Editorial

The magic of cinema in the piazza and under the linden trees

Welcome to the first Karhupuisto Film Festival, September 8–12, 2025, and to this zine.

The idea for the Kallio film event was born at the Berlin Film Festival in February among four film and cultural industry professionals living in Karhupuisto.

A stupid and self-aggrandizing scoundrel, of course.

The mascot of the Berlinale and Berlin is a bear. So the Berlinale is for Berlinale. We have our own bear at home in Karhupuisto, in the Finnish Berlin. Could the bear be golden like the main prize of the film festival, at least spiritually now? Will the film be returned to the film district and the artist's home hill after too long a dry season? Of course it will be returned!

The tradition of outdoor cinema screenings is centuries-old, for example in Italy. A film projector and a screen have been brought to the Piazza. The city's residents have brought their chairs. The magic of cinema has brought together people to experience, share, wonder, encounter and enjoy – a life worth living.

We have admired outdoor film screenings in recent years in Bologna's Piazza Maggiore, on the beach in Cannes, on the rooftops of Brooklyn, and in the numerous Freiluft cinemas in Berlin's parks.

As you may have read in the local newspaper, Kallio has been “showing off” his coolness past Berlin. Despite the reckless home-court bonus, good things are happening amidst the depressing global political setbacks and tragedies.

The festival's theme was urbanism and cities. They say the world's challenges are solved in them. In Finland, the Kallio area is known to have the same population density as Manhattan. Let's gather for urban films - interesting new releases and great classics - and urban culture in the most vibrant square in Helsinki.

It is blooming this summer. The Kallio Summer Streets project has made Karhupuisto an even more enchanting and greener oasis than before. People have lounged, danced, worked remotely, played ping pong and chess, read books, cuddled and sipped thermal coffee on wooden benches in complete peace, unter den Linden and without the pressure of commercialism. We hope that the summer experiences will continue.

Finnish summer is a roller coaster of weather, but meetings and movies can still be enjoyed outdoors in September.

In the first Karhupuisto Film Festival magazine, the authors of Kulmi examine the themes of film and urbanity in their essays.

Alex Kinnunen