Juha Suonpää: Lynx Man

This text is written by the festival directors of the Magnificent7, Svetlana and Zoran Popovic.

This is one of the films that deal with the burning issues of today. We are in the middle of a process of galloping disappearance of priceless and irreplaceable living species on the planet. This film conveys that knowledge in such an extraordinary way that it triggers in us the deepest degree of despair, but also the need to oppose this disappearance.

We identify with the main character Hanu, who lives on the edge of the forest and he is in a constant and uninterrupted relationship with its inhabitants. He is primarily associated with the endangered lynx, with whom he has developed deep inner connection during many years of observation and assistance. Thanks to the masterly designed interweaving of scenes of everyday reality and scenes captured by surveillance cameras, which Hanu disguised in the forest in order to follow the movements of animals, especially lynxes, during the day and the night, we are almost hypnotized, but also deeply moved. We are faced with what is not part of our experience, but is an important part of life unknown to us that is almost hidden from our consciousness in everyday life. The film is a great combination of completely different visual impressions from the familiar colour of reality, through specially emphasized colour images of flickering daytime scenes that highlight the unsurpassed beauty of lynxes and other inhabitants of the forest, to night shots of an active and disturbing, often endangered life on the alert. Eyes of lynxes and other creatures shine in the dark creating impressions which intensely wake up our senses.

This is a dramatic and exciting film testimony about Hanu’s intimate participation in the life of the lynxes, observing each of them as a person with its own name, recognizable character, but also doomed to an uncertain almost hopeless fate due to cruelty of the men hunters. Hanu’s person is almost fused with the being of the lynx, making him a unique lynx whisperer.

A stunning documentary film noir that creates exciting twists and surprises.

Finland, Estonia 2023 
80 minutes 

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Tue Steen Müller
Tue Steen Müller

Müller, Tue Steen
Documentary Consultant and Critic, DENMARK

Worked with documentary films for more than 20 years at the Danish Film Board, as press officer, festival representative and film consultant/commissioner. Co-founder of Balticum Film and TV Festival, Filmkontakt Nord, Documentary of the EU and EDN (European Documentary Network).
Awards: 2004 the Danish Roos Prize for his contribution to the Danish and European documentary culture. 2006 an award for promoting Portuguese documentaries. 2014 he received the EDN Award “for an outstanding contribution to the development of the European documentary culture”. 2016 The Cross of the Knight of the Order for Merits to Lithuania. 2019 a Big Stamp at the 15th edition of ZagrebDox. 2021 receipt of the highest state decoration, Order of the Three Stars, Fourth Class, for the significant contribution to the development and promotion of Latvian documentary cinema outside Latvia. In 2022 he received an honorary award at DocsBarcelona’s 25th edition having served as organizer and programmer since the start of the festival.
From 1996 until 2005 he was the first director of EDN (European Documentary Network). From 2006 a freelance consultant and teacher in workshops like Ex Oriente, DocsBarcelona, Archidoc, Documentary Campus, Storydoc, Baltic Sea Forum, Black Sea DocStories, Caucadoc, CinéDOC Tbilisi, Docudays Kiev, Dealing With the Past Sarajevo FF as well as programme consultant for the festivals Magnificent7 in Belgrade, DOCSBarcelona, Verzio Budapest, Message2Man in St. Petersburg and DOKLeipzig. Teaches at the Zelig Documentary School in Bolzano Italy.

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