One day, everything went to shit. A forestry machine driver crossed a river and, without realizing, crushed thousands of highly endangered freshwater pearl mussels.

Lonesome Land is a philosophical crime film with an absurd twist. It paints a cinematic portrait of forestry loggers and other living creatures in a remote area of eastern Finland, near the Russian border.

While the story centres on one of the most severe environmental crimes in the country’s history, the film ultimately explores deeper themes: our perception of time and the growing alienation of humans from the very ecosystems that sustain us. 

Lonesome Land is a heartfelt tale about small human lives caught in the gears of capitalism – a story of our shared planetary loneliness.

The film intertwines majestic nature cinematography with the work, lives, and destinies of rural people.

The film is a comedy about working-class men born in Italy during World War II, about their values, worldview, and fading memories. Alongside their stories, a retired historian traces the course of the bombings of Bologna, the reconstruction, and the emergence of a new social class connecting the stories of umarells to archival material by listening to echoes of the past on his small pocket radio.

The construction of the tramline interests umarells. It leads toward the menacingly leaning medieval towers — even mentioned in Dante’s “Divine Comedy” — threaten to collapse onto the townspeople. The repair of the towers unfolds into an allegorical tale of humanity’s quest for immortality by resisting the ravages of nature and time.

Umarells, accustomed to physical labor, now need to learn to spend the permitted time of idleness and fill twenty, thirty, or even forty years of freedom.

As people age, they move from the center of the game to the sidelines. Construction fences separate the umarells — who have become “useless” observers — from the “useful” construction workers, but at the same time, old age means freedom: they are not afraid of losing their jobs, their status, or their finances.

Following a 2009 motorcycle accident that costs him his leg, Matti Suur-Hamari sinks into a deep identity crisis. Hospitalized, he is inspired by American parasnowboarder Evan Strong to try the sport, a choice that leads him to Paralympic gold. Along the way, his life weaves into Team Unicorns, a global community of adaptive athletes redefining their lives after trauma. They become Matti’s second family, bonded by shared injuries, illness, and heavy loss.

Their collective journey challenges the myth of the “lone hero,” proving that true resilience comes from community and connection. But when Matti retires in 2022, his elite athlete identity vanishes into a dark vacuum. With his family life simultaneously fracturing, Matti faces a new breaking point. Unicorns Never Die follows his raw attempt to rebuild from scratch, asking if the resilience that saved him once can carry him when everything shatters a second time.

Seven years deep in the northern woods. The camera was left alone—or maybe it never truly was. The animals lived as if it wasn’t there. Or because it was.

Creaturama is an experimental nature film where the human gaze steps aside and the forest begins to speak. It’s a journey into otherness and encounters beyond control. Built from tens of thousands of hours of trail camera footage, the film reveals the forest’s hidden rhythms with reverence.

There is no plot or narration. The story unfolds through the animals’ presence, movement, and gaze. A new cinematic language—silent, intuitive, and universal—emerges.

The sound design deepens the experience: nature’s symphony is gently pierced by distant jets or the faint buzz of chainsaws, reminding us of humanity’s reach.

Creaturama invites the viewer into a quiet, intimate world, offering a moment of shared existence across species. Can humans and animals, so different and yet connected, find understanding beneath the trees?