all the light that remains (2025)
Directed by Moona Pennanen
Production: Ida Karoskoski/Illume Oy (Finland)
Hybrid Documentary (25 mins)
All the Light That Remains is a hybrid film blending documentary and fiction to explore how traces of war linger in place and memory. In a remote Finnish village, Ukrainian seasonal workers Oleksandr and Mykyta arrive to plant trees, unknowingly stepping into a landscape shaped by past conflicts. As they work and wander, they uncover links between the village’s history and their own—stories of wartime labor, displacement, and survival. Mätäsvaara’s past as a site where Ukrainian prisoners of war once labored during Finland’s war with the Soviet Union, gives it renewed relevance in light of Russia’s current war in Ukraine. Juxtaposing real geologists studying a new mining project with a fictional narrative shaped by the Ukrainian characters themselves, the film reflects on cycles of war, belonging, and the human need to connect. Blurring the lines between fact and storytelling, All the Light That Remains offers a layered meditation on the aftershocks of history.