It took Finnish director Pirjo Honkasalo 10 years with documentaries to make her come-back into feature filmmaking. After a series of award-winning productions, including her Pyhan ja pahan trilogia (The Trilogy of the Sacred and the Evil), she is at Cannes with Tulennielija (Fire-eater), although she had sworn she would never take interest in  fiction again. 

Tulennielija is the story of the twin sisters, Helena and Irene, born in Helsinki during the Second World War. Their mother leaves them with their grandmother to run away with a German soldier, and they end up at an orphanage. When their mother returns to take them with her, she is accompanied by a Spanish trapeze artist, Ramon, who is working for a German circus. 

Irene is trained to become the trapeze star of the circus, but she eventually falls from the heights, hurting her back. Helena has secretly learned the art of fire-eating, and she takes care of both her sister and her mother, till their ways are finally separated. In present-day Helsinki, now middle-aged, she looks back into her past, pondering on her broken childhood and her early life. 

"In Finland directors have to produce their own films; accordingly you live the life of a small-time businessman, trying to raise money from all kind of sources, constantly having to make compromises from commercial reasons. I am sure that dividing yourself between the directing and producing sides will sooner or later show on the screen," says Honkasalo. 

"Tired of being part of the terrible world of money, I decided to go back to the basics of filmmaking. An educated director of photography, I turned to documentaries, which is more like writing. And working behind the camera gives you a freedom you do not find anywhere else. Yet there are aspects of human life which you cannot show in a documentary." 

"Also, when making documentaries you have to carry the burden of portraying real people – you may influence their lives, and they will sometimes be sitting on your back for years. It requires much more responsibility to be face to face with real-life persons than signing some actors and pay them to perform. You have to reveal yourself in a more merciless way," she adds. 

"I asked Pirkko Saisio to write a story for me in the form of a novel. I gave her a few ideas, otherwise she could do with it whatever she wanted – it is also easy to kill an author's creative instincts. I had absolutely no expectations what to expect, otherwise I would naturally have made it myself, if it was not because I hate to make films my own screenplays." 

"Tulennielija  is somewhat  hard to describe, but one of  the main themes is the tradition  of shifting burdens from one  generation to the next one, and the difficulty of getting rid of them. The two sisters in the story have a  relationship which is almost symbiotical, but at some stage they have to realise that they cannot share the same life." 

Honkasalo has twice had features in the official programme at Cannes. Co-directed with Pekka Lehto, Tulipaa (Flame Top) was selected for the competition in 1981, and Da Capo entered Directors' Fortnight in 1985. "In both cases we shot sequences abroad, for Tulipaa in which was then Leningrad, and for Da Capo in Los Angeles. They were certainly the worst parts of the films." 

"It takes so much energy to change locations, so nowadays I reluctantly shoot more than 300 metres from my front door," explained Honkasalo, who had scheduled 45 days for principal photography of Tulennielija on Helsinki locations and in a railway roundhouse. Matila & Rohr Productions provided the  $1.5 million for the production. 

Tulennielija 
(Fire-eater) 
Prod co: Matila & Rohr Productions
Prod: Marko Rohr 
Dir: Pirjo Honkasalo 
Scr: Pirkko Saisio 
Ph: Kjell Lagerroos 
Prod des: Tiina Makkonen 
Cast: Elina Hurme, Tiina Weckstrom, Elena Leeve, Elsa Saisio 
Domestic  distribution: tba 
International sales: Nordisk Film International Sales 
Running time: 1hr 40mins 

The director: Pirjo Honkasalo 

Writer, director, cinematographer, set designer. Born 1947. An educated director of photography at the Finnish Film School and the Temple University of Philadelphia, in 1975 she teamed up with director and producer Pekka Lehto, with whom she made – among other films – Tulipaa (Flame Top, 1980), a contender at Cannes. Since 1985 she has mainly produced documentaries, with several winning international awards, including Mysterion (1991) and Atman (1996), both part of the Trilogy of the Sacred and the Evil. She has also been active as a writer and a set designer. 

The producer: Marko Rohr 

Born 1961. After majoring in business management strategies, specialising in the economic structures of the international and domestic film industries, he has been in feature film and television production since 1985. Using underwater photography, he has had several wet experiences both as a director and a producer, most recently Underwater Iceland. The Finnish co-producer of Bille August's Jerusalem, he merged his operation with his colleague, Ilkka Matila's JuJu Media, to launch Matila & Rohr Productions. A  co-owner of Helsinki's Talent House, to make first features, and  
a shareholder of TV producer Fantasia Filmi.

*****
  
Back to the charts 

As Finnish features are returning to the local Top Tens, managing director Jouni Mykkanen, of the Finnish Film Foundation, is adding to their funding. 

If it hadn't been for Titanic, which has until now left almost a million Finns in reluctant tears, local features would this year have looked much more impressive at the box office. Markku Plonen's Kuningasjotko (A Summer by the River), as Finnish as Koskenkorva Vodka but with no ticket to travel, has taken in excess of 250,000 admissions, and Claes Olsson's Underbara kvinnor vid vatten (Amazing Women by the Sea), although with a Swedish dialogue, is closing in on 70,000. 

"Audiences are indeed returning to the cinemas for Finnish films, and we try to encourage the development by providing better funding for production, to further improve their quality," said managing director Jouno Mykkonen, of the Finnish Film Foundation. "Also we need to secure the steady outlet of at least 12 domestic productions annually." 

Since he was appointed in 1995, he has looked to public support being increased by 40%, to $10 million. With new television and radio legislation to be implemented by  
1 January, 1999, an additional $15 million is likely to be given to  the independent production sector. The Cinema 2000 agreement which has been signed by the Finnish broadcasters will further fuel the industry. 

"Till now, the main problem of keeping the business constantly rolling has been too few projects and too little money. We are now close to a situation where – with increasing funds and television participation – we can make sure that the private companies are busy, and the budgets for feature films will be sufficient for a quality which will make them more competitive," he concludes.