Santa Claus Is Coming To Town

Finland is not known as a great exporter of cinema. We have given the world Aki and Mika Kaurismaki, director brothers whose films are rather enjoyable if you’re into European art house cinema and long silences. Finland also threw up Renny Harlin, the director of such films as Die Hard 2, Cliffhanger and The Long Kiss Goodnight, but whose biggest achievement in the eyes of many, was to marry Geena Davis.  

Looking at this history, it was refreshing to see something nicely mainstream but still so very, very Finnish in the cinema last night. Rare Exports is a Christmas fairytale of sorts, set in the northern Finland where, as we all know, Father Christmas resides. But this is no Santa Baby, the real Santa is a monstrous cannibal with massive pair of horns and an army of violent elves who kidnap children and slaughter innocent reindeers.   

It’s a perfect holiday watch for anyone enjoying a little twisted take on the painfully dull reality of December. And bring along anyone over 12 (well yes, the BBFC rated this 15, but what do they know? A little nudity and swearing never hurt a teenager), they’ll love it. A visit from Santa will never be the same. 

Rare Exports, in cinemas now.

Leaking the Inconvenient Truth

The witch hunt is on for Julian Assange. He is arrested, his bank account has been closed and he is very conveniently being accused of rape in Sweden. Various lunatics politicians even call for him to be assassinated.

Is it just me or does this sound just a tad, err, undemocratic? So far the Wikileaks have given us some embarrassing private descriptions of world leaders, but  they have also revealed some rather more serious facts about international politics.

Why shouldn’t we know about these things? Why shouldn’t we know about war in Afganistan, the war funded by our tax money, being all but lost and the country being corrupt and far from democratic? Why shouldn’t we know that half of the world governments are seriously worried about Iran’s and Pakistan’s nuclear weapon development?  Or about the influence of the Russian mafia into politics? Or that Berlusconi is making secret deals with Putin? Or that Tories promised before the election that they would run a pro-American regime and buy more arms from the US if they came to power?

Everybody knows that the public is only told the minimum. The unofficial policies can be hard to justify,  sometimes they are borderline illegal. I have worked for government, I know. However, this is not an excuse. Even the unofficial policies HAVE to stand scrutiny. And if you get caught, you should take responsibility, not go running around calling for the messenger to be shot.  

We have been lied to by our politicians. Because we can’t handle the truth? Because we are too stupid to understand the reality of politics? Are the politicians trying to shut down Wikileaks to protect us? Or to protect themselves? Take a wild guess. 

The release of more than 250,000 US embassy cables
has embarrassed governments around the world. 

My High Street Crush - COS

Christmas is just around the corner and with it, the real reason we love the holidays and the whole hullabaloo: the January sales. Starting right after Christmas we are even given a bank holiday to dedicate for shopping – how considerate!

The looming sales mean that I try to abstain from shopping around this time of the year. And it is REALLY hard, especially as my high street crush COS is just around the corner. COS is owned by H & M, but for obvious reasons they don't go around shouting about it. The clothes are good quality materials, they look and feel design but come with a high street price tag. I reckon the classic COS clothes (with a nice little scandi twist) even kind of justify as a sensible buy. And guys: it's worth checking the suits too. 

So far COS only operates in a handful of European countries so if you don’t have a store in your country, don’t forget to include it in your itinerary on next holiday. And if you live in London, go check it out. But remember, you have been warned: it can cause an addiction. 

Give me a C! Give me an O! Give me a S!
Give me a perfect dress for winter!

There for You (When the Rain Starts to Pour)

You know sometimes you just get the feeling that you have the most awesome friends in the world? Well I do. My friends do awesome things. They write books, change politics, help others, create art and fashion. They are great journalists, unbeatable entertainers and superb PR wizards. Many people will find them annoying because they question things and demand a change. And I’m really proud of them.

I recently interviewed my friend David for a new Finnish paper called NHL. The article is about tackling homophobia in schools by educating kids about LGBT history: its heroes and heroines, the people who have made the British culture what it is today but have either had their identity written out of the history books because their sexuality wasn’t acceptable, or who have been written out all together.

Besides being a teacher, David is also the founder of A Day in Hand campaign that aims to inspire same sex couples to hold hands in public. The campaign is inclusive: anyone, straight or gay, can support the campaign by holding hands with  someone of their same gender and uploading the picture on A Day in Hand website. It’s so simple. To promote love and equality through the innocent act of holding hands.

But it takes a lot of work to get these great things to happen. To organise campaigns and events, lobby politicians, donate your time, create videos, blogs and articles and collect signatures. It takes passion. And I’m so proud to say I know many people with passion. As they are the people that will change the world.   

Read more about tackling homophobia through education from the November issue of Normihomolehti (NHL), out this weekend.

Support A Day in Hand campaign and upload your hand holding photo on the campaign website. Nominate A Day in Hand in the 2011 Pink Paper Awards.   

http://www.adayinhand.com/

Not Enough TV

Recently I have been feeling somewhat lost in the television universe. That is kind of strange as I work in television, watch it hours on end in the office and follow the industry news with great enthusiasm. But somehow I seemed to have missed several programmes I really rather like. I’m watching more and more box sets at home. You know, what I want when I want to. Kind of like when you still had a VCR  and you would programme it to record the programmes you liked. We haven’t come that far really.

But I was not happy with my box sets. I felt restless. I had missed the third season of Skins. And then I found Seesaw. Seesaw is an online on demand TV service that offers catchup programming from Channel 4 and Five. But more importantly, it has also got a nice big catalogue of (mostly) free archive programming from both channels and BBC. It’s like a treasure box! The original Queer as Folk is there as are Skins, Misfits, Footballers' Wives, Bleak House, Peep Show and Stewart Lee’s Comedy Vehicle.

Try it and you’ll soon find you have lost a day or two. Me, I found peace. And I no longer miss my VCR.   

Queer as Folk was the coolest thing in television in 1999.
Btw, how weird is it to watch Aidan Gillen in The Wire? Weird!  

Princess for a Day - Or Maybe More

So finally the fairytale is coming true for the commoner Kate Middleton and she is getting her prince and half of the kingdom! I somehow missed the news yesterday morning and was more than baffled when a friend texted me and offered to fly to the UK for wedding. Was I getting married? And would I forget if I was, I wondered?

It was nice to see how all the terrestrial TV channels could finally air their Kate & William love story specials. It was especially interesting to see how they got around the fact that the shows were obviously recorded months ago when they had no idea of when or how would Wills finally pop the question.

It was also heartwarming to read and hear all the comments on how this royal wedding will bring the whole nation cheer and happiness in this time of recession. Indeed, if you lose your job and there’s no more benefits to claim, it does fills you with joy to see two privileged, super rich youngsters to marry, probably on your tax money...

Don’t get me wrong, I’m wishing the happy couple all the best. And I’m planning to buy a lot of wedding kitsch. Be warned, it will be a wedding overload in the press this Spring. It didn't take long from elle.uk to try and get us all into the wedding mood. Somehow, they did managed to forget the most gorgeous bride of the all, and she is a queen too!

Madonna: the cool bride 

  

I want my Lanvin!

H&M is treating us with another one of their designer collaborations. With an impressive history of guest designers such as Matthew Williamson, Jimmy Choo and Sonia Rykiel, the Swedish fashion giant really knows how it’s done. And is there anything better to bring us just before the Christmas party (and present!) season than Lanvin dresses, tees, accessories and even some men’s wear?  

Designed by Lanvin's artistic director Alber Elbaz, and menswear designer Lucas Ossendrijver the line is called Lanvin <3 H&M (that’s Lanvin loves H&M to you non-facebookers). The collection will be released on 23 November, the prices start from less than a tenner (ok, that’s for lipstick, but still) and I looooove it.

Check out the collection on Vogue website, as usual H&M’s own site is a  mess... And below are my favourites.