Huliganov’s Finnish Experience #3 – Land of Lakes

Original playout date: 21 December 2007
Duration: 8:15

“We leave Imatra and start to go up country to Puumala. On the way, I take a hitchhiker, Kai, who it turns out lives in England only a few miles away from my first wife and kids. He came back to check up on his property, and he gave me some interesting insights into the region only a few of which you hear here, as this was where my panasonic ran out of batteries and the Fuji picks up the thread from the start of the next instalment. At first you can hear I went out of character when Kai was in the car, but I didn’t want to intimidate him and have him thinking he had got into a car with some crazy person driving, so I hope you’ll understand why that bit is off-accent and off-character. Continue reading “Huliganov’s Finnish Experience #3 – Land of Lakes”

Huliganov’s Finnish Experience #2 – Going up country to Imatra

Original playout date: 21 December 2007
Duration: 17:52

Quite disorienting to deal with a language I completely don’t know.

Finnishing School continues with a trip up country. It’s unavoidably dark on the journey as Finland doesn’t get many hours of daylight in the winter, but bear with me – it lightens up in the second half, and I recreate the effect of Sibelius Finlandia being played over speakers in Imatra when they let the waters come crashing over the dam. Unfortunately that only happens at Christmas and in the summer season, so I didn’t get to see one of Finland’s most vaunted spectacles, but in winter the site of it also has something to offer, as you will see the icicle formations hanging off the rocks, and the famous Valtionshotelli of Imatra set off in the snow.

Quote of the clip: “Imatra, a bit like Sumatra, but a lot colder”. Continue reading “Huliganov’s Finnish Experience #2 – Going up country to Imatra”

Huliganov’s Finnish Experience #1 – Arrivalli

Original playout date: 18 December 2007
Duration: 9:50

Yes, indeed. It’s the long awaited Finland trip series kicking off. As you can tell the mike on my new camera is a big let down and I’m still learning how to shoot with it, but look at the quality of some of the pictures in the end and you’ll see it’s not like I threw my money entirely away on that Lumix Panasonic
Continue reading “Huliganov’s Finnish Experience #1 – Arrivalli”

Non compos mentis

Original playout date: 2 December 2007
Duration: 2:41

A film made in Varkaus, Finand, by me, simply filming a wino staggering along a Finnish street, but the idea was to provoke a discussion of the rights and wrongs of it.
Continue reading “Non compos mentis”

From this weekend’s Rzeczpospolita

image

If you need any persuading as to why it’s worth being in East Europe, let this map speak for itself.