I Tried to Capture Him in the Image But He Disappeared

Akseli Gallen-Kallela’s honeymoon trip to Viena Karelia was one of the numerous colonial expeditions undertaken by Finnish artists, aiming to draw from Karelian culture to construct Finnish cultural heritage. Director Mikki Noroila’s relative Rimmin Ul’l’aska, who lived in Viena Karelia, served as a living model for Väinämöinen in Gallen-Kallela’s Aino Triptych (1891). The film tells an alternative narrative of history, one that does not rely on the Finnish colonial tradition.