Itä/ East (29:30, 2025)

Film East takes the viewer to the North Karelian village of Potoskavaara on the shore of Lake Heinäjärvi, the birthplace of families, the borderland.

Trees and waters of the remote region, past and present generations, Ukrainian seasonal workers, a goddaughter’s summer wedding.

The summer’s light in the east, where Elias Lönnrot visited in 1828, collecting poems for the Finnish national epic, Kalevala. The written history of the region came from Lönnrot’s pen, and has been memorialized.