Monica in the South Seas

Monica in the South Seas

25th TiDF: Greek Premiere

Finnish filmmaker and artist Sami van Ingen is a great-grandson of documentary pioneer Robert Flaherty, and seemingly the sole member of the family with a hands-on interest in continuing the directing legacy. Among the materials he found in the estate of Robert and Frances Flaherty’s daughter Monica were the film reels and videotapes detailing several years of work on realizing her lifelong dream project: a sound version of her parents’ 1926 docu-fiction axiom, Moana: A Romance of the Golden Age. For her version, Monica returned to her childhood home, the Samoan island of Savaiʻi, to accomplish a valiant yet absurd task of recording ‘original’ noises half a century later, as well as songs that were already sung back then and have the aura of being sung for centuries to come. The filmmakers shaped the sounds and images Monica had preserved into an elegant, ironic, and melancholic essay on the vexing and perplexing nature of authenticity. They wonder: whose authenticity, exactly? Monica seemingly looked for her fairytale pre-teen world in the same way her parents searched for some last reflections on Paradise Lost – while the islanders have their own view of matters. (Olaf Möller)

Screening Schedule

No physical screenings scheduled.


Direction: Sami van Ingen, Mika Taanila
Editing: Mika Taanila, Sami van Ingen (associate editor)
Sound: Anne Tolkkinen (design)
Actors: Monica Flaherty
Production: Elokuvayhtiö Testifilmi Oy
Producers: Jussi Eerola
Executive producer: Sami van Ingen
Narration: Leigh Robert (Monica Flaherty’s voice)
Format: DCP
Color: Color, B/W
Production Country: Finland
Production Year: 2023
Duration: 72'
Contact: The Finnish Film Foundation

Sami van Ingen

Filmography

1995 Sweep (co-direction, short)
2004 Fokus (short)
2008 Just One Kiss (short)
2010 Stagecoach (short)
2018 Flame (short)
2023 Monica in the South Seas (co-direction)

Mika Taanila

Filmography

1998 Futuro – A New Stance for Tomorrow (short)
2002 Future Is Not What It Used To Be (short)
2005 Optical Sound (short)
2015 Return of The Atom (co-direction)
2016 Tectonic Plate
2023 Monica in the South Seas (co-direction)