Kylän jatkoaika / The Village Carries On

”For decades ago, they referred the place as a dying village, but the last villagers are persistent” says Reino Sisso, who has moved back to the village of Sivakka. The two distant villages of Valtimo, Sivakka and Rasimäki, attract every ten years a group of researchers from Joensuu University and Karelian Institute; they survey the social situation and the changes that take place in the villages.

Similarly, the camera crew of YLE (Finland's national broadcasting company), has visited the villages. Years 1975-1996 reporter Jorma Molarius filmed the researchers and the life in the village. A new documentary by Mirja Metsola ”The Extended Time for a Village” continues the work. Once more the camera follows the bumpy roads of Sivakka and finds lively personalities, old and new faces, in the middle of fields that are now growing bushes. They all have an interesting story of their own to be shared with the viewers.

The beautiful landscape of Rasimäki fields will survive with help of the support from the European Union, few farmers continue with cows, and the cars take people to the very heart of the center of the village.

Mirja Metsola

Curriculum vitae