Wednesday, December 7

When we arrive at the cinema we find two other people already sitting there. By the time the room dims and the advertisements start three other people have walked in. I photograph the screen at the point when it shows a row of seats to underline the fact that the chairs in this particular screen have airline-style tables that allow you to go to Oscar’s Bar and bring back a wide variety of drinks and snacks.

The seven of us unanimously avoid doing this.

We have come to see Kikka, a Finnish film that follows the life of a Finnsih 80s pop phenomenon: a true story with fictionalised elements, according to a screen that appears during the titles.

Kikka began as an enthusiastic and somewhat naive teenager from Tampere and her story has the tragic moral arc of someone getting everything they wanted and then realising what it costs. Described as the Finnish Samantha Fox she became a laughing stock for one section of the population while selling concerts and records to another section. Her success only increased her status as an object of fun.

She responded by becoming alcoholic and depressed until, on the verge of a comeback, she finally died of a heart attack in 2005 at the age of forty one.

The film had Swedish subtitles and proceeded in short scenes. I followed it all while aware that, even with perfect Finnish, I would have missed a lot of the cultural references (while getting others)