In 2016, ELO Film School Helsinki’s graduate Kaisa El Ramly impressed the Nordic Talents jury with her feature project Scenes from a Dying Town, which picked up the Best Pitch Award.

After a few re-writers, the project renamed Getaways & Dreams (Pakoja & haaveita) starts shooting June 14, with a cast including Erja Manto, Ingela Olsson, Aliisa Pulkkinen, Erkki Saarela and Robert Enckell.

Getaways & Dreams is a story about encounters, collisions and awakenings, taking place during one summer day, on a road, and its nearby surroundings. Through an original non-linear narration mixing realism and fantasy, drama and comedy, the Finnish director of Egyptian origin, ponders on life’s inevitability in its many different shapes. We follow nine characters in their cars, as well as a dog on the loose, and a hitchhiker. All are struggling with their own challenging life situations. But when forced to face their own fears, they appreciate the value and strength of their own limited existence.

“From a young age, I’ve had a fear of death - due to various losses in my family - and I’ve tried for many years, to understand why. This film is both an attempt to tackle this fear and the notion of being an outsider, not fitting in,” the director told nordicfilmandtvnews.com.

For this anthology feature, El-Ramly said she was inspired by Roy Andersson’s absurd comedies and reflections on humanity, and by the intertwining stories in Paul Thomas Andersson’s Magnolia or Robert Altman’s Short Cuts. “I also had Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction in mind for the time jumps,” she said.

El-Ramly has also used her own experience as theatre director and actress – trained at Prague’s Academy of Performing Arts (DAMU), to work with her actors and heads of departments in rehearsal workshops during pre-production until a few weeks before start of principal photography. “The rehearsals with the actors to get them in character, have helped me capture the authenticity and to shape the script during the process,” explained the director.

For the visual style, El-Ramly has been planning the different camera angles since last fall with cinematographer Päivi Kettunen (Ladies of Steel, Force of Habit).

Filming will unfold on a road in the Eastern part of Finland, near the Russian boarder.

Getaways & Dreams is being produced by Klaus Heydemann of Inland Film Company, in co-production with Läsk in Sweden, support from the Finnish Film Foundation, Yle and Nordisk Film & TV Fond.

Aurora Studios will handle the domestic theatrical release and Folkets Bio the Swedish release.