Tuulinen päivä

A Finnish B&W tale of a girl called Kirsi (Raili Metsä) who comes to Helsinki to look for a guy (Yrjö Tähtelä) with whom she spent a lovely summer in the archipelago. Finding him is difficult, but the process is more important than the outcome.

The film takes influence from the French New Wave and is clearly more ambitious and experimental than most Finnish films of the time: the plot is secondary to the atmosphere and the director uses mainly visual methods to portray Kirsi's nonlinear journey. Wide shots of scenery and infrastructure take turns with intimate close-ups of faces, bodies and other details. The sparse dialog is rather stiff and formal, presumably intentionally, but the exotic-looking Raili Metsä fits in her role well. The music consists of avant-garde jazz by Otto Donner, emphasizing the dreamlike style of the visuals. Even if Tuulinen päivä isn't a masterpiece of impressionism, I'm very supportive of this type of filmmaking in Finland. More, please!