A Tall Man

Colour, DIGIBETA
Finland, 2010, 19 min
Section: Documentary Films in Competition

Synopsis

Finland’s first international celebrity was known as the Käpylä Giant. With a height of 2.5 metres, Väinö Myllyrinne simply couldn’t be ignored. In archive footage from the 1930s we see him holding an industrial hammer, riding a specially adapted bicycle, and shaking hands with various politicians, and also with Charlie Chaplin. Today, an exact model of him is on display in a Finnish supermarket. Using a melancholic soundtrack to set the mood, director Jani Peltonen points to human obsession with anything that deviates in any way from the norm.

About the director

Jani Peltonen (b. 1981, Järvenpää, Finland) studied film and television at Lahti University’s Institute of Design, and since that time has been working in various branches of the Finnish film industry. His debut The Great Mill (Suuri mylly, 2008) was part of his diploma work, and he presented the film at the international film festivals in Helsinki, Bratislava, Lahti, Pristina, and Pärnu. His latest film, A Tall Man, is screening at Karlovy Vary this year, and was also selected for the Short and Documentary Film Festival in Helsinki.