NATO’s nuclear exercise, a 12-minute uninterrupted tracking shot, and the Finnish Eurovision Song Contest entries collide in the night of Helsinki in November 1983. The film presents various apocalyptic scenarios, and based on them, presents an alternative storyline from the perspective of the scenarios’ targets on the streets of nocturnal Helsinki. The difference between imaginary and real nuclear war is revealed to be frighteningly fragile.
Country
FinlandYear
2025Length
14'
Category
Documentary/ experimentalPremiere
Italian
Screenplay
Jani PeltonenEditing
Matti NäränenSound
Antti OnkilaProduction
Kaarle Aho, Pauliina MausSynopsis
Biography
Jani Peltonen is a Finnish filmmaker and researcher who has been working in the local film industry since the early 2010s. His short films have been screened at several international film festivals, including Visions du Réel, Karlovy Vary IFF, Melbourne IFF, True/False FF, Full Frame DFF, DocumentaMadrid, IndieLisboa, Edinburgh IFF, DOK Leipzig and Porto/Post/Doc. He is currently a doctoral student at Aalto University and part of the Critical Cinema Lab.
Statement
I found the camera test that serves as the backbone of the film from the Finnish Broadcasting Company (YLE) archive by chance while looking for material for another film. The unbroken presence and the night atmosphere immediately called me. When I found out that at around the same time as the test was filmed in November 1983, NATO’s Able Archer 83 nuclear war command exercise was taking place in Europe, it immediately connected in my mind to the current discussion about nuclear weapons, which has become frighteningly normalized in Finland since joining NATO. I understand that such matters should be approached rationally, but I wanted to create my own counter-footnote through the archives, where the matter is approached with emotion. The past is never unfinished, but the future always has potential.
— Jani Peltonen
Archival materials
Night driving in Helsinki (material tape, 11/1983, YLE).
Other visual material: YLE (Finnish Broadcasting Company), National Audiovisual. Institute, my old neighbor.
Music: Kojo – Nuku Pommiin, Sonja Lumme – Elämä ja yö, Vicky Rosti – Sata salamaa.
