Petteri Saario, Juha Taskinen (Deutschland) - 44 min
Saturday,
13. Nov. 2010 from 08:30 Congress Graz - Blauer Salon
Sergei is growing up in the tiny village Venehjärvi in Russian Karelia, the village itself only consisting of seven souls. Karelia is deemed to be the cradle of the Finnish culture, and still today, the Karelia people live in the middle of untouched forests autonomously – off nature and off their farm produce. For the old boat builder Sulo and his wife Valentina, living there is quite pleasant, however, for a young man this idyllic place also has its dark sides: there are no coeval girls at all in Venehjärvi. He can only watch them in his school village at a distance of 25 km. Sergei has to decide whether he wants to live frugally as his ancestors or become an industry worker in the iron mines of Kostomuksha. For over five years, the filmmaker Petteri Saario has accompanied the boy when fishing and hunting, he immerses into the mystic world of the Karelia people, and also portrays Sulo, the quick-witted boat-builder who is always ready for a ribald joke.
