Matti - Hell is for Heroes / Matti
Finland, 130' ,
2006
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Directed by: Aleksi Mäkelä
Script: Marko Leino
Producer: Markus Selin
Production company: Solar Films Inc. Oy
Cinematography: Pini Hellstedt F.C.S.
Editing: Kimmo Taavila
Music: Tuomas Kantelinen
Cast: Jasper Pääkkönen, Elina Hietala, Elina Knihtilä, Juha Veijonen, Peter Franzén
Format: 35 mm, color
Running time: 130'
Synopsis
The famous ski-jumper Matti Nykänen won everything possible during his career – and more.
Four Olympic gold medals, seven World Championship titles, four World Cup tour championships and forty six World Cup circuit victories. Once his career as a professional athlete ended, however, the other side of his personality emerged into public view in all of its vulgarity. An alcohol dependency, several marriages accompanied by numerous marital problems, petty crime, uncontrolled acts of violence, greedy hangers-on… Wherever he roams, drama and catastrophe dog his footsteps. And everything is exposed in the headlines the next day…
Matti is a true based drama feature of a man who loves ski-jumping so much that he rises to the top of his game and becomes the best in the world. But although he can fly like an eagle, his life is littered with crash-landings. He stumbles, falls, and miraculously gets back to his feet – ready to tackle yet another doomed and foolhardy stunt jump.
Directors Biography
A self-taught movie director, Aleksi Mäkelä is the most successful of the modern era Finnish directors: the total domestic audience of his movies in theatrical release is nearly 2 million. 'The Tough Ones' (1999) was one of the initiators of the recent ascent of Finnish cinema, with an audience of 330,000.
The biggest domestic box office hit since the eighties, 'Bad Boys', drew a phenomenal audience of 615,000 in only 5 months. After that, 'Vares - Private Eye' was also the number one domestic movie of its release year 2004. His movie Matti - Hell is for Heroes was the most popular film in Finland in 2006 with an audience of 462,000.
Web pages Official website
Official trailer
Reviews Finnish biopic "Matti -- Hell Is for Heroes" reps a winning portrait of ski-jumping gold medalist and champion screw-up Matti Nykanen (Jasper Paakkonen). Helmer Aleksi Makela ("Bad Boys -- A True Story") transmutes babyfaced Nykanen's slow descent into alcoholism and later move into pop music into a darkly comic picaresque, more Mewling Veal than "Raging Bull," with tints of "Boogie Nights" and "Auto Focus" thrown in / Leslie Felperin, Variety.com
Location and screening schedule: Cinema Europe, Wednesday, October 24th at 19.00
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