Alli Haapasalo is a Finnish director and writer with passion for telling strong female-driven stories. Haapasalo’s feature debut, 2016’s “Love and Fury,” followed a writer finding her own voice. She followed it up with 2019’s “Force of Habit,” written and directed by a collective of seven writer-directors. The exploration of gender bias and structural misuses of power was nominated for several Jussi Awards (Finnish Film Awards) and won the Nordisk Film Award in 2020.

“Girl Picture” is screening at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival, which is running online from January 20-30. More information can be found on the fest’s website.

W&H: Describe the film for us in your own words.

AH: “Girl Picture” is a film about the need to be seen – so you can then see yourself. The main characters, 17 and 18-year-old Mimmi, Emma, and Rönkkö, are girls at what I call a liminal age: right at the cusp of womanhood, fluctuating between childhood and adulthood. At this age the gaze of another person feels like a superpower – it can define, strengthen, or change one’s self-image in an instant.

Closeness with the other is very inviting; it hooks us. And then suddenly, an overwhelming realization takes over: how to be close to another person if you’re only just drawing your own contours?

The story follows these girls on three consecutive Fridays, during which Mimmi and Emma experience the earth-moving impact of falling in love, while Rönkkö goes on a quest for something she hasn’t yet experienced: pleasure.

The condensed timeframe means it’s a fragment of their lives. But because teenagers’ lives are so amplified, and every moment counts for everything, a fragment may very well encapsulate a whole universe. And there, in the center of the universe emerges the picture of “me.”

W&H: What drew you to this story?

AH: It was the irresistible characters! Already the treatment of writers Ilona Ahti and Daniela Hakulinen felt modern and fresh. I really wanted to make a film where girls took center stage and were very complex characters.

We also shared a desire to make a film that didn’t become a slave to the plot but allowed time and space to be very true and real about the characters. It kind of became my mission to depict girls in a much more complex and realistic way than we are used to seeing in cinema. And to create a film where girls are valued as exactly who they are.

W&H: What do you want people to think about after they watch the film?

AH: I’d love it if people thought about how we see girls, both on-screen and off. One of the representations we are very used to is “girl as victim” – there are many iterations of this. I really didn’t want to repeat that narrative. In “Girl Picture” girls aren’t punished, shamed, belittled, patronized, or even warned. They explore their identities completely without danger, and nothing stops them from being who they are. You might say that this is a utopian world, but we really wanted everyone – and especially girls – to have a film like this to watch.

The film makes other positive statements too. The story underlines that sexuality is a normal, sometimes problematic, part of life, and we should all be allowed to explore it safely. We’re also putting consent front and center, but not making a fuss about it – it’s very natural and easy for the characters. Also, the story of Emma and Mimmi is a love story between two girls, but sexual orientation is never mentioned because it’s a non-issue to everyone, as it should be in real life.

W&H: What was the biggest challenge in making the film?

AH: This may sound odd, but this actually has been quite painful: my biggest challenge throughout the years it took from treatment to premiere has been describing this film in words. It was a very hard story to pitch, and it’s still a hard film to present verbally.

If you describe the plot, it sounds very small – and if you describe the themes, emotions, epiphanies, and statements, it sounds like it includes a whole universe, so it’s impossible to describe in a sentence or few. You just have to see it!

W&H: How did you get your film funded? Share some insights into how you got the film made. 

AH: This film was funded the same way that most Finnish films get funded. Typically there are three major funders: the Finnish Film Foundation, a television channel (in our case the Finnish Broadcasting Company), and a local distributor (in our case Nordisk Film).

Usually, directors and writers also apply for personal artist grants to get them from idea to first draft or through a long development period, as happened with this film.

So, it’s a mix of many sources, but the largest part of the funding comes from the Finnish Film Foundation.

W&H: What inspired you to become a filmmaker?

AH: I steadily grew into a filmmaker from childhood on. I had a lot of creative interests as a child and teenager – photography, music, visual arts, theater – and I spent most of my free time watching films. I’d watch anything from Charlie Chaplin or Francois Truffaut, and as a kid my favorite films were Westerns.

By the time I was graduating from high school I had come to realize that all my interests would come together perfectly in filmmaking. So, it was not a specific moment or inspiration, but a long journey into wanting to make films.

W&H: What’s the best and worst advice you’ve received?

AH: The best advice that I have received — and that I also give to all aspiring filmmakers — is to always be yourself. It’s not, of course, always easy to know what “being yourself” is. But it’s been very helpful to me to just try to be who I am. This advice works when you’re writing or directing a film, and also when you’re representing your work to financiers, buyers, and audiences.

The worst advice I ever got was to be bossy. That means nothing and generates nothing. A director’s authority doesn’t come from being bossy – on the contrary, it comes from listening to and respecting others, and from knowing what you’re doing.

W&H: What advice do you have for other women directors? 

AH: Trust and value yourself, your ideas, and your style. Trust that you are good, professional, and interesting. Professionally argue against belittling. Gatekeepers are regular people too.

Try to stay away from the competitive film industry babble, and don’t look at other people’s successes and compare yourself to others. Everyone peaks at a different time. Instead, concentrate on creating good work. It’s the work that should inspire you! Spend your time on really figuring out your unique [voice]. When you are really good at what you do, you have power.

W&H: Name your favorite woman-directed film and why.

AH: I can’t name one favorite. It’s just not possible! But the most recent, completely amazing woman-directed film I saw was Jasmila Žbanić’s “Quo Vadis, Aida?”

This film left me speechless. I couldn’t go straight home from the cinema. I had to walk around town and calm myself down. It was so powerful and real. The film is able to capture what’s the most inhumane and the most human about us. It’s somehow so simple and clear, yet so complex and gut-wrenching. My hat’s off to the director, and my heart is still in pieces months after seeing this film.

W&H: How are you adjusting to life during the COVID-19 pandemic? Are you keeping creative, and if so, how? 

AH: I have been very lucky: my work life hasn’t really been affected by the pandemic. “Girl Picture” got greenlit almost exactly at the same time as COVID-19 arrived in Finland, in the spring of 2020, and the film was finished quite recently, so almost all of the pandemic era I have kept busy with this film. And despite the extra hassle and extra costs that the pandemic brought in terms of testing and other safety measures, the pandemic didn’t affect the production much.

Now that the film is coming out the pandemic is causing more heartache because I don’t know how much I’ll be able to travel with it and observe the interaction between the film and its audiences.

W&H: The film industry has a long history of underrepresenting people of color onscreen and behind the scenes and reinforcing — and creating — negative stereotypes. What actions do you think need to be taken to make it more inclusive? 

AH: This conversation is finally starting in Finland too. It’s long overdue! Finnish film is almost entirely dominated by white Finns both in front of and behind the camera, which doesn’t reflect Finnish society. Gatekeepers in all areas of filmmaking – be it school admittance, producing, financing, granting, programming – need to look at what opportunities they have for advancing diversity in the film industry. We all need to educate ourselves about unconscious bias and keep a public conversation going about this so that we build awareness. Directors, writers, and producers need to ask themselves if they are helping or hurting questions of representation, be it story or casting decisions. This is everyone’s job! All filmmakers who are in a position of power, who can help out newcomers, should mentor underrepresented aspiring filmmakers. We need to actively keep opening doors.