An important addition to Intellect’s popular series, Directory of World Cinema: Finland provides historical and cultural overviews of the country’s cinema. Over the course of their contributions to this volume, scholars from a variety of disciplines construct a collective argument that complicates the dominant international view of Finnish cinema as small-scale industry dominated by realist art-house films.
The contributors approach the topic from a variety of angles, covering genre, art and commercial films; independent productions; blockbuster cinema; and Finnish cinema’s industrial and historical contexts. While paying heed to Finland’s cultural specificity, the contributors also explore Finnish cultural industries within the broader context of international political, economic, artistic and industrial developments. Together, they skilfully depict an ever-changing national film culture that plays a dynamic role in the global cinematic landscape. Directory of World Cinema: Finland will therefore expand not only global interest in Finnish cinema but also the parameters within which it is discussed.