H 100 litres of gold

Director: Teemu Nikki

100 litres of gold

Finland-Italy, 2024, 88’

Director: Teemu Nikki

Cast: Elina Knihtila (Pirkko), Pirjo Lonka (Taina), Ville Tiihonen (Hauki-Hikkanen), Pekka Strang, Jari Virman

 

Two middle-aged sisters, Taina and Pirkko Turpeinen, live together in the remote village of Sysmä. Taina is a self-taught artist and Pirkko is an temporary farm worker. They earn their living by selling illegal home-brewed alcohol. The third sibling is Päivi. She moved away from Sysmä a long time ago, but is now organizing her wedding in the countryside of her youth. Taina and Pirkko promised to spend weeks making 100 litres of their famous strong self-brewed beer, sahti, for the wedding. But their batch is so tasty, they drink it all themselves. While struggling with their massive hangovers, they have a series of hilarious misadventures racing the clock to more beer to save the wedding and win back their reputation as the best sahti-brewers in the village.

Teemu Nikku: “100 Litres of Gold is a tribute to the small provinces and to sahti. It's gallows humour with a big heart about pride and love for a traditional Finnish brew. Sahti as an important part of a community and the identity of the main characters. They see sahti in the same way that Italians see wine or Germans see beer. Drinking is not a new theme in Finnish cinema, but I tell the story in my own way, through pitch-black comedy. The film isn't a story about alcoholism, but about its causes. I want the audience to sympathise with the main characters and to be forced to think about their laughter during all the hilarity.”