A Long Hot Summer

Summer 1980, Finland. A group of young people put together a rock band called Kalle Päätalo and spend the summer looking for somewhere to play. Nobody can really handle their instrument, the van keeps breaking down, and their manager is in love with the lyrics he writes himself. Somehow the band carries on. Perttu Leppä's film became the most watched youth picture of the 1990s in Finland. The band's name is a joke taken from the well-known Finnish writer Kalle Päätalo. The film caught on so widely that the made-up band actually went on tour and travelled the country. The telling does not overplay the nostalgia; it gives the ineptitude of being young a fond but mocking eye.