National Shorts Competition 3: Flashbacks

In this screening, viewers are immersed in the worlds of disappearing communal places, memories and dreams, and of a great entertainer, in the films Simo Was Here, Am I Calling You at a Bad Time?, The Ghost Feel Hour, Smoking Spot, Diving Wombs, Equal Dust and John 9:25.

SIMO WAS HERE

dir. P.V. Lehtinen, Finland, 2026, 3 min

The beloved comedian Simo Salminen began his career as a National Championship level diver in the 1950s. Entertainment was an integral part of his sporting life, and Salminen began performing clown dives in a clown costume to the delight of children. The short film Simo Was Here takes the now elderly Salminen back to the Helsinki Swimming Stadium and illustrates his memories of the good old days. This nostalgic work is dedicated to the memory of Salminen, who passed away in 2015.

Paavo Ihalainen (translated by Moritz Müller)

AM I CALLING YOU AT A BAD TIME?

dir. Martta Tuomaala, Finland, 2024, 15 min 

Filmmaker Martta Tuomaala talks about her past jobs holding a phone: as a telemarketer, in the world of phone sex, doing telephone surveys. The film, composed of archived material and partly acted, is the story of the filmmaker’s younger self’s working life. It reveals a world where bosses were chauvinists, grandmas were sold book bundles by force, and it was forbidden to speak to people who were psychologically unwell.
Salla Nazareko (translated by Nooa Karlo)

THE GHOST FEEL HOUR

dirj. Eero Tammi, Finlandi, 2026, 11 min  

Eero Tammi’s experimental autobiographical work prompts us to imagine what kind of film James Joyce might have made if, instead of writing Finnegans Wake (1939), he had taken up filmmaking. The film’s soundscape creates a mental image of three hundred scratchy film tickets shuffling in the viewer’s hands. Projected against the timeline created by the tickets, we see a nighttime city, theatre floor plans, the sky, a silver screen and an erratic boulder.

Joonas Nykänen (translated by Siiri Kostamovaara)

SMOKING SPOT

dir. Niina Suominen, Finland, 2025, 11 min

When our society strives to become smoke-free, communal smoking areas begin to crowd. The empty smoking spots thrown together on the sides of buildings and the outskirts of yards, parallel the compact restaurant terraces of smokers’ relaxed togetherness. 

This experimental short-film plays with light and color, while a summery soundscape builds a nostalgic atmosphere together with Lau Nau’s serene electronic music. 

Mervi Herranen (translated by Tara Tuchyner)

DIVING WOMBS

dir. Paola Guzmán Figueroa, Finland, 2025, 8 min

The film opens with a family’s home video of a car journey to the beach. Memories are woven into the sea and water, carrying within them family bonds, siblinghood, and change. This intimate work invites the viewer to reflect on memory, belonging, and connections to others. The sea and aquariums portray life flowing through time and space.

Anni Rossi

EQUAL DUST

dir. Jani Peltonen, Finland, 2025, 14 min

In the hauntological short film of Jani Peltonen, a car drives through the city center of Helsinki in 1983. The nightly drive soon becomes a gauge for the scale of destruction, were a NATO-proposed nuclear attack to happen. Around the same time, Finland is attending the Eurovision song contest and loses in a historically epic manner, when Kojo receives a total of zero points. Bomb out!

Otso Pänttönen

JOHN 9:25

dir. Joel Karppanen, Finland, 2025, 5 min

Joel Karppanen’s John 9:25 is an experimental music documentary at its most extreme. The work analyses the passivasing effects of television by combining archival footage in a Godardian mold and animations painted directly on film. The intensive flow of images will shake the viewer’s subconscious awake. This visual onslaught is accompanied by a distorted musical piece recorded by Mika Taanila in his teens – played backwards.

Aatos Ketvel (translated by Herman Tikkanen)

Filmmakers will attend the screening on 5.2.