KINO OLYMPIA / NORTHERN PASSION

“I considered myself completely straight until I found myself in a situation that even I don’t understand.”

A couple of potato farmers from the north are learning the rules of a new relationship and discovering how to live together as different sexual orientations and needs test the limits of their love.

Short synopsis:

Set against the backdrop of the vast northern landscape, a couple of potato farmers are learning the ropes of their new relationship. Petri, in his fifties, has come to terms with his bisexuality and wants to explore his passions. Anu, on the other hand, finds herself questioning her expectations of a relationship.

Long synopsis:

The new relationship between a couple of potato farmers is based on openness and honesty. Petri, a man in his fifties who has come to terms with his bisexuality, is learning to be true to himself and honest with his partner. For Anu, Petri’s desire to act on his own passions raises new questions about her own desires and expectations in the relationship. Beneath the empty landscapes of the North, a world of men is revealed—one they have tried to keep hidden from their spouses, the surrounding community, and, to some extent, even from themselves.

A WORD FROM THE DIRECTOR

I wanted to make a documentary film that was sensual and sexually open-minded. I wanted to portray the sexuality of ordinary, family-oriented people in the North, in a society where it still evokes guilt and shame. This was also the starting point for the film’s visual style, as we captured erotically charged, tender moments in which people are at their most exposed and vulnerable. I hoped to reinterpret traditional melodramatic storytelling within the quieting present-day reality of the remote northern regions, where few people want to become the center of attention in their community.

I had no need for any kind of provocation. I was haunted by the question: how could one live in a loving relationship while remaining true to oneself?

These past four years have been an intensive learning process for me, revealing the secrets of human relationships. I wanted to use the tools of documentary filmmaking to try to capture something invisible, almost unrecognizable in our time, but the men and couples who participated in the film at its various stages led me deeper into the fundamentals of love and sexual morality by sharing their lives in a land of deep snow.

Petri and Anu’s meeting was crucial to the film’s development. There was real chemistry between us. Their fundamental questions concerned the nature of love, fidelity to oneself, and honesty toward one another in a new relationship where one partner also shows interest in people of the same sex. Through our collaboration, we were able to depict how Petri and Anu begin their life in an open relationship on a potato farm.

Even today, the vast majority of men who are married to women seeking male companionship live “in the closet” and keep their sexuality completely hidden; neither their close circle nor anyone else necessarily knows about it. They may be strangers even to their partners—and perhaps even to themselves. Men who have sex with men may not even question their heterosexuality. But as our film shows, there may also be men right in our midst who are seeking a way out of the world of secrets. It is only in the eyes of others that we can find the space to grow into our full potential as human beings.

But is it possible to think differently about sexuality and love in traditional heterosexual relationships when authoritarian conservative circles are attacking the human and civil rights of minorities on both sides of the Atlantic and right here at home in Europe?