Skip to main content
Lynx Man film image

Lynx Man

Ilveskuiskaaja

This event has passed

Upon discovering that Eurasian lynxes– hunted to near-extinction a century ago in Finland– have begun to prowl anew across his land, reclusive farmer Hannu sets up trail cameras to track the elusive wild cats he calls his friends: Joseph, Velvet Eyes, Grumpy Girl, and Spot. Hannu’s footage soon sees the night open up to all manner of delightful wildlife encounters: a fox frightened by geese; a moose’s stand-off with a mirror; lynx cubs trailing after their mother in single file. Inspired by this indirect contact with the animals he has sworn to protect, Hannu dons a whittled lynx mask and enacts a few playful, primal rituals of his own in the moonlight, where the distinctions between man and beast begin to blur.

Director Juha Suonpää’s projections of trail footage over sauna smoke imbue this quirky documentary with a uniquely mesmerizing quality.

 

Grand Prix, Cinemambiente 2023

 

Series Media Partner

Director
Credits
Country of Origin

Finland/Estonia

Year

2023

Series

Insights

Language

In Finnish with English subtitles

Film Contact
18+
82 min
Documentary

Book Tickets

This event has passed.

Credits

Producer

Pasi Hakkio, Niina Virtanen

Screenwriter

Juha Suonpää, Hanna Kaihlanen

Cinematography

Alexander Markus Lembke, Juha Suonpää

Editor

Tuuli Kuittinen, Hanna Kaihlanen

Original Music

Puuluup, Kimmo Helén, Tanel Kadalipp

Director

Juha Suonpää headshot

Photo by Juha Suonpää

Juha Suonpää

Juha Suonpää is an academic, photographer and filmmaker. Suonpää’s film Wolfman premiered in Visions Du Réel 2013. He continues to research and publish in the field of photography, visualizing science and the construction of the identity of a place.

Filmography: Vuores (2000); Wolfman (2013)

Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre

Where to Land

Dir. Hal Hartley
75 min

Hal Hartley's first new film in a decade is a melancholy farce about mortality and what we'll call "late middle-age". Bill Sage is a semi-retired filmmaker who isn't dying faster than the rest of us but who behaves like he might be.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Auction

Dir. Pascal Bonitzer
91 min

Inspired by a true story, writer-director Pascal Bonitzer has crafted an inquiring, witty drama about the art market. When a long-lost Egon Schiele masterpiece reemerges, art appraiser Alex is initially skeptical. And yet...

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Innocence

Dir. Lucile Hadžihalilović
115 min

Lucile Hadžihalilović's first feature is a suggestive, subversive fairy tale set in a private school for young girls, the kind of film David Lynch might have made, if he'd been born a French woman in the early 1960s.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Simple Men

Dir. Hal Hartley
105 min

Two brothers – a criminal and a bookworm – search for their father, a 60s anarchist on the run, finding few answers, but more trouble and desire. Hal Hartley's most Godardian film plays with convention to exuberant effect.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Sorry, Baby

Dir. Eva Victor
103 min

Sometimes bad things happen to good people. Writer-director-star Eva Victor has made a funny, engaging, honest and ultimately upbeat American indie about living through trauma.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Ned Rifle

Dir. Hal Hartley
85 min

Hal Hartley's 2014 feature is a spirited indie about a young Christian tracking down his father, who believes he might be the devil. He's joined by Aubrey Plaza's grad student, Susan, who has her own bone to pick with the notorious Henry Fool...

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre