Markku Heikkinen’s The Arctic Circle of Lust is described as a warm-hearted family film about ordinary Finnish men who face an unnamed sexual desire – bisexuality – and need to decide either to keep their secrets or “come out of the closet” regardless of the pressure of conformity created by society.
The film follows one man who has faced his bisexuality and has learned to be truthful and loyal both to himself and his partner. We also see men who have ended up living alone, having searched for a more suitable way to be both sexual and loving. Some keep their secrets to themselves. Others are looking for ways to come out of the closet and find a new contractual basis for their life together with their life partners, regardless of the pressure of conformity created by society.
Zone2 Pictures producer Hannu-Pekka Vitikainen, who produced Gods of Molenbeek (2019) which screened at more than 60 international film festivals including Hot Docs, Visions du Réel, Dok.fest Munich and DocPoint, tells Business Doc Europe how “Northern Finland’s rugged nature and silent landscapes, in different times of year, reflect, even melodramatically, the men’s timidity and loneliness.”
“The men, shot through reflections on treated glasses and mirrors, are shown in their work sites, cars, ‘cruising areas’. They tell their confessions to the camera in flats, hotel rooms, and cars,” he continues. But as the story continues, “the men who were unrecognizable at the beginning of the film will come in front of the audience.”
“The viewer gets close to very sensitive and intimate situations in the painful moments of relationships,” he adds. “The film is intimate and of high visual quality, [depicting] archaic nature and its four seasons, from the darkness of ‘kaamos’ to spring thaw, provide a stark backdrop for private moments.”
The 80-minute project, budgeted at €539,295 with 90% in place, has broadcasters on board in the form of YLE (Finland) and NDR Arte (Germany). The project won a pre-buy from Swiss broadcaster RTS at Visions du Réel Industry 2023. It has also received Finnish funding from numerous sources including the Finnish Film Foundation and the Swedish Film Institute. Television rights have already been sold to Finland, Sweden, Germany, France and Switzerland. At Cannes, producer Vitikainen is searching out festivals, sales agents, distributors and buyers. Delivery is expected February 2025.
“Step by step it became more like a family movie,” commented director Heikkinen of the film’s core themes during Finnish Film Affair in September 2023. (His No Road Home won the critics prize and Audience Award at Docpoint Helsinki in 2018). “These are real family men [but] I think [as] years go by, and you are in a long-term relationship, your relationship to sexuality, sexual desire and affection can change. So I think ‘truth’ is the theme, of bisexuality and sexual secrets. We are actually talking about the universal theme about love and sexual desire in a long-term relationship and how to be loyal, how to be truthful, how to define sexual morals in your own life.”
In his director statement, he further states how, “in my film, I want to depict people’s experiences, feelings that are put in ‘social science’…The prevailing heteronormativity in the community comes to light when a single person searches for a sexual identity or escapes definitions. Am I accepted? is the big question.” Of director Heikkinen, producer Vitikainen says: “He has a special ability to get close to people’s sensitive private moments and tell a story through cinematic means.”
