, too, are of little use.

It would better to encourage Chinese tourists to talk about Finnish destinations in their own channels than to produce updates in Chinese.

– Chinese tourists trust stories appearing on WeChat, and information spread by word of mouth is very important to them. Communication in WeChat is mainly between friends and family members, and their recommendations are trusted.

According to Yu Guopeng, tourists should be encouraged to share their experiences and those who post updates should be rewarded.

– Many people are lazy when travelling and do not post any updates afterwards even if they liked the place, while others are too shy to share their stories.

Rewards also encourage people to say more and in a more interesting manner. The rewards could be in the form of gift vouchers.

People could also be offered suggestions for updates, or they could be urged to pick the things that interested them most in the destination. The important thing is to have tempting updates.

– I have noticed in my research that the credibility of previous updates and service ratings used to be important. Creating interest is now the top issue, and the updates must also be appealing, explains Yu Guopeng.

– When consumers get interested, they ask further questions about prices, locations and so on.

Photos by Harri Tahvanainen

The saying “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure” is literally true in the work of Wiebke Pandikow. Pandikow turns recycled plastic bags into jewellery.

– I’ve always hated plastic. It’s horrible, it’s everywhere and it clogs up nature. Now I love plastic because it can be turned into any shape, she explains.

Pandikow’s methods are as ordinary as her material: She creates art using a clothes iron.  When shaping leaves, she also uses a soldering iron. When worked with hot tools, plastic slowly changes shape, and everyday items turn into something totally new. Depending on the temperature, it may start resembling a sensitive, translucent plant or an old bone.

Plastic is durable. Even thin, lightweight pieces are sturdy and can be treated casually. Different kinds of bags turn into slightly different pieces.

In recent years, Pandikow has been fascinated by the thin bags used for fruit. They can be made into a translucent material that reminds Pandikow of fungi.

– As our oceans are oversaturated with plastic, maybe animals will learn how to use it.

An American collector was the first customer for Pandikow’s plastic jewellery. Some of the pieces are works of art, while others come in handy as durable household items.  People are often puzzled by the unusual material.

– Many people see the pieces and ask themselves what an earth they are, says Pandikow with a laugh. A common guess is that they have been produced with a 3D printer. However, they are made entirely by hand. Making one piece can take up to 40 hours, and mastering new shapes requires a lot of practice. Pandikow has had her fair share of burns. However, as she says, a goldsmith is used to handling hot materials.

Raincoats made from plastic bags served as the inspiration for Pandikow’s “plastic bag jewellery”. About two years ago, she started trying out different uses for the bags and noticed that they can turn into lots of shapes. In her jewellery, Pandikow combines plastic with such materials as bones and pieces of wood. She once found inspiration in an old medallion that had belonged to her mother, which became part of a piece.

– I’m really happy that I could use the medallion for its original purpose. It keeps the memories alive, says Pandikow. Her other materials are also recycled items. Even though Pandikow gets through lots of plastic bags, she emphasises that she only uses bags that would be discarded anyway.

Pandikow is inspired by nature, and she often finds material for her art when strolling along the beach.

– I come from a village of 20 people, so it’s no wonder that I use natural motifs, says Pandikow, who moved to Finland from Germany nine years ago.

She is inspired by nature, and her choice of material also encourages her to use natural motifs: Plastic is made by humans and symbolises the human impact on nature.

– It’s really sad if our actions lead to our environment becoming uglier and less diverse. It’s bad for us and for our children, but it’s not so bad for nature itself. Nature can put up with all this, but we can’t.

Pandikow’s web page
Facebook-page

Photos and video: Harri Tahvanainen
Photo of Past: Wiebke Pandikow

Kokko specialises in theoretical ecology and evolutionary biology.  She took her matriculation examination in the German School in Helsinki in 1990 and graduated as a Master of Science (tech.) from the Helsinki University of Technology. She continued her studies at the University of Helsinki, writing her doctoral dissertation on the evolution of sexual choice and courtship in 1997.

Hanna Kokko is truly cosmopolitan scientist. She has worked as a post doc researcher at the University of Cambridge and at the University of Glasgow and as senior assistant at the University of Jyväskylä. In 2004 she was appointed professor of animal ecology at the University of Helsinki.  Then she was appointed as an Australian Laureate Fellow, considered to be the country’s most distinguished scientific post.  Now she has returned to Europe, taking up the post of a professor in evolutionary biology at the University of Zurich.

Kokko has published more than 200 scientific articles, books and works that are also intended for the public at large. The book Kutistuva turska (Shrinking cod), written by Hanna Kokko and Katja Bargum in a lucid and informative style, received the State Award for Public Information in 2009.  The articles and publications of Kokko are frequently cited and she often appears as a speaker at events around the world. This is because she is able to present complex mathematical formulas in a manner that all audiences can understand.

Hanna Kokko studies the interactive relationships between individuals and groups. She is particularly interested in situations in which the good of the individual is in conflict with the good of the population, species or a community. In economics, this is called the tragedy of the commons, but it also affects nearly all interactive biological relationships at cellular level and in communities alike. In recent years, Hanna Kokko has studied phenomena such as cancer from this perspective. Hanna Kokko emphasises that we can only save our planet by preserving the diversity of species and by ensuring the existence of differences in nature.