Screening series
26.3-9.4.2026
With a new season and a new exhibition, Institut finlandais’ big screen is coming to life once again! In this series, we present three contemporary Finnish films from the 2010s, where human relationships are in focus.
Cross-generational connections arise, paths bend in unexpected directions. Echoing Tommi Toija’s exhibition, the films remind us that when everything seems to be in ruins, the fragments can still come together to build the foundation for something new.
On screening days, our gallery and Café Maa will remain open until the film starts at 7pm. Buy your tickets from our online shop, and enjoy a 5€ discount if you book the full series.
PROGRAMME:
Thursday, 26 March at 7pm
Open up to me (2013)
Kerron sinulle kaiken
Directed by Simo Halinen
95 min, in Finnish with French subtitles
Maarit, a transgender woman, starts afresh socially in her new external identity as a woman. By chance, she finds herself impersonating a psychotherapist and thus receives the confidences of a couple. She also reunites with her daughter, who must cope with her change of identity. The film recounts a key moment in Maarit’s life when she manages to fully embrace her female identity and reconcile with her daughter and those who, through misunderstanding and prejudice, had mocked her transformation.
→ Click here to book your tickets.
Thursday, 2 April at 7pm
Off the map (2016)
Äkkilähtö
Directed by Tiina Lymi
99 min, in Finnish with French subtitles
When betrayed in love, one must leave quickly. That is the case for Katri, a careerist in her thirties who has succeeded professionally and dreams of traveling abroad. However, Katri is unexpectedly brought together with a little girl neglected by her parents. Destiny takes them from Helsinki to northern Finland to find the little girl’s grandmother. The journey leads to encounters with determined women from different generations and the beginning of a new life for each of them.
→ Click here to book your tickets.
Thursday, 9 April at 7pm
One Last Deal (2018)
Tuntematon mestari
Directed by Klaus Härö
90 min, in Finnish with French subtitles
Olavi, an art dealer whose business isn’t going too well, is about to retire. But he suspects that a painting put up for auction is worth much more than its estimated value. His daughter, with whom he hasn’t been in contact in a long time, asks him to help her in taking her son Otto as an intern. In the investigation of finding the author of the painting, the old man finds an ideal business partner in his grandson.
→ Click here to book your tickets.
Curated by Irmeli Debarle.
Irmeli Debarle is the specialist on Finnish cinema in France. A lifelong student of literature, languages, art history and cinema, she completed a thesis on the director Teuvo Tulio in 2013. Having lived in France for almost 50 years, she has decided to promote Finnish cinema, which is still little known internationally, always guided by the same will: the desire to share. Irmeli Debarle contributes to the visibility of Finnish filmmakers by translating their works and by helping to screen their films at various festivals in France. Among her many projects is La Finlande en 3 films festival, which she has been organising every year for the last 16 years at the Reflet Médicis cinema in Paris, with the support of the Finnish Film Foundation. She translates Finnish films and works closely with filmmakers such as Aki Kaurismäki and Markku Lehmuskallio, among others.