Open Up to Me

Maarit spent years as a school counsellor. After transitioning she could not get back into the profession, and now she cleans offices for a living. One day, alone in a therapist's room, she tries on the therapist's clothes, and a client who has arrived late takes her for the real thing and starts talking. From there Simo Halinen runs two lines at once: Maarit trying to build a life that belongs to her, and Maarit trying to reach the teenage daughter her former wife keeps at a distance. The film treats her as a person rather than as a subject. Leea Klemola took the Jussi for best actress and Halinen the one for best screenplay in 2014, and the film was nominated for the Nordic Council Film Prize.