One night at a hot-dog stand in Finnish Lapland, the commitment-phobic party animal Aurora meets Iranian Darian. Darian needs to marry a Finnish woman to get asylum for him and his daughter. Aurora turns him down, as she is planning to move to Norway, away from her miserable life. However, after meeting his sweet daughter, she agrees to help him. As Aurora introduces numerous women to Darian, the two of them grow close. When the perfect wife candidate comes along, Darian and Aurora are faced with a difficult choice: pretend to be happy or finally stop running.

National Jury's motivation: Across Europe, the far right is cashing in on the fear of immigration. Within this climate, director and screenwriter Miia Tervo’s first feature film – a heartfelt story of contemporary pain and joy – Aurora is a healthy antidote to intellectual atrophy. With humanity and compassion at eye level, but without moralism, it shows the equal humanity of flawed people struggling for survival in an urban environment in the far north.

National Jury: Jaana Puskala, Harri Römpötti, Mikaela Westerlund