“Euthanizer” director Teemu Nikki will walk down “Memory Lane” next, making his English-language debut.
In the film, a thirtysomething actress is hired by a company called Memory Lane. But she has to keep things secret, even though business is booming. They are replacing bad memories with good ones.
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“The thing is, you have to shoot it first in a studio, like a TV show, with real-life actors reenacting the scenes. You are not supposed to meet the clients, but she does – on a blind date,” reveals Nikki.
“Unaware, he tells her: ‘I am sure it will work out. You look exactly like my mother.’”
“We have been working on this concept for some time now. At one point, it was called ‘The Way Too Expensive Teemu Nikki Feature,’” jokes producer Jani Pösö of It’s Alive Films. “Memory Lane” is a working title.
Italy’s I Wonder Pictures – It’s Alive Films’ regular collaborator – is also on board.
“It’s a long-term, stable relationship. It will be our third film together and we are developing a fourth. Italy is now our second home market. We share a similar mentality and there are parallels between Northern Italy and Finland. We tend to agree on what’s funny and what’s not.”
The film will be set in the 1980s, in a big European city.
“I like the fact that we have all different ideas about how the 1980s really looked like, and so many of them come from films. We are going to use a lot of music from that time, so it will be nostalgic,” adds Nikki, readying for his biggest production yet.
Pösö notes: “It will be a challenge, but we always test new ways of making films. Otherwise, you would be stuck in the same fucking concept, get bored and start selling fish at a market.”
Meanwhile, the team – which also delivered “The Blind Man Who Did Not Want to See Titanic,” awarded in Venice – won’t be getting bored any time soon, developing Nikki’s feature “Defense Forces,” set in the Finnish military, and Naima Mohamud’s “Halima.”
They will also premiere their latest comedy “100 Litres of Gold” at Rome Film Festival and Estonia’s POFF. In September, it was selected for Toronto’s Industry Selects section.
In “100 Litres of Gold,” it’s all about traditional homebrewed Finnish beer sahti. Two sisters, Taina and Pirkko, are famous for it. When their third sister gets married, she asks for 100 litres of their famous beverage. They succeed – it’s good, so good they just have to taste it. When they finally wake up with a massive hangover, the worst is yet to come: they have exactly 24 hours to replace it.
“Is it broader than our previous films? Sometimes, but not always. It’s still darker than your usual Finnish comedies,” says Nikki, while Pösö adds: “It’s funny as hell but the core subject is actually pretty dark.”
Set in Sysmä in Finland, the film allowed Nikki to finally return to his non-Helsinki roots.
“I am from there. I haven’t lived in Sysmä for 30 years, but I always tell wild stories about this place.”
He just needed to find his leads first.
“I always thought they were going to be men. Then I saw a play with Elina Knihtila and Pirjo Lonka, and realized these were my main characters. You don’t fuck with these ladies. They demand respect and they are tough, although they carry this darkness with them. They’re always cool – even though they look like they have one hell of a hangover throughout the whole film,” he laughs.
“There have been many of these ‘country films’ in Finland and they are not exactly my favorite, but I wanted to make my own version of it.”
To his surprise, the story – which will also boast its very own showdown – started to sound a lot like a western.
“It’s a western about sahti, our version of gold that everybody’s after. Because we have been making it with I Wonder, we ended up working with composer Marco Biscarini, who was a student of Ennio Morricone. It was a perfect way to take this Finnish country comedy to the next level.”
The sisters take their product very seriously. Which is why sahti will also make a cameo at the international premieres.
“We will introduce this drink to the entire world. They are making it at the embassies right now,” says Pösö.
“Not yet! But we will send them frozen bags of sahti. We are not putting any yeast in it yet – we will fly it to Rome and then make it in the embassy of Finland. I was late today because I was buying a suitcase for our sahti. We have 20 litres of it now. Then we will do the same thing in Tallinn.”
Get ready for the sahti party.
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