Myllylahti, writer of The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Mäki will bring his feature debut The Woodcutter Story and Tzafka his second feature project Ode to Joy. 

Woodcutter Story is the first Finnish project to be selected for the exclusive Cinefondation’s Ateliers that offers selected producers the opportunity to meet potential partners. Poet and screenwriter/director Myllylahti graduated from ELO Helsinki Film School in 2012. His short film The Tiger has attended numerous film festivals including Cannes’ International Critics Week 2018.

The feature project The Woodcutter Story has already garnered attention from several pitching and film lab events, such as the Torino Film lab 2018 where it won the Production Award and Amsterdam Post Lab Award for a total value of €55,000.

The story tells of Peppe, a kind and optimistic woodcutter, whose life is affected by a strange chain of dreadful events when an open-pit mine is unearthed in an idyllic town in Northern Finland. In his production note of intention Myllylahti said: Like Buñuel’s Nazarin or De Sica’s Miracle in Milan, The Woodcutter Story, is a loose adaptation of the Book of Job that raises the question: what is hope in our contemporary world full of menaces and cynical approaches? This is the core of this modern myth dressed as an existential dark comedy set in contemporary Northern Finland where the mining business is taking its toll.”

The project is produced by Jussi Rantamäki of Aaamu Film Company (The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Mäki) who aims to shoot in winter 2020.  

Greek born director Tzafka took an MA in Film Directing at the Aristotle University Film School, Thessaloniki and then moved to Copenhagen where he trained at the Danish film school Super 16. His feature debut Thorn won the Eurimages Lab Award and screened at the Thessaloniki and Göteborg festivals among others. His second project, the road movie Ode to Joy attended the Sam Spiegel Jerusalem Film Lab.

A total of 15 projects from 15 countries were selected for the 15th L’Atelier in Cannes set to unspool May 16-23, 2019.