Canadian Premiere
Member of parliament Juulia’s (Alma Pöysti) comfortable life takes an unexpected turn when she learns that her parish vicar husband Matias (Eero Milonoff) has been concealing an affair for the past year with a woman named Enni (Oona Airola). Heartbroken, and yet sympathetic to their love, Juulia proposes an open marriage free of secrets, and presents a polyamory guidebook as a new bible for their relationship. A tentative harmony inspires Juulia to run for Chair of the Equality Party— cementing her reputation as a champion of family leave reform— and to pursue a new romance with nonbinary drag performer Miska (Pietu Wikström). No guidebook can quite prepare these four imperfect adults for life’s chaotic little twists and tensions. Academy-Award nominated writer/director Selma Vilhunen (Stupid Young Heart, 2018 – winner of the Crystal Bear at Berlinale ’19) deploys a deeply empathetic mode of storytelling in this tender tale of love, compromise, and unity. Four Little Adults subverts traditional and institutional attitudes about how a family and community may be structured.
September 30 & October 2: Q&A with director Selma Vilhunen
Community Partner
Alma Pöysti, Eero Milonoff, Oona Airola, Pietu Wikström
Finland/Sweden
2023
Panorama
In Finnish, Swedish, and English with English subtitles
Book Tickets
Indigenous & Community Access
Indigenous Access Tickets Community Access Tickets Ticket Donation Requests
Credits
Executive Producer
Kirsikka Saari, Jenni Toivoniemi, Selma Vilhunen
Producer
Venla Hellstedt, Elli Toivoniemi
Screenwriter
Selma Vilhunen
Cinematography
Juice Huhtala
Editor
Antti Reikko
Production Design
Sattva-Hanna Toiviainen
Original Music
Sarah Assbring, Jacob Haage
Director
Selma Vilhunen
Vilhunen is an Academy Award-nominated director, screenwriter and co-founder of Tuffi Films. Her youth drama Stupid Young Heart (2018) won the Berlinale Crystal Bear in Generation 14plus. Her feature debut Little Wing (2016) received the Nordic Council Film Prize in 2017. Vilhunen’s documentary Hobbyhorse Revolution (2017), won the Best Documentary Film Prize at the Finnish National Film Awards, and was nominated for the European Film Academy’s Young Audience Award in 2018. Her short film Do I Have to Take Care of Everything? (2012) received an Oscar nomination in 2014.
Filmography: Little Wing (2016); Hobbyhorse Revolution (2017); Stupid Young Heart (2018)
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
Birds of War
Told through phone videos, voice notes, texts, and news footage, Birds of War documents the love story of Lebanese journalist Janay Boulos and Syrian activist Abd Alkader Habak as their connection deepens and their communications grow in urgency.
Relax, Open Your Eyes
Confronted with her husband's declining health, Carrie Radomski dedicates herself to building Canada's first cryonics facility in this intimate documentary about hope, conviction, and humanity's enduring quest to overcome death.
In Alaska
In Alaska follows Woody, an Inuk teen whose bullet pierces the Trans-Alaska Pipeline during a failed suicide attempt. Fleeing to Nunavut, he finds community and reconnects with the land and his Inuit roots, discovering what it means to be alive.
The Bryce Lee Story
A 13-year-old immigrant and aspiring filmmaker falsely claims he's related to Bruce Lee in this Vancouver Island-set film. The Bryce Lee Story is a heartfelt coming-of-age tale about identity, family, and the search for belonging.
Last Movies
What would film history look like reorganized around the last movies various cultural figures watched before they died? Last Movies embraces this simple concept to offer a deliberately skewed and mordantly funny love letter to cinema.