The Finnish Film Foundation has awarded a grant of 20,000 euros for the development of raw film.
Virpi Suutari himself is from Kainuu. Photo from 2018. LAURIE OLANDER
The Finnish Film Foundation’s support decisions are revealedthat a movie is being made about raw river pearl mussels. In the support decision, the film is described by name Raw King.
Euphoria Film Oy has been granted a development grant of 20,000 euros on December 9. Virpi Suutari has been appointed as the director, screenwriter and producer of the documentary film.
– An absurd story about brutes and people, the description of the support decision says.
Iltalehti caught up with Suutari to talk about the film. The film project started last year after extensive destruction.
In August 2024, Finland experienced massive devastation when a suspected gross nature conservation crime was revealed in Suomussalmi’s Hukkajoki. It turned out that the forest machines working at Stora Enso’s harvesting site have repeatedly crossed the river, where there is a deposit of highly endangered river pearl mussels. I follow Yle across the river may have been driven up to 400 times.
The forest machine drove over Hukkajoki several times and possibly caused the death of thousands of wild animals. The situation was revealed in August 2024. Pirkko-Liisa Luhta
Even thousands of endangered raccoons died in overtime. The clams died when they were crushed under the forest machines, and some of them suffocated after the water turned muddy. Some of the dead were saved.
According to the Finnish Nature Conservation Union the raccoon is in imminent danger of extinction.
At first, Suutari thought that a short film could be made from the brutal destruction. However, after visiting Kainuu, he understood that it is a bigger phenomenon.
Suutari himself is from Kainuu.
– I met forest machine workers in the area and also people who are not connected to this brutal case, but work in the forestry sector in different regions of Kainuu. I wanted to make a film about the realities of their lives and their position in society.
– I have also met a lot of researchers and followed the rearing operation of the wrasse in laboratory conditions, their injection into rivers and studies related to the species.
According to Suutari, the film project expanded into a larger portrait of Kainuu, Finnish nature and forests.
– How are people’s work, activities, life choices connected to nature? They are not separate things. People easily think that we are somehow outsiders and that nature is “over there somewhere”. I hope that the film will arouse thoughts and understanding in the viewer about how dependent we are on nature and how our actions have direct effects on other species, Suutari opens.
Suutari says that he has been making the film for over a year now. He plans to follow the brutal case until the end of the first instance. The case is currently under police investigation.
– I want to awaken in the viewer an understanding of what kind of social, economic and political structures enable similar cases. No single worker at the grassroots level is responsible for things.
According to Suutari, the film’s budget is around half a million euros. The film’s distribution rights have been discussed both domestically and internationally.