The grand finale of Anna Eriksson’s trilogy, E, the dreamlike new work by the Quay Brothers, a punk fairy tale from Colombia combining Amélie and Anora, as well as other cinematic delicacies have been confirmed to this year’s Love & Anarchy Festival. This year’s festival poster was created by illustrator and graphic designer Tuomas Kärkkäinen. The 38th Helsinki International Film Festival – Love & Anarchy will take place from September 18–28, with affordable Early Bird tickets now on sale.
Anna Eriksson’s cinematic trilogy climaxes with E that will have its Finnish premiere at the Love & Anarchy Festival in September. In the film, Finland’s former prime minister causes a scandal at the Nobel Banquet and vanishes into the desert of reality. “The three-act, story-based cinematic narrative has come to an end. I want to make the cinema of the future: visionary, dangerous, and hypnotic. The postmodern human has seen everything except their own subconscious. Welcome to the Desert of Reality,” says director-screenwriter-actor Eriksson.
The legendary Quay Brothers also offer dreamlike storytelling with their surreal new film Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass. This ghost story, enriched with stop-motion animation, takes viewers on a hazy train journey through Eastern Europe.
As usual, Love & Anarchy will feature highly praised, controversial, and award-winning films from top international festivals. DJ Ahmet, which debuted at Sundance, is a feel-good coming-of-age story set in a small Macedonian village, where music and a forbidden first love spark rebellion in a 15-year-old boy. Timestamp, which premiered at Berlinale, portrays students and teachers continuing their schoolwork despite being scattered across war-torn Ukraine. Berlinale’s award-winning film Deaf is a charmingly authentic drama about a deaf mother’s struggle to raise her child in the hearing world.
The visually captivating and daringly dangerous Rains Over Babel is a futuristic punk fairy tale where Amélie gives a tender kiss on the (butt) cheek of Anora. Directed by Colombian-Spanish Gala del Sol, this depiction of a soul’s gamble with death is a quintessential Love & Anarchy gem. Chloë Sevigny shines as a frustrated TV host in the gonzo comedy Magic Farm, where an American TV crew spirals into chaos in a small Argentinian village, reminiscent of Sebastián Silva’s style (The Maid, R&A 2009; Nasty Baby, R&A 2015).
Festival Artist Tuomas Kärkkäinen and the Moving Image
Helsinki based illustrator and graphic designer Tuomas Kärkkäinen, responsible for the festival’s visual identity of 2025, mainly works on magazine illustrations and children’s books but is keen to explore creative side paths. “For years, I have dreamed of creating the Love & Anarchy poster, inspired by memories of queuing for tickets at Lasipalatsi two decades ago, rushing from one theatre to another, and, of course, the films themselves. The idea behind the poster was that film is a moving image—perhaps the poster image could also be in motion.”
The 38th Helsinki International Film Festival – Love & Anarchy will be held in Helsinki from September 18–28.
Early Bird serial cards are now available: HURMIO (6 tickets for €73), PARATIISI (12 tickets for €134), and EUFORIA (20 tickets for €200). Regular-priced serial cards will be available from September 1. Read more and purchase serial cards: https://hiff.fi/en/serial-cards/