BERLINALE 2017: NATIVe Opening Film KAISA’S ENCHANTED FOREST by Katja Gauriloff
84 min, Finland, B&W + color, 2016, Sámi + French spoken, English subtitles
Screenings:
Fri, Feb 10, 21.00 at IMAX, NATIVe opening ceremony, screening, Q+A
Sat, Feb 11, time TBC, CUBIX at Alexanderplatz.
Variety: "[...] like a Guy Maddin movie as an anthropological dig"
The Hollywood Reporter: "A fascinating historical chapter, inventively told.”
Following a sold-out world premiere at Hot Docs and rave reviews in the trades, KAISA's ENCHANTED FOREST has been selected to open NATIVe, Berlin's bi-annual section devoted to indigenous cinema, which is dedicated this year to films from the Arctic Circle.
By sending postcards around Europe to make inquiries, award-winning Sámi filmmaker Katja Gauriloff found a spectacular treasure trove of 16mm footage from the '50s and '60s of her great-grandmother Sami. Combined with newly-created animation, this moving documentary is a poetic tribute to a lost way of life of the indigenous Skolt Sámi tribe native to Finland and Russia.
In 1935, Swiss writer Robert Crottet, suffering from tuberculosis, began having vivid and powerful dreams of bright-eyed creatures that called to him from the enchanted northern forests of Finland. So moved by his dreamworld visitors, Crottet recovers from his sickbed and journeys north to find them. His travels lead him to the Skolt Sámi community where he meets the magical Kaisa, a storyteller and seer.
Capturing Kaisa’s legends and stories, Crottet publishes his first book, Enchanted Forest. When war breaks out, he hears news that the Skolt Sámi people have been displaced by invading Russians, and launches a desperate campaign across Europe to bring attention to their plight. With incredible and rare archival footage and animation Gauriloff beautifully weaves the story of the lifelong friendship between Crottet and her great-grandmother Kaisa together with Skolt Sámi legends and the tragedies of war.
Katja Gauriloff was born in Inari, Lapland. She has studied film directing at the Tampere University of Applied Sciences, School of Art and Media. Today she is a film director and a part-owner of the Oktober Production Company. Her films A SHOUT INTO THE WIND and CANNED DREAMS have been awarded the State Quality Support for cinema productions in Finland. CANNED DREAMS premiered at the Berlinale in 2012 and went on to make rounds on the film festival circuit.
Production company: Oktober Oy www.oktober.fi
