Director: Mika Ronkainen (FI)
Genre: Documentary
Finland, 2003 / 73 min (35 mm), colour & sound

The Film
Meet the choir of screaming men that travels from Finland to Tokyo, with the goal of getting photographs of their Japanese audience while performing the Japanese national anthem. Meet the choir that screams the French national anthem, La Marseillaise, at the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, even though the museum and the embassy of Finland try to prevent them. Meet the choir that deals with nationalism, fascism, and power and can only be led by a total dictator. Screaming Men is a film about power, nationalism, intransigence and firm belief in your own art. The film follows the choir during a time span of five years, both in Finland and on international tours in France, Japan, and Iceland. Similarly to the choir, the documentary walks the thin line between the deadly serious and the absurd.
www.klaffi.com/screamingmen

Mika Ronkainen
Mika Ronkainen (b. 1970) lives and works in northern Finland. Screeming Men is his theatrical distribution debut. In addition, his work includes prize-winning and acclaimed documentaries Our Summer, Car Bonus, Before the Flood, Father's Day, and Oulu Burning. In his films Ronkainen has predominantly depicted social and political themes. Ronkainen was a member of the screaming choir 1994-1998.