Levelk | Level K

FourLittleAdults_Enni-OonaAirola_Juulia-AlmaPöysti_Matias-EeroMilonoff_photo_MitroHärkönen_Hi-Res_Helsinki_Finland_2021©TuffiFilms

FACTS

Original Title

Neljä pientä aikuista

Genre

Drama

Production Year

2023

Country of Origin

Finland, Sweden

Language Spoken

Finnish

Length

122 mins

Festival(s)
– IFF Rotterdam Big Screen Competition (world premiere)
– Gothenburg FF Nordic Competition

Director

Selma Vilhunen
Scriptwriter
Selma Vilhunen

Cast

Alma Pöysti
Eero Milonoff
Oona Airola
Pietu Wikström

Production Company
Tuffi Films

Producers
Venla Hellstedt
Elli Toivoniemi

Release Date
Theatrical release in Finland December 2023 by Aurora

A modern love story about a couple who venture into a polyamorous relationship and is faced with the challenges it creates when the new rules are explored.

SYNOPSIS

Juulia is a successful Member of the Parliament with a seemingly perfect marriage with her priest husband Matias. But when Juulia finds out Matias has had a year-long affair with Enni, she collapses. To save her marriage, Juulia invites Enni to be a part of their lives, and they start a polyamorous relationship. When Juulia explores the new rules, she falls in love with young Miska, who seems to be the most mature of the quartet. There is a lot of love in the relationships among the four, but no matter how hard they try, challenges seem to remain.

KEYIMAGE_FourLittleAdults_Matias-EeroMilonoff_Juulia-AlmaPöysti_photo_MitroHärkönen_Hi-Res_Helsinki_Finland_2021©TuffiFilms

FourLittleAdults_Amanda-EmiliaSinisalo_Juulia-AlmaPöysti_photo_MitroHärkönen_Hi-Res_Helsinki_Finland_2021©TuffiFilms

FourLittleAdults_Matias-EeroMilonoff_Juulia-AlmaPöysti_photo_MitroHärkönen_Hi-Res_Helsinki_Finland_2021©TuffiFilms

FourLittleAdults_Enni-OonaAirola_Juulia-AlmaPöysti_Miska-PietuWikström_Matias-EeroMilonoff_photo_MitroHärkönen_Hi-Res_Helsinki_Finland_2021©TuffiFilms

FourLittleAdults_Juulia-AlmaPöysti_Miska-PietuWikström_photo_MitroHärkönen_Hi-Res_Helsinki_Finland_2021©TuffiFilms

FourLittleAdults_Juulia-AlmaPöysti_photo_MitroHärkönen_Hi-Res_Helsinki_Finland_2021©TuffiFilms

FourLittleAdults_Juulia-AlmaPöysti_Miska-PietuWikström_Matias-EeroMilonoff_Enni-OonaAirola_photo_MitroHärkönen_Hi-Res_Helsinki_Finland_2021©TuffiFilms

Selma Vilhunen

Selma Vilhunen is an Academy Award-nominated director, screenwriter and co-founder of Tuffi Films. Her youth drama Stupid Young Heart (2018) won the Crystal Bear in Generation 14plus at the 2019 Berlinale. Her feature debut Little Wing (2016) received the Nordic Council Film Prize in 2017. Vilhunen has also directed acclaimed documentaries, such as Hobbyhorse Revolution (2017), which won the Best Documentary Film Prize at the Finnish National Film Awards, and was nominated for the European Film Academy’s Young Audience Award in 2018. Her short film Do I Have to Take Care of Everything? (2012) received an Oscar nomination in 2014.

Selected filmography
2023 Four Little Adults, feature film, Tuffi Films
2018 Stupid Young Heart, feature film, Tuffi Films (Crystal Bear winner Generation Kplus at Berlin FF)
2017 Hobbyhorse Revolution, feature documentary, Tuffi Films
2016 Little Wing, feature film, Making Movies (Toronto FF)
2014 Song, feature documentary, Tuffi Films
2012 Do I Have to Take Care of Everything? short fiction, Tuffi Films
2008 Pony Girls, feature documentary, Making Movies
2007 Pietà, TV film, Making Movies

Trailer

Exclusive clip

Producers

Venla Hellstedt studied literature and film (BA) in London and gained an MSc in Social Anthropology from the London School of Economics and Political Science. She worked in a number of documentary, drama and news productions for BBC, ITV and the Discovery Channel. Hellstedt returned to work in her native Helsinki in 2009, after nearly 14 years in the UK, and has since worked as a producer of many award-winning Finnish films and international co-productions. Hellstedt became a partner of Tuffi Films in 2016. Her first feature film as a producer, Stupid Young Heart (2018), received the Crystal Bear in 2019 Berlinale Generation 14+ competition. She has taken part in several international film professionals’ courses, such as Inside Pictures and EAVE Producers’ Workshop.

