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ÁHKUIN

With the singular Sámi oral storytelling tradition of joik at its center, ÁHKUIN is a visual and musical call-and-response between a grandmother and her descendants. Archival interviews and the joik of Maarit-áhkku (dir. Sunná Máret Nousuniemi’s grandmother) unspool as a connective thread across time, inviting the viewer through a portal into this corner of Sápmi. Here, the rhythms of time are set by the daily tasks that assured the survival of those who came before; seemingly mundane chores — carrying water from the river, setting up the sauna, boiling reindeer bone marrow — offer up gifts of memory, music, and Indigenous knowledge.

As in Indigenous communities the world over, colonization has profoundly shaped recent Sámi history through stories of loss. Drawing aesthetic inspiration from sources as diverse as duodji (Sámi handicrafts and land-based knowledge systems), the work of David Lynch, Pauliina Peodoroff’s Matriarkaatti (Matriarchy), and the environmentally focused, community-based art of Niillas Holmberg, Jenni Laiti and Outi Pieski, ÁHKUIN presents a melancholy yet playful Sámi story with lessons for a new era defined by giving and receiving.

  • Radio-JusSunná / Sunná Nousuniemi
    Director
    Boso mu ruovttoluotta - Breathe me back to life
  • Guhtur Niillas Rita Duomis / Tuomas Kumpulainen
    Director
  • Radio-JusSunná / Sunná Nousuniemi
    Writer
  • Guhtur Niillas Rita Duomis / Tuomas Kumpulainen
    Writer
  • Taylor Hensel
    Producer
    ᎤᏕᏲᏅ (What They’ve Been Taught); Reciprocity Project; Zibi Yajdan
  • Adam Mazo
    Producer
    ᎤᏕᏲᏅ (What They’ve Been Taught); Reciprocity Project, Bounty, Dear Georgina; Dawnland; First Light
  • Kavita Pillay
    Producer
    ᎤᏕᏲᏅ (What They’ve Been Taught); Reciprocity Project
  • Tracy Rector
    Producer
    ᎤᏕᏲᏅ (What They’ve Been Taught); Reciprocity Project; Outta the Muck; Manzanar Diverted: When Water Becomes Dust; Sweetheart Deal; Bounty; Dear Georgina; March Point
  • Tracy Rector
    Executive Producer
  • Hindou Ibrahim
    Co-Executive Producer
  • Yo-Yo Ma
    Co-Executive Producer
  • Cristina Mittermeier
    Co-Executive Producer
  • Kiliii Yuyan
    Co-Executive Producer
  • Project Type:
    Documentary, Short
  • Runtime:
    20 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    January 1, 2024
  • Production Budget:
    50,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    Finland
  • Country of Filming:
    Finland
  • Language:
    English, Other
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Radio-JusSunná / Sunná Nousuniemi, Guhtur Niillas Rita Duomis / Tuomas Kumpulainen

Radio-JusSunná / Sunná Nousuniemi (they/them) is a queer Sámi and Finnish audiovisual artist and storyteller. Their debut short documentary Boso mu ruovttoluotta - Breathe Me Back to Life received the Best Short Film Award at Nuuk International Film Festival and The Moving People and Images Award at the Love & Anarchy Film Festival in 2022.

Guhtur Niillas Rita Duomis / Tuomas Kumpulainen is a Sámi artist and storyteller based in Guhtur, Sápmi. Kumpulainen tells stories in various forms, including theatre, singing, songwriting, composing, directing and acting. Currently he is studying traditional Sámi handicrafts, specializing in burl, reindeer antler and bone as the main materials.

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Director Statement

Radio-JusSunná / Sunná Nousuniemi

Working on ÁHKUIN over the course of a year has given me the chance to experience the joy of returning to my ancestral lands in Gáregasnjárga. It’s been a whimsical, nostalgic journey filled with lessons. From the beginning, I knew this is not about making a film; rather it’s about nurturing relations and collaborating with the land, to see what it’s willing to share with me and our film crew. My father has been writing stories about our ancestral lands and its people for years, while my cousin Laura has been reviving our family joiks - which could also be described as family songs - and these elements have been at the heart of creating ÁHKUIN.

ÁHKUIN is a love letter to my ancestral lands and to my late grandmother Niillasaš-Jovnna Máret, who was the eldest sibling in her family and became the caretaker of her family in her twenties after WW2. Working with this story has been like continuously finding hidden treasures: I feel so grateful to all my relatives and people from the community sharing their knowledge and memories with me. In this film we have used an interview that my father did with my grandmother in 2003 - 20 years ago. In 2024, it will be 100 years since my grandmother was born. One could say this film is like a portal to a dream world where three different generations from our family tree encounter one another.