PRODUCER Evelin Penttilä

Producer MOVEon the

Producer Evelin Penttilä, participating in the Producers on the Move Programme held by Cannes European Film Promotion, is busy with both films and TV series; domestic projects, as well as those with international ambitions. How does she manage?

By Maria Ulfsak Photo by Virge Viertek

Evelin, let’s start with director Jaak Kilmi’s feature film The Sleeping Beauty that premiered at the end of April in Estonia. This is already the second children’s film you completed with Jaak Kilmi. How did the production process go, considering the fact it had to be filmed during the pandemic? Jaak first shared the idea of the film with me in 2015, and I was immediately intrigued by it. The production process of The Sleeping Beauty was postponed due to international financing issues, but it also had a positive effect – we got Nils, our protagonist, who moved to Estonia exactly at that time. He was the perfect actor for the role, whom we had been searching for a long time. Since we were filming in the summer of 2019, and it took place in Estonia, we had no bigger problems caused by the pandemic, and the whole thing went smoothly. However, there were issues with the post-production process, since traveling to Latvia and Lithuania was restricted. We overcame this with effective planning, and the film actually benefitted from the buffer zones caused by the COVID-19. Here I would also like to express my gratitude to the Estonian Ministry of Culture who supported the film with a special grant during the times of the pandemic.

You are a producer constantly busy with international projects, especially those related to our neighbouring countries Finland, Latvia, and Lithuania. You are also involved in numerous minority co-production projects, as well as subcontracting. What kind of projects are you currently working on? We have extremely good connections with our neighbours. It all has happened organically and one thing has led to another. The newest collaboration is Barbarians (director Juris Kursietis, main producer Alise Gelze from White Picture) – I’ve known Alise for a long time, and I met Juris when we were jury members at the Black Nights’ Film Festival last December. It was also when he first introduced me to his new film, with a similar criticism of society as Oleg, only this time the central theme is corruption. This year, we hope to release another Latvian co-production film Lovable (director Stanislavs Tokalovs, producer Aija Bērziņa, production company Tasse Film). The film tells a modern story about a young man who is completely self-centred, and who unexpectedly has to has to become a more caring and selfless person. A completely different film is Hit Big – a collaboration with Finland (director JP Valkeapää, producers Daniel Kuitunen and Kaisla Viitala from Komeetta Film). With Daniel and Kaisla, our collaboration started during Maria’s Paradise, and now they are waiting for me to offer an Estonian collaboration project. Besides doing lots of work together, we have also developed a friendship with them. However, when talking about my so-called “regulars”, Emilie Dubois from Insolence Productions must certainly be mentioned, who did the sales of Bad Hair (directed by Oskar Lehemaa) for the French TV channel Canal+, and currently Emilie is co-producer for the short film Weight of Light.

You recently went to India, connected with the filming of Weight of Light. This is the new film by Anna Hints. Would you say a bit more about this? Those who have seen the documentary Paradise Will Arrive Tomorrow about food saving, know that Anna is interested in garbage. Well, that obviously means that Anna worries about the surrounding environment and green living. Weight of Light adds another theme extremely important to the director – girls’ and women’s rights to make choices in their lives. These themes are also essential for me. The screenplay was written together with Tushar Prakash, with whom Anna lived, both in Tartu and Delhi since 2016. They were inspired by a story they heard from a local non-profit organisation. The film has been shot, and it has now entered the editing phase. Our strong female production team also includes Emilie from France (who is also a co-producer of Anna’s short film Ice), and Tanvi Gandhi from India (who has succeeded as a woman producer in Bollywood). Our story is very important for Tanvi; and we were also strongly motivated by the female member of our film crew in India – several of them joined our team because of that.

You have completed several projects in collaboration with top filmmakers in Finland – Omerta 6/12 with Aku Louhimies, Helene with Antti Jokinen, Maria’s Paradise with Zaida Bergroth. The Estonian and Finnish film industry function in a true symbiosis. The Estonian and Finnish film industries are closely connected – the geographical proximity of the two countries certainly plays an important role here, but also the fact that both Estonians and Finns have very similar approaches towards work and life. Estonia’s great filmmaking cache and excellent cash rebate is attractive to filmmakers all over the world – but what is also important for the Estonian film industry is financing from Finland. There are numerous great filmmakers in Finland whom we know well. Our Finnish friends are really important for us in Stellar for exactly the same reasons – participation in minority co-production projects has created great mutual relations between Estonia and Finland, so that our partners also help us with our films. Cash rebate projects are important for us – both for economic reasons, and for providing great opportunities to polish our film making skills. Without these projects we wouldn’t have the start-up capital in order to support Estonian filmmakers in developing and producing their films. It’s a great symbiosis between Tallinn and Helsinki.

On the set of Light.

Evelin is very keen of winter swimming.

The wrap-up party of The Sleeping Beast.

During the past few years, you have also been involved in producing TV series – Omerta will become a series; you were also collaborating with the Finnish TV series Bad Apples; and another series-to-be is Invincibles. Does a successful film producer also have to be involved in producing film series? Everyone is now busy with series, the genre is huge nowadays. Unfortunately, the financing capacities of domes-

The team of Bad Hair at Estonian Film and Televison Awards’ gala. The premiere of Omerta.

It’s both wonderful and complicated when your work is also your lifestyle and hobby at the same time.

tic TV channels, a cornerstone of the financial plan for a quality TV series, are still scarce, so that producing internationally thriving stories is extremely complicated. According to our logic, the Estonian market is too small for films and series produced for local markets only. Ideas are not the problem in Estonia – there are many of these, but yes, the problem lies in financing the good quality TV series.

Evelin with her coursemates at ACE. exchange ideas and experience. This is going to be the first time when we introduce our new film in development At Your Service (screenplay by Andris Feldmanis and Livia Ulman who are best known for their screenplay for Compartment No. 6), directed by German Golub who won the Student Academy Award with My Dear Corpses. This year has been again unusual, the war in Ukraine has brought unexpected situations also in the field of filmmaking – unfortunately, we also had to pause one film project in development. Naturally, this is not as tragic as the war itself. We are currently working on many projects in the development phase in collaboration with Estonian filmmakers. Several projects are really exciting and I hope that among the new contacts found in Cannes there will be people we could start producing these projects with. EF

Since you are often busy with several projects at once, you probably work all the time. What are your ways of relaxing – do you have time for that? Well, it’s both wonderful and complicated when your work is also your lifestyle and hobby at the same time. In order to avoid burnout at work you must set strict borders between work and rest. I do have a few tricks – for instance I am a dedicated winter swimmer because this is something that clears your head for the year. I regularly practice sports, and read a lot of books. Also, I’m very outdoorsy, and spend time with family and friends; I also enjoy cooking at home – these are simple things bringing joy and obviously protecting me.

What kind of plans and expectations do you have towards this year’s Cannes Producers on the Move? I am very happy that I was chosen by European Film Promotion to participate, and I really hope to meet similar professionals from all over Europe, in order to