A Moment in the Reeds

A Moment in the Reeds is a 2017 Finnish romantic drama film written and directed by Mikko Mäkelä in his feature directorial debut. It stars Janne Puustinen and Boodi Kabbani. The film had its world premiere at the 2017 BFI London Film Festival as part of the Love strand. Unusually for a Finnish film, most of the dialog is in English as it is the only language shared by the two leading characters.

A Moment in the Reeds
Directed byMikko Mäkelä
Produced byMikko Mäkelä
James Watson
Jarno Pimperi
Written byMikko Mäkelä
StarringJanne Puustinen
Boodi Kabbani
Mika Melender
CinematographyIikka Salminen
Edited byMikko Mäkelä
Production
company
Wild Beast Productions
Release date
  • October 6, 2017 (2017-10-06) (London Film Festival)
Running time
107 minutes
CountryFinland/UK
LanguageEnglish/Finnish

Plot

Leevi returns to Finland from his university studies in Paris to spend the summer helping his father Jouko renovate the family lakehouse for sale. Leevi is estranged from his conservative father, his only living relative, and hopes to avoid mandatory military service by obtaining French citizenship. Tareq, an architect by profession who has come to Finland from war-torn Syria seeking asylum, has been hired to help with the work.

When Leevi's father returns to town on business, the two young men, speaking English, their only common language, establish a connection. They spend a few days discovering one another during an idyllic Finnish midsummer.[1][2]

Cast
  • Janne Puustinen as Leevi
  • Boodi Kabbani as Tareq
  • Mika Melender as Jouko
  • Virpi Rautsiala as Pirjo

Production

Mikko Mäkelä, a Finn from Lappeenranta, South Karelia, who has lived in the England for ten years wrote the screenplay and directed the film. He explained the absence of a feature-length Finnish film addressing gay relationships saying "Non-commercial documentaries are alive and well in Finland, but full-length fiction cinema is always made with the returns in mind. Production companies don't take risks in countries this small." As a result, most of the film's budget came from private financing with a very small portion coming from crowd funding Indiegogo.[3] Filming took place in August 2016.[4]

On his decision to choose gay actors for the lead roles, director Mäkelä wrote: "Casting gay actors for gay roles was the only option that made sense for me"."[5]

The film had its world premiere in the Love strand of the BFI London Film Festival on 6 October 2017.[1][6] It has since gone on to screen at festivals around the world including Goteborg International Film Festival, Seattle International Film Festival and Frameline in San Francisco.

Reception

A reviewer in Film Inquiry called A Moment in the Reeds "the biggest surprise of the London Film Festival". He noted the plot's superficial resemblance to that of God’s Own Country, which was in production at the same time, but found the Finnish film "far more subtle" and, like its British counterpart, "one of the most moving gay romance stories of recent years".[7] In Sweden's MovieZine, Alexander Dunerfors said the filmmakers turned their low budget to advantage by using just a few actors in an isolated setting and noted that "Most of the dialogue has been improvised by the actors themselves, giving a strong authentic touch–even in broken English."[8] A German reviewer called it "a film pearl that shines with truthfulness and authenticity". He described the principal characters' relationship to Finland, one alienated and the other finding refuge: "Homeland is a strange world for both of them."[9]

Variety magazine's Dennis Harvey wrote favourably of the film. "There's an admirable quiet intensity to A Moment in the Reeds, a first feature by London-based Mikko Mäkelä set in his native Finland. Superficially similar to God's Own Country, this bittersweet tale of attraction between a prodigal son and a refugee worker is both a more straightforward romance for much of its runtime and a sadder one in the end."

gollark: Computing power?
gollark: You can also say "apiohazard".
gollark: It means "bee" in the SCM Foundation.
gollark: Also "cuteness".
gollark: Oh, and "ability to murder people and get away with it".

References
  1. Raffin, Nicolas (10 October 2017). "A Moment in the Reeds: A shared youth". Cinema Europa. Retrieved 22 March 2018.
  2. "A Moment in the Reeds". Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Retrieved 24 March 2018.
  3. "A Moment in the Reeds – Tämä hetki kaislikossa". Indiegogo. Retrieved 31 March 2018.
  4. "First Finnish feature film with gay theme set for 2017". Yle. 13 July 2016. Retrieved 22 March 2018.
  5. @mikkodefinlande (7 December 2017). "Casting gay actors for gay roles was the only option that made sense for me on A Moment in the Reeds (@reedsfilm)" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  6. Vestrheim, Emma (9 September 2017). "The Nordic films screening at the BFI London Film Festival 2017". Cinema Scandinavia. Retrieved 21 March 2018.
  7. Ryder, Alastair (11 October 2017). "BFI London Film Festival: Week 3 – Awards Contenders & Hidden Gems". Film Inquiry. Retrieved 24 March 2018.
  8. Dunerfors, Alexander (2 November 2017). "Het sommarflört i finska naturen" (in Northern Sami). MovieZine.se. Retrieved 25 March 2018.
  9. Kistenmacher, Holger (4 November 2017). ""Ein Augenblick im Schilf" – Finnland entdeckt seine queeren Filme". Unser Lübeck (in German). Retrieved 2 April 2018.
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