Director: Selma Vilhunen Run Time: 6:35 Country: Finland

Synopsis: A comedy about a chaotic morning in a family with kids and a mother determined to take care of everything herself.

How did you cast the film?
As soon as I had read the script I knew I wanted to have Joanna and Santtu in the lead roles. I’ve seen their work on stage and they are simply fantastic actors whose warm and sort of cozy presence seemed to fit this film perfectly. For the child actors, I auditioned about 40 children altogether.

What’s the most difficult thing about filming a comedy?
Rhythm is important and I’ve learned a lot in the editing room. Next time around, I will shoot takes with different tempos so I’ll be able to make the final decision regarding the tempo in the editing.

What’s the most embarrassing situation you have found yourself in?
I don’t feel embarrassed very easily. When I do feel it, there’s always terrible pain and shame involved - and that’s why I will not list any of it here.

The film feels very warm and homemade-like the characters. How did you achieve that?
Thank you. I think it is due to the fact that I really concentrated on creating an atmosphere of authenticity and of a connection between the characters. A peaceful, relaxed and trusting presence in the actors’ work is key. Also, an actor cannot present the surface of the action or an attitude, but he or she must rather live the very core of the scene at hand. That can actually be something rather absurd if it was truly analyzed. People are irrational and they have secret depths to them. What makes the actors’ work difficult is that all this is supposed to be achieved in short periods of time, and there are some many distracting elements there on the set.

Are you a parent? And what’s the quickest you’ve ever left the house?
I am a mother of a four-year-old. I think 15 minutes from bed to street is our record.

As a Finnish filmmaker, does the emergence of Scandinavian cinema excite you?
Yes, naturally it does. I have always been a huge Ingman Bergman enthusiast. Sweden and Denmark have a lot of wonderful and important directors, such as Lars von Trier, Lukas Moodysson, and now also Jens Jonsson, Ruben Östlund, Lisa Aschan and Gabriela Pichler to name a few. And we have some really interesting filmmakers here in Finland, too. I think Finnish fiction film is starting to really blossom right now.

What advice do you have for someone who is about to make their first short film?
Don’t hide behind the technical stuff. Your task as a director is to think about what is the essence of your film and to protect it. Trust your intuition and be brave.

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