Yahoo Autos ‘It’s a Very Strange Film’: ‘Olli Mäki’ Scribe Mikko Myllylahti Tells ‘The Woodcutter Story’
Finland’s Mikko Myllylahti returns to Cannes’ Critics Week with his feature debut as a director “The Woodcutter Story.” His short “Tiger” premiered in the same section in 2018, while “The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Mäki,” which he co-wrote with Juho Kuosmanen, won Un Certain Regard back in 2016.
“It’s a very strange film,” he tells Variety about his dark fairytale about the ever-optimistic Pepe, whose world – confined to a small, snowbound town – is slowly crumbling around him. Admitting that after “Olli Mäki,” based on a true story of a boxer preparing for his big break in the 1960s, he needed to “get away from reality.”
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“I was fascinated by old tales and in Finland, they can be quite cruel,” he says. But the film was also inspired by a real-life encounter with a woodcutter from the north, not far away from his hometown of Tornio, whose calm acceptance of life’s tragedies proved difficult to shake off.
“There was something very Finnish about the way he was dealing with his ordeals: sometimes, we just don’t fight back. I don’t even know why. The ‘Book of Job’ addresses that, but if you don’t believe in God, how do you approach such misfortune? In Pepe’s case, what’s inside of him is all that he has.”
Starring Jarkko Lahti, the titular Olli Mäki, the film allowed Myllylahti to revisit his roots as a poet. He started writing as a teenager, even though most of his peers were more interested in “fixing cars and drinking beer.”
“My parents were very supportive, but they asked me to continue my studies, so I went to film school. I am not sure if that’s what they had in mind,” he laughs.
“My background as a poet definitely affected this script. I didn’t want the film to be obscure, however; I wanted to be as clear as possible without losing the ambiguity of the story. I just miss poetic cinema sometimes. Maybe in some way, I wanted to bring it back.”
credit: Tero Ahonen
As Pepe, content with his simple existence, suddenly has to deal with unemployment, bouts of violence and even the breakdown of his own family, Myllylahti decided to swap realism for dreamlike atmosphere and absurd, twisted humor.
“I wanted to start with some comedy, even though all these people are losing their jobs. Later, the tone changes a little.”
