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Four Little Adults film image

Four Little Adults

Nelja Pienta Aikuista

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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

Director
Cast

Alma Pöysti, Eero Milonoff, Oona Airola, Pietu Wikström

Credits
Country of Origin

Finland/Sweden

Year

2023

Series

Panorama

Language

In Finnish, Swedish, and English with English subtitles

Film Contact
Links
18+
122 min
Comedy Drama Women Directors

Book Tickets

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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 headshot

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)

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