''The Potato Venture'' () is a 2020 Finnish comedy film directed by Joona Tena and written by Pekko Pesonen. The film follows Untamo ( Joonas Nordman), a 17th-century
startup
A startup or start-up is a company or project undertaken by an entrepreneur to seek, develop, and validate a scalable business model. While entrepreneurship includes all new businesses including self-employment and businesses that do not intend to ...
entrepreneur attempting to introduce the
potato
The potato () is a starchy tuberous vegetable native to the Americas that is consumed as a staple food in many parts of the world. Potatoes are underground stem tubers of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'', a perennial in the nightshade famil ...
to Finland, where the
turnip
The turnip or white turnip ('' Brassica rapa'' subsp. ''rapa'') is a root vegetable commonly grown in temperate climates worldwide for its white, fleshy taproot. Small, tender varieties are grown for human consumption, while larger varieties a ...
is the reigning root vegetable.
Production
''Potato'' was filmed in
Lithuania
Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...
in the autumn of 2019 with a budget of €2,000,000, €787,745 of which came 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 ...
.
Release
''Potato'' was initially set to premiere on October 14, 2020, but was delayed due to the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
. The new release date was announced as December 25, 2020. It was shown in preview screenings in early 2021 and officially released on August 13, 2021. It was released on
Blu-ray
Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of high-defin ...
and
DVD
The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...
Kari Hietalahti
Kari-Jukka Hietalahti (born 13 September 1964) is a Finnish actor and screenwriter.
Career
Kari Hietalahti is best known for having appeared in several popular Finnish television series, such as '' Vintiöt'', '' Ihmisten puolue'', and '' Roba ...
Mimosa Willamo
Mimosa Helena Willamo (born 1994) is a Finnish actress. In 2015, she was awarded a Jussi Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in ' (2014).
Early life
Willamo was born in 1994 into a bilingual Finnish- and Swedish-speaking family. Sh ...
Kari Ketonen
Kari Mikael Ketonen (born 16 August 1971) is a Finnish actor. Born in Espoo, he portrayed the president of Russia Vladimir Putin in the sketch comedy television show ''Putous'' in 2014. He also played Putin in the film '' Iron Sky: The Coming Race ...
Antti Luusuaniemi
Antti Luusuaniemi (born 7 September 1979) is a Finnish actor. He appeared in more than thirty films since 2003.
Selected filmography Film
TV
*''Syke
Syke () is a town in the district of Diepholz, Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated approxi ...
as Lars
*
Mikko Kouki
Mikko Kouki (born 14 September 1967) is a Finnish actor, theatre director and screenwriter. He has appeared in more than thirty films since 1986.
Early life and education
Kouki comes from a family of actors, including his father, , his aunt an ...
as Copper Tycoon
*
Ville Myllyrinne
''Ville'' is a French word meaning "city" or "town", but its meaning in the Middle Ages was "farm" (from Gallo-Romance VILLA < Latin ''
Tommi Korpela
(born 23 August 1968) is a Finnish actor. He has won the Jussi Award for Best Actor three times, a feat accomplished by only two other Finnish actors before him: Lasse Pöysti and Tauno Palo
Tauno Valdemar Palo (born Tauno Brännäs; 25 Oc ...