- The drama written by Inka Kallén and Aku Louhimies will be filmed in the Turku Archipelago August
- The production strives for ethical and sustainable choices and solutions
- Odotus (Finnish for “The Wait”) hits theatres in early 2021
The first full-length film by Aku Louhimies since the record-breaking feature film The Unknown Soldier (2017) will be filmed in August in the Turku Archipelago. The intimate relationship drama ‘Odotus’, co-written by Louhimies and actor Inka Kallén, debuts in January 2021. Kallén also stars as the film’s protagonist Elli.
Odotus has been inspired by one of the biggest names in the Finnish literature’s history, Juhani Aho’s 1893 novel Papin rouva. Juhani Aho was nominated for the Nobel prize in literature twelve times. The novel’s characters and timeless themes of love, honesty, and the search for happiness are brought into contemporary times, in the middle of the landscape of the Turku archipelago.
Aku Louhimies is one of the most famous filmmakers in Finland. His previous feature film, The Unknown Soldier, made history in Finnish cinema, as it has surpassed 1 million admissions in a country of mere 5.5 million people.
The filming schedule is designed in a way that it can be carried out in the circumstances defined by the corona crisis without jeopardizing the crew’s safety. The production strives for ethical and sustainable choices and solutions in every regard. The carbon footprint of the production is compensated so that it will not increase the carbon dioxide that the atmosphere already has too much of. The production cooperates with a Finnish organization called Compensate, a nonprofit which has an overcompensation model that ensures that ‘Odotus’ will be actually carbon negative.
– Odotus highlights the archipelago, and the characters in the film have chosen an ecological way of life. It feels crucial that we build the whole production in a way that its footprint on the environment is as reduced as possible. We make responsible and ethical choices in terms of the energy, transportation and materials used in the production, and compensate for the emissions we have made where necessary, says Aku Louhimies, who is also one of the film’s producers.
‘Odotus’ is released in theatres in early 2021. The film’s main partner is C More, and it will be available on C More’s streaming service in late 2021. The West Finland Film Commission that operates under Turku Science Park Ltd. also supports the film. The production company Backmann & Hoderoff is in charge of producing the film.