Kupla – Finland

Photographer

Anni Hartikainen

The feature film “Bubble” is nominated for the 2023 Nordic Council Film Prize

Eveliina, 16, is an outgoing teenager, with a close group of friends and loving parents. But her world suddenly collapses when she finds out her mother is having an affair with a woman. She tries to stop it at all costs in an effort to get her parents back together. When she realises that she is the glue that holds them together, she forms a plan that has both dramatic and comedic consequences.

Rationale

Bubble is an exceptionally confident, clever, and humorous film about family secrets and growing up into adulthood. Warmth builds out of winter gloom and children become tutors for their parents. The script, written by Reeta Ruotsalainen and director Aleksi Salmenperä, incorporates two generational perspectives, and the film’s understanding of small-town, everyday life in Finland today is fresh, modern, and sharp.

Screenwriter – Reeta Ruotsalainen

Reeta Ruotsalainen (born 1984) graduated from Helsinki’s Aalto University in 2017. Her graduation film Now That You’re Mine was nominated at the Terror in the Bay Film Festival for best original screenplay. She was episodic director of Elisa Viihde’s crime series Arctic Circle S2, and co-wrote the Netflix/Yle series Dance Brothers. Bubble is her feature debut. Ruotsalainen is currently writing a new film called Defiance.

Director and screenwriter – Aleksi Salmenperä

Aleksi Salmenperä (born 1973) is one of the most acclaimed writers and directors in Finland. Since the late 1990s, he has directed more than 20 shorts, films, and series, many of which have premiered at such top international festivals as San Sebastian (A Man’s Job, 2007), the Berlinale (A Bad Family, 2009), Hot Docs (Alcan Highway, 2013), and Göteborg (The Mine, 2016). He has won national Jussi awards for best director with Distractions (2015) and Void (2018) which was also named best film. Bubble was nominated for six Jussi awards in 2023 and won best newcomer (Stella Leppikorpi).

Producer – Minna Haapkylä

Minna Haapkylä (born 1973) is an established theatre, film, and television actress and producer, currently Head of Scripted Content for Rabbit Films. Trained at the Theatre Academy in Finland and the French Conservatoire National Supérieur d’Art Dramatique, she has appeared in more than 60 plays, films, and television series and has picked up several Jussi awards including best actress for Jörn Donner’s The Interrogation (2009).

As a producer, her credits include: MTV/C More series Mobile 101; Elisa Viihde’s Summer of Sorrow, which won four national television awards including best series; the film MC Helper BeKINGs, audience winner at the Jussi Awards 2023; and Bubble, for which Stella Leppikorpi won best newcomer at the Jussi Awards. Her upcoming projects include Tiina Lymi’s series Queen of Fucking Everything.