''Tale of a Lake'' () is a 2016 Finnish

nature documentary A nature documentary or wildlife documentary is a genre of documentary film or television documentary, series about animals, plants, or other non-human living creatures. Nature documentaries usually concentrate on video taken in the subject's nat ...

film directed by and Kim Saarniluoto. It is about lakes in Finland, their wildlife, and their place in Finnish folklore. The film features narration by Samuli Edelmann and Johanna Kurkela.

Synopsis

''Tale of a Lake'' is a

mixed with

Finnish mythology Finnish mythology commonly refers of the folklore of Finnish paganism, of which a Finnish Neopaganism, modern revival is practiced by a small percentage of the Finnish people. It has many shared features with Estonian mythology, Estonian and othe ...

. A central figure is the female water spirit Ahitar, daughter of the gods Ahti and Vellamo. The film passes through the seasons of a year and portrays Finnish lakes and their wildlife, discussing how the terrain and animals feature in folklore.

Production

''Tale of a Forest'' was produced by for with support from the

Finnish Film Foundation The Finnish Film Foundation (, ) is an independent Foundation (charity), foundation with the task of supporting and developing Finland, Finnish film production, distribution and exhibition. It is supervised by the Department for Cultural Policy i ...

Yle Yleisradio Oy (; ), abbreviated as Yle () (formerly styled in all uppercase until 2012), translated into English as the Finnish Broadcasting Company, is Finland's national public broadcasting company, founded in 1926. It is a joint-stock comp ...

, , the Raija and Ossi Tuuliainen Foundation and

Creative Europe Creative Europe is a European Union programme for the cultural and creative sectors. In its first phase, going from 2014 to 2020, it had a budget of € 1.47 billion, which were expanded to € 2.44 billion in its second phase (2021-2027). His ...

. Filming took place at various lakes in Finland between 2012 and 2016, with around 600 shooting days.

Reception

Nordisk Film Nordisk Film A/S () is a Danish entertainment company involved in film production and distribution and a subsidiary of Egmont Group. The multimedia entertainment company is also involved in television production, cinemas, computer games and ...

released ''Tale of a Forest'' in Finnish cinemas on 15 January 2016. It sold 191,000 tickets, which was the highest number ever for a documentary film in Finland. Panu Aaltio received the 2016 IFMCA Award for Best Original Score for a Documentary and the 2017 Jussi Award for Best Original Score.

Trilogy

''Tale of a Lake'' is a standalone sequel to the 2012 film '' Tale of a Forest'' which is about forests and Finnish mythology. A third film in the series, ''

Tale of the Sleeping Giants ''Tale of the Sleeping Giants'' () is a 2021 Finnish nature film directed by . It is about the fells of Sápmi and is the standalone third entry in a series of nature films, after ''Tale of a Forest'' (2012) and ''Tale of a Lake'' (2016). Origin ...

'' (2021), was filmed in the mountains of

Sápmi is the cultural region traditionally inhabited by the Sámi people. Sápmi includes the northern parts of Fennoscandia, stretching over four countries: Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia. Most of Sápmi lies north of the Arctic Circle, boun ...

References

External links

Distributor's website

Production company's website
* {{IMDb title, 3744428 2016 documentary films 2016 films Finnish documentary films 2010s Finnish-language films 2010s Finnish films Films based on Finno-Ugric mythology Documentary films about animals Documentary films about water and the environment Films scored by Panu Aaltio