Kihniö

Director Saija Mäki-Nevala looks at her childhood village through her lens with a mix of old love and newfound foreignness. Small details come to the fore. Everything is both strange and familiar. Kihniö is a documentary about people, first and foremost. We tour the village with a handyman. A café owner tells a story about a burglar too honest for his own good: he leaves a tip for a soda bottle he's swiped. People know each other. Is a town really anything more than the sum of the lives that have been spent there? The film pries open a point of view to the present while displaying the strata of decades past. It speaks of work, home and foreignness. Looking at otherness makes one's own life seem a tad more peculiar.
Text: Miska Repo (DocPoint)