‘It’s a Very Strange Film’: ‘Olli Mäki’ Scribe Mikko Myllylahti Tells ‘The Woodcutter Story’ in Cannes
variety.comMarta Balaga 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.” “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?
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