The 41st Midnight Sun Film Festival, taking place from 10–14 June, will welcome directors Abderrahmane Sissako, Susan Seidelman, Stéphane Brizé, İlker Çatak and Gabe Klinger as its international guest filmmakers. The event will also feature a number of Finnish filmmakers.
Mauritanian–Malian filmmaker Abderrahmane Sissako (b. 1961) is among the most celebrated figures in African cinema. His distinctive style – ambiguous and poetic – has earned him admiration across the wider landscape of contemporary film as well. In Sissako’s work, framing and narrative rhythm often become more important than the plot itself, yet he never shies away from difficult subjects such as colonialism, migration or religion. In two of Sissako’s films – his first feature Life on Earth (1998) and the later Waiting for Happiness (2002) – people return to their home regions in visually striking images. In Sodankylä, we will also see perhaps the director’s most significant films, Bamako (2006) and Timbuktu (2014). In Bamako, a trial is staged in a local courtyard on behalf of the whole of Africa against the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, while in Timbuktu, jihadists take control of the city. The latter three films all premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, with Timbuktu screening in competition.
American filmmaker Susan Seidelman (b. 1952) grew up in Philadelphia, but she is best known as a quintessentially New York director, combining the city’s punk roots and her admiration for the French New Wave into offbeat comedies and exuberant genre hybrids. Seidelman fused cool and comedy already in her debut feature Smithereens (1982), which makes a striking impression with its unapologetic roughness. Her breakthrough film Desperately Seeking Susan (1985) became a pop-cultural phenomenon, a cult classic and a celebrated landmark of feminist cinema. Also delighting audiences at the Midnight Sun Film Festival are Seidelman’s Making Mr. Right (1987) – an AI comedy made long before the age of AI debate – and She-Devil (1989), a revenge tale with an emancipatory edge based on Fay Weldon’s cult novel.
The Midnight Sun Film Festival’s guest line-up is further expanded by French filmmaker Stéphane Brizé (b. 1966), a perceptive director who incisively portrays ordinary people caught in the pressures of social and cultural structures and broader power relations. No fewer than five of his films will be screened. In them, Brizé explores, on the one hand, the ethical dilemmas of working life (The Measure of a Man, 2015) and its all-consuming demands (Another World, 2021), and on the other, the stages of loneliness (Not Here to Be Loved, 2005), the shattering of illusions surrounding happiness (A Woman’s Life, 2016), and the emptiness brought on by crises of life choices (Out of Season, 2023).
German filmmaker İlker Çatak (b. 1984) won the top prize at this year’s Berlin International Film Festival with his political thriller Yellow Letters (2026), which will receive its Finnish premiere in Sodankylä. The widely acclaimed film follows a Turkish husband-and-wife team of theatre-makers who lose their jobs as a result of a politically motivated campaign against them. Also screening in Sodankylä are The Teachers’ Lounge (2023), which garnered unanimous praise from critics and earned an Academy Award nomination, and the earlier I Was I Am I Will Be (2019), which delights with its unconventional love story.
Completing the guest list from South America is Brazilian filmmaker Gabe Klinger (b. 1982), a critic who has written for some of the world’s leading film publications and a university lecturer on cinema, who in 2016 moved behind the camera in impressive fashion with his Portugal-shot debut Porto. Alongside the sensual love triangle drama, The Festival will also screen Klinger’s second feature, Isabel (2026), which follows the emotional struggles of a young entrepreneur in the wine industry and gives a central role to the director’s hometown, São Paulo.
The line-up of Finnish guests is equally impressive. Musical talent, long careers and recent cinematic ventures unite two Finnish legends: Arja Saijonmaa and Tuomari Nurmio. Arja Saijonmaa will appear at The Festival in no fewer than two films. Also receiving its Finnish premiere is Arja Saijonmaa: Mikis and Me, a documentary directed by Marko Talli – who is himself among this year’s festival guests. At its heart is Saijonmaa’s friendship and decades-long collaboration with the Greek songwriter Míkis Theodorákis. Saijonmaa will also be seen in Mr Puntila and His Man Matti (1979), which bears a connection to the history of the Midnight Sun Film Festival: the film’s producer, Anssi Mänttäri, was among the festival’s founders – and will, of course, also be present at the event. As for Tuomari Nurmio, audiences will see the concert film 13 kylmää laulua. An even more immediate live experience awaits on Saturday at the Festival Club, where Nurmio will perform with his band Luupäät.
Films by Aki and Mika Kaurismäki, the Festival’s other founding members, will also be screened. Aki’s selection includes Le Havre (2011), which also serves as a farewell performance for two beloved figures: actor Elina Salo, who passed away last year, and editor Timo Linnasalo, who received a Jussi Award for his work on the film and died in January this year.
From the works of Mika Kaurismäki, who will also be present at The Festival, Zombie and the Ghost Train (1991) will be screened; it too serves as a kind of memorial screening. Silu Seppälä, who plays the male lead, passed away in September last year. The film’s female lead, Marjo Leinonen, will be among the festival guests. Also screening are Mika Kaurismäki’s Three Wise Men (2008), and the men of the title – Kari Heiskanen, Pertti Sveholm and Timo Torikka – will likewise make an appearance in Sodankylä. The third Mika Kaurismäki film screening at The Festival is the brand-new documentary Amongst the Birds, which follows birds arriving to nest in Iceland’s fjord landscapes and the people who care for them. Kaurismäki co-directed the film with Ingvar Þórðarson and Ragnar Axelsson Rax.
Directors Pia Andell, Mari Mantela and Yasmin Najjar will arrive at The Festival with their latest short films. Andell’s Let’s Not Ruin the Party by Talking About Death, Mantela’s After Ego and Najjar’s TJ28 will all receive their Finnish premieres in Sodankylä. Jukka Kärkkäinen will present his feature documentary The Beauty of Errors, while Aleksi Salmenperä will introduce his feature Father’s Day, accompanied by actor Tommi Korpela.
Further programme announcements will follow closer to the Festival. The Festival will be held from 10 to 14 June, from Wednesday morning to Sunday evening. The programme guide will be published on Monday, 25 May, and ticket sales for the Festival will begin at the same time. Advance ticket sales will begin online on Wednesday, 27 May.
Midnight Sun Film Festival would like to thank its co-operation partners:
Sodankylä Municipality, Finnish Film Foundation, Trade Union Pro, Kemijoki Oy, Genelec, Finnish Cultural Foundation, Ministry of Education and Culture, Laitilan Wirvoitusjuomatehdas Oy, EU Media Creative, Tähtikuitu Oy, Jenny and Antti Wihuri Foundation, Goethe-Institut Finnland, Institut Français de Finlande, The Nordic Culture Fund, The Finnish Arts and Culture Agency (Kuvi), Finland Festivals Association and YLE.