Finnish film shot on phone to premiere at Rotterdam Festival

Finnish film ´Nobody Meets Your Eyes´, which was shot on an old mobile phone will me premiered in the upcoming Rotterdam Film Festival.

Director Jesse Jalonen shot the film on a Nokia C5 mobile phone in 2010, said a press release issued by the Aalto University.

The 51st International Film Festival Rotterdam 2022 will take place online from 26 January 2022 to 6 February.

Ten years ago, Jesse Jalonen bought a Nokia camera phone, and the jagged quality of the pictures he took with it stuck in his mind. "Back then, I would hardly have thought that I would still be shooting a long film with it," said the press release, quoting Jalonen as saying with laugh.

According to the Finnish Film Foundation, this year, the only Finnish film in the programme is Jesse Jalonen's debut feature, Nobody Meets Your Eyes.

The 65-minute film film follows Tuoma, a single father who gets into trouble with child protection services because of his invisibility. The other main character, Ninni, meets her internet lover for the first time in real life, but even then there is a camera between them.

Jalonen decided to shoot the film on an old Nokia for its ray-film-like look and convenient size.

"The mobile phone went everywhere in my pocket. I shot the film footage slowly over a period of four years," Jalonen said.

The film combines documentary and fiction. The Rotterdam Film Festival describes it as "a sensitive story about fundamental loneliness and the comfort of connection".

The film was produced by Ella Ruohonen at Aalto University's Department of Film and Stage Design in collaboration with Fossi Films. It is Jalonen's final project in his film directing major at Aalto University.

Nobody Meets Your Eyes is featured in the festival's short and medium-length film section. The Finnish premiere of the film is not yet known.