Katariina Lillqvist's political puppets illicit hate mail at Tampere Film Festival

By Ezra Winton, March 14, 2008 Comments (0)

Katariina Lillqvist's political puppet film recently caused a bit of a ruckus - including hate mail and increased security - in Helsinki before it launched at the Tampere Film Festival, according to the Helsingin Sanomat:

The fantastical puppet animation Uralin perhonen (“Butterfly from the Urals”, “Far from the Urals”) tells in tragi-comic fashion the story of the alleged homosexual relationship between Marshal Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim and his Kirghiz valet, but it also delves into the life of members of the Red faction in Tampere during Finland’s bloody Civil War in 1918.

Lillqvist wants her film to provoke discussion on the Mannerheim myth, but admits she has been surprised and shocked at the furore that the film has generated in the evening papers even before it had its first screening.
The 26-minute puppet animation takes part next week in the Tampere Film Festival.

At the advance screening in Tampere on February 29th, there were considerable security measures in place, owing to the threats and hate mail that Lillqvist had received.

Check out the full story here.