Use the search bar to find projects, completed films, and TFL community members.

Projects

The Squirrel

Pasi discovers the last real squirrel in the world, only to find out that the squirrel is depressed.

synopsis

The story takes place in a near future where real animals have died of extinction and have been replaced with artificial ones. Pasi is a 33-year-old lonely animal designer who works like a robot and takes advantage of the pleasures of VR-sex. But he has not been feeling well lately. He goes to a doctor who tells him that he is depressed. Everything changes when Pasi finds a real squirrel wandering helplessly in the street. It turns out to be the last living squirrel in the world. Although illegal and dangerous, Pasi decides to take the squirrel with him. Pasi does not know how to take care of the animal, but he does his best. Everything goes fine, until one day Pasi notices that the squirrel is depressed too. At the same time Kaisa, an emotionally stuck security officer is ordered to follow Pasi. Pasi decides to find a way to take the squirrel back to its natural living environment. He goes on a quest to save the squirrel and, more importantly, to find something real.

Director’statement

We are flooded by a constant stream of news of ecological catastrophes, species dying of extinction, old forests cut down... We cannot deny it: right now at this moment the natural world of our planet is going through a historically dramatic phase. At the same time I find myself more in touch with my touchscreen than trees or animals around me. And it just makes me wonder: are we losing our connection to the nature around us? To other beings around us? To ourselves? Can one be totally complete and happy without a connection to nature? This is the main question of the film and of the main character Pasi. Pasi has truly lost his connection with nature, he does not even remember it anymore, and in this story he tries to find it again. Although The Squirrel is a dystopian story, my intention is to tell it more like a humorous, absurd poem. I want the film to have a warm, graceful feel to it, even though it does have a cynical look at the way the connection between humans and nature is developing. I want this film to be as thought-provoking as it is comical. And yes, the humour in this film will be dead serious. I am Finnish after all.

TFL PROGRAMME:
ScriptLab 2018
Discover more details here:
Download
PDF
TFL Catalogue 2018

All the updates once a month in your mailbox, subscribe to the TFL newsletter.