JP Valkeapää about Hit Big, Tarantino and laughing at humanity

Hit Big opened November 11 in Finland via Scandinavian Film Distribution, ahead of its screening at this week’s Black Nights Film Festival in its main competition strand.

In his latest film after the award-winning The Visitor (2008), They Have Escaped (2014) and Dogs Don’t Wear Pants (2019), Valkeapää continues to explore existential themes, with a heightened and bold vision of humanity.

The main characters are a bunch of anti-hero petty criminals, living their Finnish dream on Spain’s Costa del sol. Marjaleena, a 60-year-old boozed-up former Miss Finland candidate, runs the shady bar Belle, with a handyman, hustler and ex-criminal Mikko and Vili, her adult son.

One day they hear that Marjaleena’s husband Worm will be released after 20 years in prison. He intends to start a new life with his cell-mate lover Ninja on the hidden recipes of a heist. Feeling betrayed, Marjaleena wants her share of the cash. A series of kidnappings, robberies, killings, and bitter fates follows. Ultimately Marjaleena has the upper hand.

In the title roles are some of Finland’s top actors-Outi Mäenpää (Bullets, Black Ice), Johannes Holopainen (All the Sins, Heavy Trip), Ilkka Heiskanen (Downshifters, Hooked), and Estonia’s Pääru Oja (Cold Courage, Vikings-Valhalla).

The film was produced by Daniel Kuitunen of Komeetta, in co-production with Estonia’s Stellar Film and support among others from Nordisk Film & TV Fond. Charades handles global sales.

We spoke to JP Valkeapää ahead of the film’s world screening.

You seem to turn to opposite genres, each time you embark on a new feature. Is it the genre that drives your storytelling, often dealing with existential themes through the most unusual character gallery and settings?
JP Valkeapää: Usually it takes me half a year for a new project to start to emerge. This time, it was Pekka Strang [lead in Dogs Don’t Wear Pants] who sent me some photos from Fuengirola on the Costa del Sol where he was filming. He captured scenes with particular aesthetics that he knows I appreciate.

One of them was of a woman in her 60s, wrapped in a warm coat as it was February and cold. In front of her was a full pint of beer. And she was staring at the bottom of the glass. The look in her eyes struck me and made me reckless. It felt like she was looking into a mirror or watching her life from the bottom of the glass. Both her passed life and future life. This triggered stories in my mind.

I started developing the story with Kari Hotakainen [Finlandia Prize and Nordic Council Literary Prize 2004 winner] while I was working on Dogs Don’t Wear Pants. Then I let it rest a bit and I took up the story again, focusing on Marjaleena, a former beauty pageant now in her 60s and a drunkard, her adult son Vili and friend Mikko who run the shabby Bella bar on the Costa del Sol.

I thought of Ettore Scola’s Brutti sporchi & cattivi and of Quentin Tarantino films when watching your film-where these references? What else inspired the grotesque crime universe of Hit Big?
JPV: There were actually two Italian films that I had in mind at the beginning: Big Deal on Madonna Street by Mario Monicelli, and The Monsters by Dino Risi. And of course, Tarantino. He was an important influence in my formative years. When I was 16, Reservoir Dogs came out, then Pulp Fiction. These two films, combined with Tarantino’s own background as a video store clerk started to hook me on film. Jacky Brown which for me is his best film, was definitely an inspiration for Hit Big.

Then the three US crime fiction masters Elmore Leonard, Donald E. Westlake, Charles Willeford were in the back of my mind for the spirit that I wanted to capture. Leonard tends to portray his characters with a certain romanticism, but not sentimentalism. Westlake is the lightest. He takes nothing seriously, and Willeford is a pure nihilist.


