River

A film whose multiple narratives are set over the course of one hour, The River opens with the attempts of Anni (Sanna Hietala) to drown herself and her child in a river that passes through a mill town. Two teenagers see what is going on and intervene, setting in motion five interweaving stories. The first concerns a messed up teenager named Santeri (Antti Mikkola) whose struggle to decide whether or not to make a bungee jump reflects his struggle for self-acceptance. The second focuses on Esa (Juha Kukkonen), a financially destitute folk singer who is trying to make peace with his estranged father. Leena (Liisa Vuori), a pizza parlor waitress, is the subject of the third story; after stirring up trouble by arriving late to work one day, she makes amends by fixing two of her co-workers up on a date. The last story is that of Ilpo (Hekki Rantanen), whose marriage is coming undone; and Milha (Elina Hoffrén), a woman who is tending to her dying husband. The River was screened at the 2002 Philadelphia Festival of World Cinema.