Only period photographs slowly alternate on the canvas, yet it immediately transports the viewer to a completely different stage of history. It is just after the First World War, and the barely established Finnish state intends to harden its youth in every way – regardless of age or gender.
The documentary film festival Ji.hlava, which will take place from October 25 to November 3, will present two notable Nordic films in the Testimony program section this year. The first one, called Children of War and Peace, talks about a time both distant and dangerously close at the same time.
That distance, that journey through time seems to be embodied by the very texture of the photographs. The black-and-white images of children, often even of preschool age, in military uniforms with flintlocks on their shoulders are faded. We see them in such detail that the surface of the material on which they are developed stands out more. Like images of some kind of strange ancient age, when after the horrors of war there was a completely different social mood.
The film Children of War and Peace shows the chilling nature of war without casualties, explosions and death. | Photo: MFDF Ji.hlava
Finnish director Ville Suhonen composed his new feature mainly from archival materials. And it is remarkable how in it a kind of – albeit slightly cadaverous – beauty or poetics is combined with the image of terrible thinking.
In one of the first period shots, heavy double doors open to the garden, where a cradle lies next to a cradle, an infant next to an infant. One can only imagine what the future holds for them. The film contains a lot of similar disturbing images, without ever seeming to stir emotions from the audience – which was the goal of many similar scenes in the context of the time.
Monstrous beauty
Suhonen carefully, with feeling, puts the various testimonies behind him. In places they even sound lyrical, although their content is undoubtedly strongly dramatic.
The film Children of War and Peace will be shown at the Jihlava festival. | Photo: MFDF Ji.hlava
The image is often accompanied by the sound of scientific-sounding radio programs, supporting the idea of an emerging modern state with modern methods. This is what Finland – and especially in the field of education – has definitely become. It is all the more paradoxical to observe the nationalist efforts at the time to indoctrinate children and youth. But the creators also work with the testimonies of the schoolchildren themselves, who are subject to period propaganda.
The novelty is particularly remarkable because, despite the aesthetics firmly anchored in historical contours, it speaks about today and also to today, when we are still closely affected by several war clashes. Children of War and Peace is a work full of fruitful contrasts, as the title suggests. Among other things, it proves that the chilling nature of the conflict can be depicted without casualties, explosions and death. The monstrous beauty of period materials has the necessary power in itself.
How to change stereotypes
The second picture tells about a more positive and recent historical turning point. A typical Icelandic advertisement in the 1970s did not look much different from American ones. It showed a woman as the being who most longs for the company of a washing machine, and a man as someone who doesn’t even need to know how to make coffee. And above all, she doesn’t need to see her partner without make-up in the morning. So shush shush, wives, get up early.
Today, the island country is one of the best in the world for women. The film called The Day Iceland Stopped tells about the moment when everything changed. The title refers to the famous science fiction The Day the Earth Stood Still. It is not by chance that changing entrenched stereotypes in society often looks like complete science fiction.
The film The Day Iceland Stopped depicts the protests of local feminists. | Photo: MFDF Ji.hlava
“Footprints disappear quickly in the snow,” one of the protagonists of the memorable strike for women’s rights quotes a well-known Icelandic saying in the introduction, while the camera looks at the frozen but photogenic landscape. “It’s a metaphor for memory. You have to make sure that the snow doesn’t cover those tracks,” he adds. And the film The Day Iceland Stood Still similarly simply remembers how women decided that they no longer wanted to be the ones who were erased from history and memory.
Director Pamela Hogan works with flashbacks and hand-drawn animation to flesh out how the heroines lived in the early 1970s. One dreamed of being a ship captain. So forget it, it sounded from the surroundings. The other recalls how her mother once remarked that she wished she could be locked up in prison for three months with a good book. So at least she would have time to read.
Another recounts that while working on the farm she tried to join in on the men’s conversation – but it was as if she didn’t exist, as if she wasn’t there. In the society of farmers, a woman could appear only if she was a widow.
From these feelings, a feminist movement called the Red Stockings was formed. It was inspired by both America and Denmark, when change was in the air. But in Iceland it really succeeded.
The red stockings first surprised the public, for example, when they crucified a mannequin of dressed women on a Christmas tree. Or when they brought a cow to a beauty pageant. It was about making tracks so deep that even the strongest Icelandic wind full of snow and stereotypes cannot cover them.
The film The Day Iceland Stopped will be shown at this year’s Jihlava festival. | Video: MFDF Ji.hlava
Don’t go on strike
The year 1975 was designated by the United Nations as the year of women. The Icelandic government held a conference at the end of June. That’s when female speakers of different ages from different walks of life came together and the initially negatively perceived Red Stockings movement became a relevant social force. She decided to show that women are not just housewives and an accessory to a successful man. That if they go on strike one day, the whole country will really notice it quite significantly.
There was a problem: striking is communism after all, argued right-wing critics. However, one woman and one idea were enough: do you mind the word strike? So we’ll call it Day Off.
Sometimes, once in a while, even fairy-tale scenarios can become reality. Changes are possible. And seemingly radical ideas can lead to socially important changes.
Today, 48 percent of women sit in the Icelandic parliament. For 14 years, Iceland has been the best country in the world in terms of gender equality. And the woman they said couldn’t be the captain of the ship is called Vigdís Finnbogadóttir. In 1980, she became the first democratically elected president in the world.
But so that the fairy tale does not end completely like a fairy tale: even in a country decorated with statistics and superlatives, the fight is still not finished. And women, for example, take less money than men on average.
The image The day Iceland stopped is a simple, understandable and powerful gesture that it is never useless to fight for your rights.