Midnight Sun Film Festival At 25

Filmmakers Terence Davies, Pedro Costa, Bahman Ghobadi, Kira Muratova and Finland's beloved actor/musician Vesa-Matti Loini are some of the special guests taking part this week in the celebration of the 25th Midnight Sun Film Festival in Sodankylä, the heart of Finnish Lapland. (June 16-20).

Alongside those established names, rising filmmaking talents from Turkia (Pelin Esmer), Spain (Javier Rebollo), Italy (Pietro Marcello) and Israel (Samuel Maoz) will mingle with their Finnish counterparts such as Saara Cantell (photo, Heartbeats), Kari Väänänen (Backwood Philosopher), Joonas Berghäll and Mika Hotakainen, co-directors of the acclaimed documentary In the Steam of Life, Juha Kuosmanen, director of the Cannes Cinefondation award-winning The Painting Sellers. Anssi Mänttäri, one of the founding fathers of the festival with Aki and Mika Kaurismäki, will naturally join in the festivities. Thirteen recent Finnish films are screening in Sodankylä, along classics such as The White Reindeer screening in a new restored version. The special programme of the festival's 25th anniversary will then travel to the Orion cinema in Helsinki in the autumn