Stories of Finnish Art – Akseli Gallen-Kallela: Lemminkäinen’s Mother, 1897

Akseli Gallen-Kallela painted some powerful interpretations of the Finnish national epic, The Kalevala. Among the most moving of these was the Symbolist painting Lemminkäinen’s Mother, in which youthful bravado and recklessness have driven the hero to destruction. The scene is set in the realm of the dead, by the river of Tuonela, from which there is no return. And yet the power of a mother’s love transcends the bounds of humanity, and the dead awaken to life. The film takes the viewer deep into another world, into limbo, into a land that does not exist. STORIES OF FINNISH ART - CREDITS DIRECTOR Terhi Amberla VISUAL CONCEPT Terhi Amberla Hannu Pakarinen CINEMATOGRAPHER Hannu Pakarinen MANUSCRIPT Anja Olavinen EDITOR Ville Koivuranta SOUND DESIGNER Zacharias Kullman MUSIC Juri Seppä TITLE GRAPHICS AND VISUAL EFFECTS Lasse Kilpiä Ville Koivuranta COLOURIST Timo Luomanen GRAPHIC DESIGN Suvi Wirman ONLINE Ari Rusanen TRANSLATION Mike Garner NARRATOR Sanna-June Hyde MUSICIANS Riikka Lampinen, cello