Juho Kuosmanen often smiles. Perhaps because he immediately won, with the film shot for his high school diploma, The Painting Sellers. He won five Finnish film Academy Awards, and the selection of the Cannes Cinefondation, which chooses him and never leaves him. Finnish born in ’79, the screenwriter and director (also of plays), married with two children, immediately wins in the Un certain Regard section with “The true story of Holli Maki”. And last July it even touched the Palme d’Or when its Compartment n. 6 – Traveling with destiny (Hytti nrs 6 the original title) competes in Cannes.
The film wins the Special Jury Prize, the second award of the Festival in order of importance, and is now released in our cinemas on December 2, while representing Finland at the 2022 Oscars as best foreign film. Slim, lively eyes and round glasses, Kuosmanen amused retraces the characters of the film based on the novel by Rosa Liksom. «Laura is a shy and taciturn girl who doesn’t like her image. His woman is intellectual, cool and fun, and she doesn’t feel up to par. So he ventures to visit mysterious places, archaeological sites towards the Arctic pole, without her, “he says. On the long train ride from Moscow to Murmansk, he will meet a very angry and vodka-loving Russian miner. An encounter that will change the lives of both of you, thanks to a human encounter so coveted by both.
Why this story and why now?
“I read the book 10 years ago and immediately thought it was perfect for making a film about it. But I had so many doubts, the story was set in the Soviet Union in the Eighties, it seemed impossible to shoot ».
The turning point?
«The meeting with Rosa Liksom at the Film Archive. I talked to her about my ideas and my doubts, she convinced me to use the book as a subject, in a free way, for me it was crucial. I was also producing my previous film, but I started to be operational ».
Did it change the original setting?
“We are in the nineties, and no longer in the USSR but in Russia. The journey that goes to Mongolia in the book also leads to Murmansk in the film. Filming should have been in Moscow, but we shot everything in St. Petersburg before Covid ».