This is your first film set abroad-on the Costa del Sol, a dream retirement place for many Finns that welcomes more than 100,000 Finnish holidayers every year. Your own characters are there for the same reason, yet we see only glimpses of the touristic beaches and blue skies through the harsh universe of your characters. Can you expand on that contrast?
JPV: There are so many Finnish expats on the Coats del sol. It’s so easy to see why - the sun and cheap alcohol, which can turn the dream into a nightmare. So it’s quite fascinating, with light and darkness clashing. Most Finnish expats live in this microcosm, a mini-Finland, where they eat mashed potatoes and meatballs and don’t learn Spanish. But Fuengirola is also interesting as it’s one of the main harbours of drug traffic from Africa. It houses a lot of organised crime, many from Albania. It is a fascinating spot.

The characters are dehumanised, in a permanent state of physical filth, violence and drunkenness-yet there is a lot of humanity, family bonds between them - and ultimately hope through the portrait of Marjaleena who ultimately survives. Are you hopeful for humankind?
JPV: When writing, casting the characters, and talking to the make-up artists and costume designers, I started thinking that these are kind of trolls, goblins, living under this rock, they are decent people, there is empathy and solidarity between the main characters. The haze in which they live starts to disappear mid-story when there is a turning point. Then there is the painful road from dark haze to harsh sunlight and them facing life choices.

Visually, the reference for the make-up was The Good the Bad and the Ugly. Make up, costume and set designers have used the feeling of sweat everywhere - on the faces, the walls. Dust, the sun and seat are constant elements.

How was the filming for your set of actors considering their physical transformation that they kept throughout the film?
JPV: All actors are super experienced. Outi Mäenpää, Ilkka Heiskanen-they have such a long career on their shoulders. Everybody has vanity but as artists, they are fearless. Their look was a collaboration with me, the costume designer, make-up artist. I didn’t impose anything, and in fact Outi was always asking: can I get more sweat!! There was a common understanding that we are doing something special, so they were willing to go all the way.

Was there improvisation or do actors stick to the script?
JPV: No there isn’t much improvisation. When I wrote the first draft it didn’t change much. Sometimes the story unfolds by itself. Here, once I had found the right characters, the dynamics in the scenes and story were crystal clear.

Could you detail your visual choices and framing? How long was the shoot?
JPV: As with my previous film, I storyboarded the entire film. I have most of the film look in my head when I write, but then it’s richer to collaborate with a cinematographer so part of the visual work was done with Meelis Veeremets with whom I worked for the first time. It was a great collaboration.

Regarding the framing, I’m not after nice shots. I go to a scene and start thinking-what is it really about. I need a headline, then I construct the scene based on that. Whether it’s sub-textual or transition shots. But we had only 30 days for the shoot and a tight budget. I knew it was going to be extra tough as we were filming in Spain, and with broken language and cultural differences, there was plenty of misunderstanding. Therefore, what happened is that if I had planned for five shots, at the end we had time for only two-three shots. I had to constantly readjust.

I was lucky though with the actors. They were very close to each other, and rehearsed their lines in their spare time. In that sense it was fluid.

I saw that Danish jazz drummer Stefan Pasborg wrote the score for the film. How did this collaboration happen?
JPV: We initially had planned to do a Finnish/Danish/Estonian co-production, then we didn’t get support from the Danish Film Institute but I stuck to some artistic Danish contributors including Stefan. It took two days to find him. I looked systematically for contemporary jazz composers on Spotify, YouTube and Stefan’s name emerged. He has among other things re-arranged Ennio Morricone’s compositions. I loved it as well as his energy. Every bone of his is moving when he plays drums. I felt-this is what I need.

What do you hope audiences will take away from watching the film?
JPV: It’s the most Finnish film I’ve made. My previous films were more universal. But I really don’t know how people will react. It depends on people’s sense of humour and ability to see the absurdity of life.

The film has made me think about why is it so hard for many people to watch drunkards on screen. They are frightening sights, and perhaps a mirror of our fears and the lack of love that these people inspire is hard to take in. They tell us that life perhaps is meaningless before we give meaning to it. But if you can watch it, and laugh at humanity, with all your heart, then this film is for you. I’m super proud of the film.

What’s next?
JPV: I have a short synopsis in my head. It’s about my early teenage years, the birth of an artist. It’s not about me, but about people I knew as a kid. I was drawing underground comics and met interesting people. But it’s just an idea and there is a lot of work to do.