HELENE (2020) Trailer – 2020 AFI European Union Film Showcase

U.S. Premiere

Based on Rakel Liehu's 2003 novel of the same name, HELENE tells the real-life story of celebrated Finnish painter Helene Schjerfbeck and her star-crossed romance with art critic Einar Reuter, who later became her biographer. In 1915, Helene Schjerfbeck (Laura Birn, THE LAST ONES, PURGE, VOID) is a forgotten artist, living with her elderly mother in the Finnish countryside. Years have passed since her last exhibition, and while Helene continues painting, she has given up hope of pursing it as living. When an art dealer rediscovers Helene's work and decides to organize a large solo exhibition, she is reinvigorated. And when she meets young amateur painter and art critic Einar Reuter (Johannes Holopainen, FORCE OF HABIT), a passionate admirer of her art, he becomes Helene's confidante and, despite their age difference, the unfulfilled love of her life. A vibrant portrait of a bold, talented and fiercely determined woman, HELENE covers a key period in Schjerfbeck's artistic development as we see her grow more independent and a stronger artist than ever before. Official Selection, 2020 Shanghai International Film Festival, 2020 Lübeck Nordic Film Days. DIR/SCR/PROD Antti J. Jokinen; SCR Marko Leino, from the novel by Rakel Liehun; PROD Mikko Tenhunen. Finland/Estonia, 2020, color, 122 min. In Finnish with English subtitles. NOT RATED


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