And White Was The Night is set in the shady world of an international crime organization that reaches from Colombia all the way to Finland and Russia. The story centers around the organization’s members and it’s victims. It follows the fates of Antonio and Maria, two young Colombians, who come to Finland in search of a better life.

Soon after arriving to Finland the Colombians find themselves caught in the middle of the organization’s internal struggle for power. They are forced to make quick decisions on who to fear and who to trust. Soon they realize that in order to survive they have to go beyond their morals and fight back.

The events unfold during one turbulent day and a white summer’s night.

And White Was The Night is a serious film about the evil in men. It crosses language, culture and genre barriers, creating an original and truly thought-provoking experience.

Synopsis

And White Was The Night was first conceived as an idea to explore man’s choices in a situation where social pressure and other external forces make him take actions against his own morality. When a social system continuously creates these kinds of situations it starts to affect the personalities of the people involved. This evolved into the idea to explore how social systems create and support evil to a point where the only counter force would be active and self sacrificing heroism.

International crime is born out of many different causes; poverty, greed, un-equality or lust for power, and it manifests itself in most of the cultures and societies as an social system of sorts. What is unifying is the systems’ power over their members. In this paradox a man creates a social system to attain a goal, but eventually the rites and rituals of the system develop a secondary meaning – to keep the system itself alive while making the original goal secondary. From this point of view international crime, namely drug and human trafficking sets an interesting and important stage for exploring both evil and heroism.

The story is set in the forests and suburbs of Finland, but it periodically takes you back to the jungles and towns of Colombia. This I think creates an interesting contrast. Even more of a contrast is the white night of Finland and the pitch black darkness of the jungle.

Another important aspect of this film was to break the traditional genre boundaries. I wanted to explore the evil in the system by using the strengths of many different genres.

It is of paramount importance to stay true to facts when handling such hard topics as human trafficking or child soldiers, but I didn’t want the film to have the traditional objective and rather detached way of portraying the subject matter. I wanted to present the material in a way where the viewer could afterwards remember the film as something different - in a positive way. To make this happen the visual and aural storytelling had to venture into new grounds that at points could be called experimental.

I hope that the film gives the audiences a powerful and thought provoking experience and that the topics of the film get the attention they need.

Helsinki, Finland. August 2009.

Writer/Director Mika Rantonen

A word from the Director

A word from the ProducerAnd White Was The Night is a mind-shaking action drama about the adverse sides of our world, about the everyday reality for a myriad of people. It’s mainly a Finnish production, with international involvement, the kind of that questions the boundaries of traditional film making. Behind the small budget hides a quality film in the technical and thematic sense, a film that crosses cultural boundaries.

The film tells the story of two young Colombians, Maria and Antonio following them through their search for a better life. At the same time it explores global problems of human rights; drugs, child soldiers and human trafficking. The story is filmed in Helsinki, Finland as well as various locations in Costa Rica. The working group and actors represent 16 different nationalities.

This full-length film wouldn’t be possible without a young and competent team and their determined work ethic for more than two years. And White Was The Night will find its audience with the film’s influential topic and high quality production.

For myself it’s been an honour to work with a subject that I believe in. The film’s subject matter affects you regardless of your nationality or origin, which brings great potential for distribution. The main target audience of the film is between 20 and 35 years old, well educated, active young adults, art house-film hobbyists, students of the industry as well as Rakkautta ja anarkiaa festival’s target audience’s kind of viewers in Europe, South America and in the main actor Ramin Sohrab’s home country Iran.

In autumns 2009 we will finish the film’s final production and seek ways to distribute it. The small budget and faith in the story has taken the film far and made it incredibly cost-effective. For the distributors the film offers a great opportunity with small risk.

The film deals with the weak side that is in everyone and makes us take the easy way for ourselves regardless of the consequences. It processes the global problems of criminality in a thoroughly realistic way, the problems causing violence that destroys thousands of lives every year. I am proud to stand behind the result.

Helsinki, August 2009

Producer Ulla Junell

The project has employed more than 100 cast and crew members from 16 different countries.Principal Cast:

Ramin SohrabVicky MartinezJohn PartaPanu RantalainenJuha KoistinenRostislav AaltoAmira KhalifaAndrei TsumakIsmo Apell

Principal Crew:

Writer, Director, Cinematographer, Editor Mika Rantonen independent filmmaker, education PCFI Praque Film School 2006, University of Helsinki - Master of Philosophy.

Producers Ulla Junell produced music videos, done commer- cials and fiction as a Location Manager, production student in Metropolia University of Applied Sciences.

Mae Navarro worked as an actor in Secret Lives (a finnish drama series), education Heltech- Media Assistant, study International Business in Haaga-Helia Polytechnic.

Production designRebekka Sage a production designer and an artist with shows held in Thomas More Gallery, Syn Gallery and Indianapolis Museum of Art. education University of Cincin nati’ s Design, Art, Architecture and Planning College. Light designToni Haaranen worked on many Finnish commercials, features and music videos as on light technician

Supervising sound editorTimo Kari sound design student in Metropolia University of Applied Sciences

Graphic DesignJere Paajanen

Release date: Project is still in post-production. The estimated completion date is at the begining of year 2010.

Runtime: 92minutes

Aspect Ratio: 16:9 & 2.35:1

Country: Finland, Colombia, Iran

Languages: Spanish, English, Finnish, Russian

Filming locations and dates: June-July 2007 in Finland, January 2008 in Costa Rica & May 2009 in Finland

Company: Uphill Films Oy / www.uphillfilms.net

Contact: ulla.junell@uphillfilms.net or mika.rantonen@uphillfilms.net