''Tale of a Forest'' ( fi, Metsän tarina) is a 2012 Finnish nature documentary film directed by Kim Saarniluoto and . It combines footage from forests with narration about Finnish folklore. When it was released it broke the attendance record for a Finnish documentary film in Finnish cinemas.

Synopsis

''Tale of a Forest'' portrays animals and plants found in Finnish forests and surveys how they figure in folk customs and mythology. There are two narrators, a young boy and a grown man. The narrators say that the ancient Finnish people believed in a

world tree The world tree is a motif present in several religions and mythologies, particularly Indo-European religions, Siberian religions, and Native American religions. The world tree is represented as a colossal tree which supports the heavens, thereb ...

that holds up the sky and existed before all other trees. Forests were regarded as the domains of beings from folklore, and human visitors were expected to pay due respect to the owners. The narrators talk about how natural phenomena and features in the terrain have been associated with folkloric concepts, such as different types of beings and specific gods, and how Finnish people in the past have related to these. There is footage of forests from the four seasons, beginning in winter and ending in autumn.

Production

''Tale of a Forest'' was produced by for with support from the

Finnish Film Foundation The Finnish Film Foundation ( fi, Suomen elokuvasäätiö, sv, Finlands filmstiftelse) is an independent foundation with the task of supporting and developing Finnish film production, distribution and exhibition. It is supervised by the Departmen ...

and

Yle Yleisradio Oy (Finnish, literally "General Radio Ltd." or "General Broadcast Ltd."; abbr. Yle ; sv, Rundradion Ab, italics=no), translated to English as the Finnish Broadcasting Company, is Finland's national public broadcasting company, founde ...

. It had a budget of 185,000

euro The euro ( symbol: €; code: EUR) is the official currency of 19 out of the member states of the European Union (EU). This group of states is known as the eurozone or, officially, the euro area, and includes about 340 million citizens . ...

. Filming took place from 2008 to 2012 in

Parikkala Parikkala () is a municipality of Finland located in the province of Southern Finland and is part of the South Karelia region, from Lappeenranta and from Joensuu. The town center of Parikkala is about from the Russian border. The municipality ...

Punkaharju Punkaharju is a former municipality of Finland. It was consolidated with the town of Savonlinna on January 1, 2013. It was located in the provinces of Finland, province of Eastern Finland and is part of the Southern Savonia regions of Finland, reg ...

, Ruokolahti and

Rautjärvi Rautjärvi () is a municipalities of Finland, municipality of Finland. It is located in the provinces of Finland, province of Southern Finland and is part of the South Karelia regions of Finland, region. The municipality has a population of () and ...

Reception

Nordisk Film Nordisk Film A/S (lit. "Nordic Film") is a Danish entertainment company established in 1906 in Copenhagen by filmmaker Ole Olsen. It is the fourth-oldest film studio in the world behind the Gaumont Film Company, Pathé, and Titanus ...

released ''Tale of a Forest'' in Finnish cinemas on 28 December 2012. The same company released Finnish DVD and Blu-ray editions in 2013. ''Tale of a Forest'' made revenues corresponding to 813,324 US dollars from cinema screenings in Finland, which was the best performance ever for a Finnish documentary film. It lost the record later in 2013 to the ice hockey film '' Selänne''. Panu Aaltio received the IFMCA Award for Best Original Score for a Documentary for his music for ''Tale of a Forest''.

Trilogy

''Tale of a Forest'' is the first entry in a trilogy of standalone films that combine nature footage and Finnish mythology. Also produced by MRP Matila Röhr Productions, the other entries are ''

Tale of a Lake ''Tale of a Lake'' ( fi, Järven tarina) is a 2016 Finnish nature documentary film directed by and Kim Saarniluoto. It is about lakes in Finland, the wildlife in them and their place in Finnish folklore. The film features narration by Samuli Ede ...

'' (2016), which portrays Finland's lakes and their wildlife, and ''

Tale of the Sleeping Giants ''Tale of the Sleeping Giants'' ( fi, Tunturin tarina) is a 2021 Finnish nature film directed by . It is about the fells of Sápmi and is the standalone third entry in a series of nature films, after ''Tale of a Forest'' (2012) and ''Tale of a La ...

'' (2021), which was filmed in the mountains of Sápmi.

References

External links

Distributor's website

Production company's website
* {{IMDb title, 2066922 2012 documentary films 2012 films Finnish documentary films 2010s Finnish-language films Films based on Finno-Ugric mythology Documentary films about animals Documentary films about forests and trees Films scored by Panu Aaltio