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
Vivaldi and Me
Venice, 1716. Composer Antonio Vivaldi teaches at an orphanage for abandoned girls, and establishes a deep rapport with violinist Cecelia — but their collaboration is threatened by her impending arranged marriage.
Rear Window
James Stewart is the man who sees too much. "Jeff" Jeffries is a sports photographer waylaid by a broken leg, doomed to spend the summer in a wheelchair in his New York apartment. That's how he comes to witness a murder in the dead of night (or does he?).
Rose of Nevada
This disconcerting film from the director of Bait and Enys Men feels like a message from another era: two men sign on to a Cornish fishing trawler, but when they return to port they are welcomed into the community 30 years before they left...
To Die For
Buck Henry (The Graduate) wrote this acidic black comedy about a ruthless weather girl on the make (Nicole Kidman in her breakout role). A young Joaquin Phoenix is the dim teen she seduces on her way to achieving stardom.
Camp
Reeling from two devastating tragedies, Emily (Zola Grimmer) takes refuge at a summer camp for troubled youth, where she has been offered a position as counsellor. She finds friendship, but also something more unexpected, something truly troubling...
