A documentary film by Mika Ronkainen about the phases of a family and the cycle of generations. A story about a middle-aged woman who decides to change the course of events – if only for one summer.

Anitta Kolehmainen (42), a mother of five, lives in the small village of Karunki, close to the Swedish border in Finnish Lapland. Both of Anitta’s parents live in a nursing home thirty kilometers north of her home. Her father, Lauri, has Alzheimer’s disease. After suffering several strokes, her mother, Viivi, has lost her ability to speak and move independently. Anitta’s parents live in separate rooms along the same corridor.

Anitta would like to take better care of her parents, but her own circumstances make it difficult. She feels guilty about this. Three of her children are already adults and have moved away from home. The oldest, 23-year-old Jari, is about to become a father. The youngest two are 10-year-old Markus and 5-year-old Roosa.

Anitta has reached a stage in her life when she has to rethink what is important to her. Big changes lie ahead: she is about to become a grandmother for the first time, and her marriage is in crisis.

Anitta’s childhood home, Ojalanpää, sixty kilometers north of Karunki, has stood empty and cold for several years. The small farm, built by Anitta’s parents, has undergone the same transformation as much of the Finnish countryside: villages are shrinking as people move to towns and cities. The people who once lived on this farm have moved to a nursing home.

At the beginning of the summer, Anitta finds a solution to both of her problems. She takes her father out of the nursing home and moves back to her childhood home, Ojalanpää, with him and her two youngest children, Markus and Roosa.

Their summer begins.

“Intimate and beautiful.” Helsingin Sanomat

“Arresting.” NYT

57 minutes. Originally released in 2004.

Click CC for subtitles (English).