Eden is a coming-of-age film about a Protestant Confirmation camp on a summer’s week, set in the archipelago of Helsinki. Aliisa is the intellectually confident non-believer, Jenna is the queen bee and Panu is the scared bird. The experience of these teenagers is affected by Tiina, a young and eager priest.
Acting
Milonoff's Aliisa—sharp, yearning, devastatingly real.
Direction
Heikkilä captures that specific humid desperation of teenage summers.
Cinematography
Archipelago light that makes repression look almost beautiful.
Director
Ulla Heikkilä
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Finnish 'rippileiri' (Confirmation camp) is a near-universal rite, making this culturally specific yet weirdly universal.
Heikkilä based the camp's oppressive atmosphere on her own experiences, explaining the sensory specificity of dread and heat.
FI
