Happier times, Grump

Happier times, Grump is a very funny and very warm film on a very serious topic.

The Grump wants to die, because all the work is done; the meaning of life is gone. But just as his own coffin is being finished, a new life appears to the Grump. His grandchild Sofia, 17, is in trouble and needs the stubborness and wisdom of her grandfather and the warmth of the fireplace. The Grump gets a new meaning to his life – and a major secret. A stubborn old man and an young city girl get together and two halves grow up to be more than one whole human being.

ACTORS
Heikki Kinnunen
Sulevi Peltola
Satu Tuuli Karhu
Iikka Forss
Mari Perankoski
Jani Volanen
Elina Knihtilä
Janne Reinikainen
Kaisa Hela
Sari Siikander

DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT

The film includes two of the decicive elements of life: the birth and the death. Through this juxtaposition, we get to see an old man who has chosen death, and follow his journey towards the new beginning and the feeling of being useful again. He has to weigh the familiar in his mind, his established ways of life and facing the others; despite his stubborn attitudes, to be able to change – at least a little.
To me, this story makes a heartfelt comedy, with a touch of pain of giving up. The humor springs from the meeting of two worlds – the predestined, stagnated and stale era of the 60’s and 70’s when Finland was ruled by the ever-present president Kekkonen and when it was easy to define right and wrong – and the ambivalent, restless and directionless modern days.
To the actors, this story offers a great possibility to build characters with a large scale of emotions, to be precise and comical, but most of all, to be true and believeable. All the main characters have to see themselves through the eyes of the others; what reactions have my actions caused in my close relatives? How am I just like the person I hate and fear the most? These moments of contradiction give us a fantastic opportunity to look at humans when they’re bare and vulnerable.
This movie will be beautiful – and funny. It will touch you, make you laugh, make you to evaluate your own choices. To make you think about your relationship with your children and your parents, with your intolerable relatives. To face your own attitudes. I think our time needs this movie.

Tiina Lymi, director