The film “Stars Above” follows the stories of three women from the same family across three different decades. The setting for all the stories is the same: an old country house that has been in the family for a long time. The main characters – Saima (Irina Björklund), Tuulikki (Meri Nenonen) and Salla (Elin Petersdottir) – each live in this house, only Saima‘s story takes place in the war time 1942, when Finland fought against Soviet Union, Tuulikki‘s story in 1978 and Salla‘s story in the present day. Each woman is between 30 and 40 and they are at a crossroads in their lives and in need of making choices. Saara Cantell‘s emotional drama “Stars Above” is the story of the choices and secrets that are passed on from one generation to the next. It also raises the question about how the choices of mothers – and kept secrets – affect the future of their daughters. To what extent can we choose for ourselves, and how much do our genes, upbringing and surroundings affect those choices?

 

About the director:
 

Finnish screenwriter and film director Saara Cantell graduated from the University of Art and Design in Helsinki (Finland) in 1996. She has written scripts for several award-winning short films, as well as countless radio plays. In addition to this, she has directed two children‘s series, feature film for children “Unna & Nuuk” (2005) and documentary “Very Own” (Ikiomaksi, 2007). Her second acclaimed feature film“Heartbeats” (Kohtaamisia, 2010), focusing on women‘s lives, was screened at the Kaunas International Film Festival in 2010 and was one of the best films as voted by the audience. The theme of women and their choices in life remains central in director‘s latest feature “Stars Above”.