BLUSH – An Extraordinary Voyage
Director：Iiti Yli-Harja
Screenwriter：Iiti Yli-Harja
Cast：Fatu, Rai, Leena Uotila
Producer：Valtteri Munkki, Mikko Heino
Cinematographer：Iiti Yli-Harja
Running Time：14min55s
Region：Finland
Year：2022
Language：Finnish
Production Company：Side Stories
SYNOPSIS
For 18-year-old Finnish–Kosovan Fatu, a simple visit to the grocery store feels as nerve-racking as a lunar expedition: for the first time in his life, he’s wearing makeup in public. Luckily his best friend Rai, a young woman on the spectrum of autism, is there to ferociously support him through the voyage.
Director Biography
Iiti Yli-Harja (b.1987) is a film director and a musician. She graduated from Aalto University, Finland, as Master of Arts in 2021. She makes documentary puppet animations. Her films often explore human multidimensionality and incompleteness: the precious and sometimes funny humanity. Her style is rough: the signs of life, the wear and tear of being, are valued. Her documentary puppet animation All My Mom’s Phone Calls(2021) received Finland’s premier Jussi Award for the best short film in 2023, and the film BLUSH–An Extraordinary Voyage(2022) received the Finnish Film Foundation’s main award, the Risto Jarva award in 2023.
Director's Statement
With this film, I want to contribute to showing many different kinds of male images and to noticing their beauty and power. I have a 10-year-old son and am surprised by how much he has had to face the limited stereotypes of being a boy. Misogyny lives deep in societal structures and therefore men doing things that are perceived as feminine still arouse fear and anger in many. Fatu, or anyone else, shouldn’t have to be afraid to show their true self.
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