
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
In Finnish, Swedish, and English with English subtitles
Indigenous & Community Access
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)
Panorama
See more films in this series:
Here
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Only the River Flows
Wei Shujun's unpredictable neo-noir pits a detective against a serial killer terrorizing a small hamlet. The cop is not only trying to outwit the murderer, but must also deal with uncooperative villagers, inept colleagues, and his own unraveling mind.
Let the River Flow
Ester, a young Sami woman, tries to conceal her ethnicity to avoid ostracism in 1970s Norway without betraying her family roots. Struggling to navigate her shifting cultural identity, she protests a local dam with Sami activists.
Wild Swans
Set in a small village on the India/Bhutan border, this story depicts a group of women who live alongside and ultimately support each other. Wild Swans shares a glimpse into a culture and community that is rarely seen in cinema.
There's No Place Like Home
Estranged from her controlling parents, after coming out as a lesbian, Leonora learns of her mother's terminal cancer in an interview on live TV. When visiting her family in hospice, memory and reality begin to blur into a surreal nightmare.
Housekeeping for Beginners
She never wanted to be a mom, but fate presents Dita (Anamaria Marinca) with her girlfriend's two daughters to raise -- a recipe for chaos, laughter and heartache, all jumbled up together.
The Braid
Laetitia Colombani's assured, involving adaptation of her own best-selling novel weaves together three stories of female perseverance across three continents, in India, Italy, and Canada. This is a strongly acted movie with a big emotional pay-off.
Irena's Vow
In German-occupied Poland, a young woman, Irene Gut Opdyke (Sophie Nélisse) risks her life by hiding 12 Jews in the cellar of a villa where she serves as housekeeper for a Werhmacht officer. But one day, he discovers the truth... Based on a true story.
Robot Dreams
Living a solitary existence in Manhattan, Dog is tired of being alone, and builds his own friend: Robot. Their friendship blooms while exploring 1980s New York. This enchanting 2D animation brims with love, loss, and friendship.
A Tour Guide
The tribulations of adapting to a new place are explored with freshness and sympathy in this film about a defector from North Korea struggling to make a better life for herself in Seoul. A gentle, low-key movie with a touching performance from Sul Lee.
Red Rooms
In this unsettling and enthralling drama from the director of Nadia, Butterfly, Kelly-Anne (Juliette Gariépy) becomes obsessed with the trial of Ludwig Chevalier (Maxwell McCabe-Lokos), a loner accused of the torture and murder of three teenage girls.
The Oceans Are the Real Continents
Set in San Antonio De Los Baños, a sleepy town in inland Cuba, and shot in langurous black and white tableaux, The Oceans Are the Real Continents traces the stories of three generations of townspeople. "An exquisite love poem to Cuba." The Film Verdict.
Gamodi
Inside an unfinished apartment tower in Tblisi, Georgia, a legendary drag queen and teenage drifter live in purgatorial languor. Are they still inhabiting this plane of existence? A poetic fable that conjures a legitimately dreamlike milieu.
Tsugaru Lacquer Girl
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Goodbye Julia
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Toll
Suellen, an unhappy toll booth attendant, prays everyday at a cliff-side shrine for one thing: that her teenage son will be “cured” of homosexuality. In order to pay for conversion therapy, she helps her boyfriend steal wristwatches from wealthy motorists.
One Day All This Will Be Yours
Lisa is lured to a rare gathering with her parents and two siblings at the family's forest home. The purpose is to decide which child may inherit the vast land and take over the family business. A sensitive and funny portrayal of a dysfunctional family.
In Broad Daylight
In a powerful film based on actual events, a hard-bitten journalist investigates abuse in a Hong Kong care home. The film sidesteps no hard hitting questions, neglects cop-outs or easy answers, and offers a resounding moral challenge to us all.
Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry
Etero, a 48-year-old woman living in a small village in Georgia, never wanted a husband. She cherishes her freedom as much as her cakes. But her choice to live alone is the cause of much gossip. Unexpectedly, she finds herself falling in love.
The Settlers
In this nihilistic Chilean south western, notorious cattle rancher Menéndez dispatches a trio of hired guns (a Brit, an American cowboy and a local mestizo) to scout and scourge Tierra del Fuego. A searing critique of white supremacist foundational myths.
Raging Grace
In this riveting revenge thriller, winner of the Grand Jury Award at SXSW, Joy, an undocumented Filipino woman becomes a housekeeper for a terminally ill British aristocrat in his secluded home. But all is not what it seems...
The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed
A mid-thirties Jewish woman with an interest in BDSM struggles to maintain casual relationships with various “masters.” Witty, wry, and sexually frank, this off-kilter comedy finds humour in the absurd ways that our bodies move through the world.
Days of Happiness
Emma, a gifted young orchestra conductor is at a crossroads. Audiences are enraptured by her work, however, her career is steered by her controlling father, who’s also her agent. She also has a secret relationship. Tensions build, swell, crescendo....
Measures of Men
Germany's historical bigotry against Africans, and its servitude toward legitimizing mass slaughter is documented in this historical drama. Set in turn-of the century Berlin, demonstrating what has been called the 20th century's first genocide.