Village People

Waiting for Kekkonen is driving the village crazy. "Berry bunches start to grow, animals bow down, the sick are cured, the poor get a gold coin and women are fertilised. All dreams intersect where Kekkonen visits." The drama film is based on the story Alli's Bar in Pia Pesonen's novel Urho Kekkonen Strasse.

Synopsis

The news arrives in the form of a telegram, shaking up the whole village life of the early seventies in Lapland. Its message is short and to the point: President Urho Kaleva Kekkonen stops by Alli's Bar on his way to northern Lapland.

Alli is under immense pressure: the bar needs to be made clean, the local meat processing plant needs to handle non-perishable food for once and Alli needs to lose weight, quickly. And above all, like a mighty woman, Alli has to keep the hysterically ecstatic Kekkonen-obsessed villagers in line and in order. This is not an easy task, as her opponents include Maija Kellinsalmi, the neurotic wife of the municipal deputy engineer, whose role models are Tabe Slioor and flight attendants. The year before, Maija had organized a disastrous Independence Day party. Now she has the second chance and in a flash she is already planning a rival Kekkonen party.

The closer the visit of a blindly worshipped president who runs the country like a dictator, the more intense village life becomes, and the more wild but very human traits emerge: jealousy, competitiveness, cranking, deadly plots, big egos and drama.

No one is spared the brutal grip – even the long-lived mascot reindeer in the village will notice!

Among other things, they are waiting for Kekkonen to visit

The whole village goes crazy when the news of Kekkonen's arrival spreads. Here are some of the main characters in the film. Character sketches by Elias Koskimies.

Sylvi
Life is great – unless you're 15 years old, live far away in Lapland, your mother is a loud bar owner, you have to learn to play the Finlandia hymn on the violin in a week and Kekkonen ruins your budding romance. Where can you complain?!

Alli
Alli has a big laugh and a big attitude, just like the village barkeeper should! Both desirous and unconcerned about the respect of the villagers, Alli is Sylvi's mother, the village artist's girlfriend and, in her own words, "the only woman in the village who will soon be waving the provincial flag handed to her by Kekkonen!"

Maija Kellinsalmi
Maija is a woman who wants to live dangerously and freely – like a stewardess. While waiting for this change, she plots suicide, organizes small-scale cocktail parties, shivers for the earthy Alli and struggles with a number of demanding illnesses... dreaming of the father of the earth, who will eventually come and take her far away, somewhere other than the Peuranperä recreation area.

Martti Kellinsalmi
Cursed was the day when Martti Kellinsalmi, Deputy Municipal Engineer, came up with the idea of the Christmas Land project! He became, in his own words, "the most lubricated man in northern Calot", a small-minded visionary with his miniature models! Martti has strong opinions, whether it's about finishing off the Christmas Land miniature model or about wife Maija's cocktail party for the President.

Liisa
Liisa is the village's nurse. Everyone knows this. But not much else is known about this mysterious figure who rides a stitching bicycle, smokes a pipe and collects wartime explosives. "She's got a kind of cramped feeling about her!", they say of Liisa. "She's like a war Lotta from hell!" they laugh. "I wonder if she's organizing some kind of an assassination attempt?", they whisper.

Olavi and Anneli
Anneli is a rational person. Olavi is a talented sonnet reader. It's just a tough world. A couple living in a crumbling tent decide to lower the artistic bar, just for the sake of Kekkonen.

Kaarin-Anne
The village idiot Kaarin-Anne is always sitting off to the side somewhere, wearing her four-wind hat, ready with her endless lists that no one wants to listen to but always contain a grain of truth.

Fanni
Trapped in her home, Fanni knows the twists and turns of world politics as well as the latest cracks on the village street! Thank God she's overweight and sickly, imprisoned in her home in a remote village, and only Liisa has to listen to Fanni's endless stream of consciousness, which won't stop even when smothered with a pillow.

Jussi Alaluusua
Jussi kissing Sylvi has a problem. He's been lying all around in villages about being a "well-equipped", illegitimate child of Kekkonen. The lie is short-lived – his FATHER is coming to town, which means Jussi Alaluusua will soon be history: "Kekkonen tortures people for even the smallest transgressions!"

Sinikka
Sinikka has been "on the path of sin" but now she is repenting! But Sinikka, who proclaims her faith pregnant, is as human as the next person – how can she resist the temptation of meat when Kekkonen comes to visit?

Valo & Kaarina
The namesake reindeer of the village. But even that title won't save you when the father of the country is coming to visit.

Director's statement
Village People is a comedy about the yearning for change and Finnish madness.

The story is set in a small Finnish village in the far north. It is the early 1970s and we hear that the President of the Republic of Finland, Urho Kaleva Kekkonen, is coming to the village for a short visit. To this very village, right now!

This is not a great man's film about President Kekkonen, but a story of the excitement, terror and joy of waiting. What might a visit by the country's leader mean for the inhabitants of a small village exhausted by everyday life? It's time for a change! Kekkonen's arrival arouses a wide range of passions; for some, Kekkonen is a saviour, a physical and wonderful man of the forest and fishing, for others a great connoisseur of Finnish art, for others a lost father figure.

Kekkonen comes and sweeps the grey of everyday life from the village, the winds of change are blowing across the fells and everyone wants a share of this change. In style, Village People is an oblique comedy, Finnish madness is handled laconically but with warmth. As a people, we have a built-in respect for those in power, but everyone has a little spirit of rebellion. What is human and common is also an unfocused longing, the idea of a better tomorrow and a deep belief in the possibility of change.

As a director, the fierce energy of the story of Village People and the crazy humanity of the characters seemed like a good starting point to build on.

There are many fine female characters in the story, each on the edge of a slightly different "gorge". The women are strong and determined, pursuing the outcome they want with courage and determination. When women's paths cross, so do their dreams – even in absurd ways. Emotions run high as Kekkonen's caravan approaches.

Marja Pyykkö
director

ROLES INCLUDE:
Sylvi – WILMA ROSENQVIST
Alli – MERJA LARIVAARA
Maija Kellinsalmi – MARJAANA MAIJALA
Martti Kellinsalmi – KONSTA MÄKELÄ
Liisa – MIINA TURUNEN
Fanni – MARJA MYLLYLÄ
Jussi – ILMARI JÄRVENPÄÄ
Pharmacist – TOMI SALMELA
Antero – TEIJO ELORANTA
Olavi – AAKE KALLIALA
Anneli – JUKKA PUOTILA
Kaarin-Anne – KRISTIINA ELSTELÄ
Mrs. – JAANA SAARINEN
Believer Sinikka – IINA KUUSTONEN
Veteran brother – JUHA HURME