Suonsilmä (fin)
Eye of the Fen (eng)

2024, Short, 20min
Sci-fi / Dystopian / Black comedy
Language: Samboka (fictional)
Subtitled: English / Finnish

Crew:
Director: Topi Raulo
Screenplay: Ossi Hakala
Producer: Suvi Korpela
Cinematoraphy: Arttu Liimatta
Sound design: Saku Anttila
Editor: Lyydia Mäkipää
Art dept. lead: Aki Tarkka
Production design: Iida Nurminen
Costume design: Riina Leea Nieminen
Make-up design: Laura Laukkanen
Composer: Anna Voutilainen-Veijonen

Cast:
Roosa Söderholm (Person)
Hannele Laaksonen (Grandparent)
Jouni Innilä (Leader)
Eetu Känkänen (Candidate)
Isla Mustanoja (Candidate)
Tuomas Korkia-Aho (Candidate)
Melike Basaranoglu (Candidate)
Tatu Mönttinen (Enlightened)
Juha Pihanen (Enlightened)
Anneli Ranta (Enlightened)

Distribution: Aalto University Festival Office

In a time when all the fish are already caught, what is the point of fishing?

Synopsis

In a distant future Finland, people live in a scarred landscape of long-forgotten catastrophes, and no one knows what led to this. A curious young person sets out to seek answers but immediately ends up enslaved by a fanatic cult of semiotics. Were the answers ever worth finding? Or was it the questioning that had intrinsic value? The Eye of the Fen is an allegorical ode to questions that remain unanswered. It is entirely spoken and sung in a fictional Finno-Ugric language and filmed partly on a Finnish “Neva” – a special kind of swamp, and partly in an abandoned nuclear reactor test facility.

Director statement

Is it truthful to think of life merely as a cycle of carbon and oxygen; a developmental system of deoxyribonucleic acid chains; the inevitable consequence of chemical reactions? As a process fulfilling its deterministic tendencies on a single planet amidst the void of space?

It is likely true. But such an explanation tells us very little about the life we actually live day-to-day. This explanation hides its narrow-mindedness behind a wall of scientific jargon.

Suonsilmä was born in a time when these kinds of “smart-aleck” explanations are very much in fashion. In a time ruled by a quiet but stubborn belief that there is an answer for everything. An engineered, one-dimensional answer. A vague politician’s answer will also do. Anything to maintain the feeling that someone, somewhere, has the situation under control. Even though they don’t.

For example, when we ask: “Why does reality exist?” Or: “Why is there something rather than nothing?” There is always someone who feels the need to answer: Because Big Bang.

Another answers: God.

And sometimes, someone comes up with the kind of answer that gets other people to do their work, to fight wars, and to build empires.

Driven by the power of “know-it-all” attitude, generation after generation, we seek the guidance of charismatic leaders. We seek cults, religions, societies, and jobs. We seek answers that sound good and offer order, but in doing so, we shut something out: the infinity of the questions.

Why is there something rather than nothing? It is a question worth our wonder.

There is a beauty in questions that vanishes the moment they are answered. When the superposition collapses. When reality chooses its path. Our eyes become blindfolded to all other alternatives.

When we believe that an answer exists for everything, we inadvertently begin to deny the mysterious and contradictory nature of the universe. Our perspective narrows, and we reject the multiplicity of truth. For many of us, it is impossible to grasp that “because of the Big Bang” explains absolutely nothing about the origin of reality.

Today, we are in a situation where clearing forests and draining mires can feel justified: for the sake of economic growth, for the sake of society, for the sake of survival. By the permission of gods. Because of the Big Bang.

In this way, we bypass the fact that we have no idea what the purpose of this reality is. We still do not know the ultimate purpose of nature, of forests, and of mires. Yet, we decided to destroy them. We do not know what time is. Yet, we waste it worshiping some charismatic leaders.

Hopefully, we haven’t broken anything essential.

Festivals and screenings

– 2024 Les Intergalactiques Sci-Fi Festival, Lyon, France (Official selection)
– 2024 INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE: EnergaCAMERIMAGE International Film Festival, Torun, Poland (Official selection)
– 2024 FINNISH PREMIERE: Tampere Film Festival (Official selection)
– 2024 Blue Sea Film Festival (Mention of Honor: Brave Vision)
– 2024 Helsinki Design Week, Designs for a Cooler Planet (Special programme)
– 2024 SES / Lyhyesti kerran kuussa: Tulevaisuuden horisontti (Official selection)

Trailer: