Frozen Land, Finland 2004 Dir Aku Louhimies
Frozen Land:
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About the Filmmakers
The people who made Frozen Land
Markus Selin
Producer
Markus Selin started his career in movie production in the mid-eighties, when he and Renny Harlin produced an international adventure thriller Born American. Because of its anti-Soviet slant, the movie was not released for distribution for over an year.
Selin's next production Sunset Riders was only a modest box office hit but was awarded two Finnish Movie Awards: best actor (Juha Veijonen) and best direction (Aleksi Mäkelä).
Since then, over 2,2 million spectators have seen Selin's productions in movie theaters. Markus Selin won the "Producer of the Year" award in 1999. His movies have won altogether 9 Finnish Movie Awards and the viewer poll award for the most popular movie of the year five times.
Markus Selin is the producer of Solar Films, which he founded 10 years ago. It is the leading production company in Finland in the fields of feature and TV-drama.
Feature films produced by Markus Selin: Matti (2006, in pre-production), Frozen Land (2005, premiere 14.1.), Popular Music (2004), Vares, Private Eye (2004), Addiction (2004), Bad Boys (2003), Me and Morrison (2002), The South (2000), Restless (2000), The Tough Ones (1999), Goldrush (1998), Sunset Riders (1994), Born American (1985).
Aku Louhimies
Director
Aku Louhimies has risen to the top echelon of Finnish movie directors during the last decade. He gained professional skills and experience in popular nineties TV-series such as Star Factory (Channel Four Finland), The Academy of Hearts (MTV3), The Hopes of the Fatherland (TV4) and Home Street (TV1).
Besides these, he also directed a 50-minute TV-movie about the author Pentti Saarikoski called Timeout and several short features.
His debut feature film Restless (2000) received mixed reviews but was a major box office hit, just like his second feature Lovers and Leavers (2002).
His Solar Films-produced multiple-award winning TV-series Fragments (2003) made him the critic's favorite.
He was chosen "The Director of the Year" in 2004.
Jasper Pääkkönen
Niko
A major youth idol, Jasper Pääkkönen, got his big break when Markus Selin and Aleksi Mäkelä cast him as the youngest brother of Bad Boys. Since that, he has left his soap opera past behind by starring in leading roles in Solar Films' productions. Between Bad Boys (2003) and Frozen Land (2005), he has appeared on Addiction (2004), Vares, Private Eye (2004) and TV-series Fragments (2003) and Pretty Man (2003). Right now Pääkkönen is preparing for the biggest role of his life in the biopic of the ski-jumper Matti Nykänen, Matti, to be directed by Aleksi Mäkelä (2006).
Mikko Leppilampi
Tuomas
The rise of Mikko Leppilampi to an actor who is regularly featured on magazine covers has been phenomenal. He was cast straight out of the Theatre College to the leading role of Pearls and Swine which led to a Finnish Movie Award in February 2004. His other role as a leading man is in the movie The Empire, which premiered a couple of weeks before Frozen Land. The combination of good looks and acting skills promise a lot of work for him in the future.