Programme

This year’s festival themes are migration and the United States.

Kokkola Film Fest takes place September 8–11, 2022.

Thursday Sep 8

17:00–22:00 Työväentalo
Opening ceremony, bar open.

19:00 Snellman-sali
The Kid (1921)
Tickets from the Orchestra’s site

Don’t miss out on this unique chance to see Chaplin’s silent film The Kid from 1921 screened to its original score, composed by Chaplin himself. Conductor Kimmo Tullila and the Central Ostrobothnia Chamber Orchestra introduce the audience to the world of silent film music.

21:00 Bio Rex 1
Karaoke Paradise (Finland 2022)

Finland’s most experienced karaoke hostess Evi wants to hug the pain away. Driving through the harsh landscape of northern Finland, Evi brings together the stories of love and loss that underlie the kitschy and clichéd world of karaoke. Toni, the shyest guy in the world, finds the courage to get on stage over and over again. Kari, a bachelor looking for love, performs nocturnal serenades in his car repair shop. Elina suffers from Parkinson’s disease and can’t walk but experiences a jolty freedom through punk music. Laura sings because speaking hurts too much. Einari Paakkanen’s warm-hearted documentary film depicts Finns baring their souls as they sing karaoke, in joy and in sadness.

22:00 Hotel Seurahuone
Karaoke party
With Miia Reko hosting

Friday Sep 9

17:00 Työväentalo
Salesman (1969)

17:00 Bio Rex 1
Wildland (Denmark 2022)
In Danish with English subtitles

19:00 Työväentalo
Badlands (1973)

19:00 Bio Rex 1
The Woodcutter Story (Finland 2022)
In Finnish with Swedish subtitles

Pepe is a woodcutter who maintains his faith in a better tomorrow, even when faced with the loss of his wife, his house, and his best friend, all within a few tragic days. The Woodcutter Story depicts a good-natured but ill-fated man of the woods, who accepts his fate with a sanguine equanimity. A wry sense of humor, absurd twists, and mystical visions egg on this tragicomic take on a village in northern Finland.

19:00 West Coast Billiard
Short Film Screening
With English subtitles. Free of charge!

Var är Thon? (Finland 2016 / 6 min)
Execution: Einari Paakkanen, Antti Polojärvi

Oja (Finland 2021 / 13 min)
Directors: P.J. Piippo, Kim Saarinen

Bye Bye Tornio (Finland 2021 / 15 min)
Director: Emilia Hernesniemi

How to Pick Berries? (Finland 2010 / 19 min)
Director: Elina Talvensaari

+ A surprise!

21:00 Työväentalo
Beggars of Life (1928)

The themes of this year’s Kino Fest, America and nomadism, are brought together in an unforgettable depiction of two young fugitives who hop freight trains through the pre-Great Depression era United States. Using nomadism as a prism through which to explore inequality, Beggars of Life follows a young female protagonist who disguises herself as a man to pass as a vagabond while on the run from the police, but is forced to contend with a constant threat of sexual violence. Not only a thoughtful representation of homelessness, this masterpiece of the end of the silent era is also a sentimental love story, in which even the callous vagabond Oklahoma Red is finally redeemed by love.

21:00 Bio Rex 2
The Miseducation of Cameron Post

A subtly humorous coming-of-age drama about a queer teenager Cameron (Chloë Grace Moretz) who is caught kissing another girl and sent away to a camp that subjects her to gay conversion therapy. Together with a community of fellow camp-goers, Cameron discovers her own means of resistance by pretending to go along with the therapy. Set in the early 1990s, with a soundtrack and costume design to match, The Miseducation of Cameron Post is among the finest coming-of-age films of the past several years: The director Desiree Akhavan’s gaze is sincere, precise, and merciless.

21:00 Tapahtumapuisto
Drive-in: Rebel Without a Cause (1955)

23:00 Työväentalo
Concert: Ykspihlajan kino-orkesteri

Saturday Sep 10

10:00–12:00 Café Saha
Discussion on migration from Keski-Pohjanmaa to North America
In Finnish

11:00 Bio Rex 1
Encanto (2021)
Dubbed in Finnish

12:00 Työväentalo
Synecdoche, New York (2008)

14:00 Bio Rex 2
First Cow (2019)

14:30 Bio Rex 1
The Woodcutter Story (Finland 2022)
In Finnish with Swedish subtitles

Pepe is a woodcutter who maintains his faith in a better tomorrow, even when faced with the loss of his wife, his house, and his best friend, all within a few tragic days. The Woodcutter Story depicts a good-natured but ill-fated man of the woods, who accepts his fate with a sanguine equanimity. A wry sense of humor, absurd twists, and mystical visions egg on this tragicomic take on a village in northern Finland.

16:00 Työväentalo
Danceoke!

Come and dance with us! Free of charge, about 30 min.

16:30 Bio Rex 2
American Vagabond (Finland 2013)
In English with Finnish subtitles

17:00 Työväentalo 
Duck Soup (1933)

17:00 Bio Rex 1
Killer of Sheep (1978)

18:30 Työväentalo
Fargo (1996)

18:30 Bio Rex 2
Queen & Slim (2019)

19:00 Bio Rex 1
Minari (2020)
In Korean and English with Finnish subtitles

21:00 Työväentalo
Red Rocket (2021)

21:00 Tapahtumapuisto
Drive-in: American Graffiti (1973)

23:30 Hotel Seurahuone 
Concert: Aija Puurtinen & Brooklynin satu

Sunday Sep 11

12:00 Työväentalo
Clueless (1995)

12:00 Bio Rex 1
Summer of Soul (2021)

14:30 Bio Rex 1
Leave No Trace (2018)

15:00 Työväentalo
Casablanca (USA 1942)

18:00 Kokkola City Theatre
Monsieur Verdoux (1947) 
Tickets from the Theatre’s site