Director, Stars Discuss Finland’s Oscar Entry

Finnish maestro Teemu Nikki returns to his home village of Sysmäi for a tale of two sisters who are famed for their strong homebrew ale, sahti. When their other sister requests 100 liters for her upcoming wedding, the siblings are happy to oblige, but then they drink the booze themselves in a moment of weakness. With monumental hangovers and the wedding day fast approaching, they set off on a mission to source a new batch. 

With 100 Liters of Gold, Nikki is representing Finland as the country’s International Feature Oscar submission for the second time, the first being 2017’s Euthanizer. In between, he’s also made waves with Venice Audience Award winner The Blind Man Who Did Not Want to See Titanic. 

Whilst Nikki first envisioned 100 Liters of Gold being a story about two brothers, he told us at Deadline Contenders Film: International that “everything seemed so cliche.” After seeing Elina Knihtilä and Pirjo Lonka perform together in a stage play, he changed tack. “It was sort of for me a dream come true.”

What was her relationship to this particular part of Finnish culture?

Knihtilä told the panel that she hails from a town about 100 kilometers from where Nikki grew up, “In my home, they didn’t make sahti, but I knew that my grandmother used to know how to make sahti. One time we had in the village a party with this sahti thing, and the people went totally crazy. I remember I was a child during that time.”

Lonka added that she hadn’t tasted the ale before making the film. “This was new thing for me.”

Did they method act at all? Confided Knihtilä: “Well, I have to tell that I really don’t like so much about sahti. It’s not maybe wise to say it in public, but it’s really like you can taste it a small bit, but that’s all. So the method acting didn’t work on that sense in this film.”

Lonka demurred. “I always say that sahti is very challenging. … It’s like you have to kind of get to know it better. It’s complicated.”

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Is that like an Irish person saying they don’t like Guinness? Deadline asked. Nikki quipped, “In a way, I think it’s even even worse. But nobody’s perfect.”

Beyond the story being personal, what were some other inspirations? Explained Nikki, “First of all, I wanted to make a film of sahti and my home village, but I didn’t want to make just a drinking comedy. You know, we Finns drink too much, like in many countries, but we are quite famous in that. And I sort of wanted to tell a story which is like a drinking story that it starts, it’s very funny. And at some point you realize that it’s not fun at all.”

Check back Monday for the panel video.