The best Matleena Kuusniemi’s movies

An old dog has a hard time learning new tricks in this drama set in Turku. Ari, a paramedic, is a chronic womanizer; he makes it a point of pride to never sleep with the same woman twice, and his nights are a long series of brazen one-night stands. But when Ari meets Tiina (Laura Malmivaara), something unexpected happens - he falls in love. For the first time, Ari finds himself pursuing a long-term relationship, and he makes a genuine effort to remain faithful to her. But old habits die hard; Tiina introduces Ari to her circle of friends and temptation arises as he encounters Hanna-Riikka, a theology student, and Ilona, who is soon to be married. Despite Ari's feelings for Tiina, he begins having affairs with both Hanna-Riikka and Ilona, leading to an unpleasant revelation on the day of Ilona's nuptials. ~ Mark Deming, Allrovi

Naked Harbour is a movie about Finnish love in the year 2011. It is a story about people who seek love and acceptance at any cost. During one winter week all its characters face something irreversible.

When a schoolteacher is sacked, he projects his bad mood at his troubled teenage son. The son, in turn, buys a CD player from a pawnshop with counterfeit money. This starts a chain reaction of misery as every victim projects his problems on to another person.

A celebrated violin player, Karin, has to end her stellar career after a car accident makes her fingers stop working their magic. She starts teaching students who are twenty years younger than her, only to find herself falling in love with Antti, one of her students. They are not an easy match, both being passionate about the music and overly ambitious about their careers.

A celebrity psychiatrist struggles to find a date for a wedding. Her dearest ex is getting married and she needs to find someone fancy enough to hide the fact that she is lonely, drinks too much and is pretty fucked up in any imaginable way.

The life of a heroine. The life and work of Hella Wuolijoki. A poet, spy and millionaire, she turned into an internationally acclaimed businesswoman, politician and playwright, who collaborated with Europe's leading writers such as Bertolt Brecht and Maxim Gorky, but faced the harshness of a changing world as the Finnish, Soviet and British secret services focus on her life, family and work.

A tough crisis comedy on a swing weekend where four different age couples face each other mentally and physically. Everyone has a crisis, either on the surface or hidden, and hence their own reasons to try to save their relationship. The weekend's dress code is with or without a bathrobe, and falling in love and jealousy are forbidden.

A ravishing story about little Pete and his survival and growth in the gray area between love and fear.

Summer begins, Aku graduates high school and faces a great emptiness. As his girlfriend, parents and friends all leave the city, it looks to be the dullest summer ever. Everything changes at Midsummer when Aku meets Juli, a beautiful, strange and wild girl. Juli asks Aku for a ride to eastern Finland. Aku agrees – without any idea what he's getting himself into.

Haunted by his traumatic past and cautious about the prospects of an uncertain future, a fourteen year old boy named Juhani winds up in an isolated boys' home known as The Island. Juhani has been shuttled between foster homes and temporary families for the past six years, leaving any prospect of stability in his life a faded dream. When Juhani winds up in a remote shelter for troubled youth known as The Island, he has little idea of how ruthless superintendent Olavi Harjula can truly be.

Hayflower has started school, where she learns a lot of exciting brand new things. Quiltshoe doesn’t like to stay home without a sister to play with. When Hayflower tells about an upcoming fishing trip with her class, Quiltshoe comes up with a complicated plan, so that it will be Quiltshoe attending the trip instead of Hayflower. The trip evolves into a memorable and chaotic happening,

Eero’s career as an author is spiraling down: he just can’t get started with his new novel. The ambitious actor Pihla is about to get her international break. Neither of them is willing to sacrifice their career even though their relationship is doing worse than ever. Void is a comedy-drama about the price of success and the agony of failure, and about situations where your partner just doesn’t get it.