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Granny's Correspondence on the Big Screen
- Homesickness, motherhood and my grandmother's letters are in the background of Family Files, filmmaker Mari Soppela explains. The documentary film revolves around the Ruopsa village in Lapland and the members of the Soppela family.
Some years ago Soppela discovered her grandmother's old letters, on which her film is based on.
- The film is a cross section of four generations of my family. On the other hand, it also deals with my own feelings and thoughts about life.
Soppela, born in 1966, has lived ten years in Holland, where she received a degree in Computing in Design. Nowadays she is married to a Dutch man; their family also includes two children. Granny, the author of the letters, lived abroad, so the atmosphere of the letters has a lot in common with Soppela's own life.
Debut Film
- My film is probably rather different than many others seen at the festival. It is very personal. That's why the jury's decision surprised me completely, the happy filmmaker says. However, she does not want to be called a director just yet, because the film is, after all, her first.
Mari Soppela is a video artist by background. Her graduation work at London's Middlesex University was an interactive video installation.
Soppela has worked in the design and consultancy bureau Mediamatic in Amsterdam since 1993. She says that the effect of her work in new media is probably apparent in the film.
Earlier Multimedia Works
Soppela was also involved, among other things, in the making of the award-winning multimedia work Doors of Perception. She is also the author of the acclaimed multimedia work Family Files.
Soppela mentions that her earlier works emphasized form, but her motivation for making the winning film was the need to get the content right.
Her first film won the Tampere Film Festival's National Competition's B-series for over 30-minute films.
The film was directed and written by Mari Soppela, produced by Kees Kasander and shot by Timo Peltonen and Mari Soppela. The editing was done by Leo Anemaet, Maarik Krijgsman and Mari Soppela; the production company behind the film is The Kasander Film Company.
TEXT: Tuija Lundelin
TRANSLATION: Antti Pasanen
PHOTOS: Anu Mastokangas
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