Elli Toivoniemi is an award-winning producer-director based in Helsinki, Finland. Her work includes internationally acclaimed films like the Academy Award nominated short fiction Do I Have To Take Care of Everything? (2012), the winner of Sundance Short Film Jury Award The Date (2013) and Stupid Young Heart (2018), awarded with the Crystal Bear. Toivoniemi is an EAVE & ACE producer graduate, assigned as Film Producer of the Year 2020 in Finland. Toivoniemi is behind the Force of Habit anthology series (2019) including a feature, 11 short films and an impact campaign, exploring gender discrimination and existing power structures in public and private life. The anthology series earned Tuffi Films the Finnish State Prize for Cinema in 2020. Games People Play (2020), which Toivoniemi produced with Venla Hellstedt, had its international premiere in Göteborg IFF and was awarded the Baltic Film Prize at Nordische Filmtage Lubeck, 2020. Toivoniemi’s latest release, Just Animals (2022), grasps the lives of animal activists.

FourLittleAdults_Matias-EeroMilonoff_photo_MitroHärkönen_Hi-Res_Helsinki_Finland_2021©TuffiFilms

"Love and empathy, in my opinion, are not light subjects, but very complex and urgent ones. As humankind, in order to survive the crises we live in, such as climate change and species extinction, we must unite and tackle those issues together. This means learning how to compromise, how to change perspective, and how to truly respect someone utterly different."

- Director Selma Vilhunen

THE CAST

Alma Pöysti

Juulia

The Helsinki born actress Alma Pöysti graduated 2007 from the Theatre Academy at the University of Helsinki with a Masters degree in Arts, and has since gathered a broad experience on the theatre stages as well as in front of the camera. For over a decade Pöysti has been working in both Finland and Sweden, in both languages, as Swedish is her mother tongue. Pöysti is also fluent in Finnish, English and French. She portrayed Tove Jansson in the praised film Tove (2020) and is well-known from films and tv-productions like Blackwater (2023), Helsinki Crimes (2022), Liberty (2018), Lola upside down (2016) and Naked Harbour (2012). In 2023 Pöysti is starring in the upcoming films A day and a half by Fares Fares, Fallen leaves by Aki Kaurismäki and The Good Driver by Tonislav Hristov.

Eero Milonoff

Matias

Eero Milonoff is an acclaimed Finnish actor, known for his roles in films Games People Play (2020), The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Mäki (2016), Ganes (2007), Beauty and the Bastard (2005) and the TV series Munkkivuori (2022) and Hooked (2015). In 2019, Milonoff received the Guldbagge Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in the fantasy film Gräns (2018). Milonoff is also known for his work in Kom-teatteri, the Finnish National Theatre and Linnateatteri in Turku.

Oona Airola

Enni

Oona Airola is a Jussi award-winning actor and singer. She is known for her award-winning roles in films The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Mäki (2016) and Oma maa (2018). In addition to films, Airola’s work includes numerous roles in series, such as Helsinki Syndrome (2022), Made in Finland (2022), Hotel Swan Helsinki (2020) and The Paradise (2020). Airola has also been seen on the theater stage, for example in the musical As It Is in Heaven at the Helsinki City Theatre.

Pietu Wikström

Miska

Pietu Wikström is known for their roles in the series Carpe Fucking Diem! (2020), Kaverikirja (2020), Aikuiset (2019) and The Night Servants (2019), where they played the lead role. On the big screen, Wikström has been seen in the acclaimed films Girl Picture (2020), Fucking with Nobody (2020), Force of Habit (2019) and Metatitanic (2018). Wikström also makes rap music and spoken word poetry under the stage name Kuopus.