On the Border (2012)

A daughter's exploration of her Finnish family's history prompted by the letters, objects, photographs left in her mother's apartment. Fragmented memories, dreams, and diary entries are juxtaposed with the director's journey to significant places and people in that history from during and after the Russo-Finnish wars, 1939 - 1944. Her mother, Lea, and her siblings left their home in the disputed border territory of Karelia and Lea's father was killed in 1941, fighting alongside the Germans against the Soviets. Lea began to see and hear things from her early 40s. In this hypnotic work of mourning and remembrance, past and present, layers of association, memory and imagining intertwine, as the film evokes the lingering impact of war and exile across the generations.