National Shorts Competition 1: The Verge of New

The screening’s films All the Light That Remains, Feeling Defensive (Part 1), Human Machine, Good Night Monster and Spirits challenge the conventional forms of documentary filmmaking.

ALL THE LIGHT THAT REMAINS

dir. Moona Pennanen, Finland, 2025, 25 min

The short documentary All the Remaining Light, directed by Moona Pennanen, is a layered film that follows Oleksandr, who fled the war in Ukraine, to North Karelia. Oleksandr arrives in Mätäsvaara to plant trees and, at the same time, to witness the village’s history. An old mine is brought back to life, and through it, the connection between history and the present is reflected in both people and places.

Heta Heikkala

FEELING DEFENSIVE (PART 1)

dir. Pilvi Takala, Finland, 2025, 16 min 

Pilvi Takala is a visual artist specialising in social structures. Her previous projects include investigating Disneyland and the private security sector by infiltrating workplaces. This time, she explores an institution of the cream of Finnish society, National Defence Courses. Takala and political scientist Johanna Vuorelma talk about being cast in the role of critic while attending the course, and manage to crack the code.

Laura Manninen (translated by Adrian Murtomäki)

HUMAN MACHINE

dir. Heidi Tirri, Finland, 2025, 12 min

Heidi Tirri’s experimental short film focuses on the death of a loved one and the emptiness that follows, which feels like being shot into outer space. This experience of alienation is reflected through a melancholy series of images, where x-rays combine with Space Invaders, Soviet nuclear tests and the blackness of space. The film is dedicated to the memory of the director’s parents.

Joonatan Nikkinen (translated by Adrian Murtomäki)

GOOD NIGHT MONSTER

dir. Emilia Hernesniemi, Finland, 2025, 18 min 

Vilma, 22, is preparing for the Theatre Academy entrance exams, just as she did last spring. The snow falling from the sky feels like a reminder of that limbo created by the immediate proximity of a great dream and its simultaneous unattainability. In this limbo, she is accompanied by a monster that appears at night, sits with her over a beer, and looks back at her from the mirror. Yet time and again, Vilma steps onto the stage and transforms the frightening into a tangible, living Monster.

Heta Heikkala

SPIRITS

dir. Marja Viitahuhta, Ánnámáret, Turkka Inkilä & Ilkka Heinonen, Finland, 2025, 5 min

According to Nils-Aslak Valkeapää, the Northern Sámi joik – luohti – doesn’t have a beginning or an end. It is a continuation of the language that can express something about its subject beyond words. Annámáret’s luohti is dedicated to ancestors; to the deceased Sámi people who were exhumed from their graves in the 19th and 20th centuries due to the rise of scientific racism. The accompaniment is provided by Ilkka Heinonen’s jouhikko, bowed lyre, Turkka Inkilä’s machines and Louis Bevalet’s drawings of auroras.

Minna Saarinen (translated by Iida-Maija Pirttiniemi) 

Filmmakers will attend the screening on 5 Feb.