Private Project

The Reindeer belong to the Wind

Sami actress Anni-Kristiina Juuso (Kukushka 2002, Russia) takes viewers to her local sami community. These people have long kept silent but decide now to open up and let the world know what threatens traditional sami reindeer herding. Threats are related to mining, fencing, tourism and land use. This documentary gives a voice to people rarely heard in Finnish cultural and political life.

  • Päivi Kapiainen-Heiskanen
    Director
  • Päivi Kapiainen-Heiskanen
    Writer
  • Saisiko olla ympäristökonfliktisoppaa project
    Producer
  • Anni-Kristiina Juuso
    Key Cast
    Kukushka 2002, Russia and Kautokeino Rebellion 2008 Norway
  • Project Type:
    Documentary
  • Runtime:
    39 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    January 21, 2016
  • Production Budget:
    20,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    Finland
  • Country of Filming:
    Finland
  • Language:
    Finnish
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Skabmagovat Film Festival
    Inari
    Finland
    January 21, 2016
    Finnish premiere
  • Jään reunalla festival
    Helsinki
    Finland
    January 22, 2016
  • Savonlinna International Nature Film Festival

    August 20, 2016
  • Rauma Blue Sea Film Festival

    Finland
    August 20, 2016
  • Wildlife Vaasa Nature Film Festival September 30, 2016

    Finland
    September 30, 2016
  • Native Spirit Festival London October 2016

    United Kingdom
    October 13, 2016
  • Sunrise Festival Nova Scotia Canada November 2016

    Canada
    November 11, 2016
  • Tokyo Lift-Off Film Festival Online 2017
  • 2017 Wild and Green Shorts Film Festival Online USA April 2017
Distribution Information
  • Päivi Kapiainen-Heiskanen
    Country: Worldwide
    Rights: All Rights, Internet
Director Biography - Päivi Kapiainen-Heiskanen

Päivi Kapiainen-Heiskanen is a Finnish doc film director and producer with background in journalism, cross media and project management. She has a master degree in journalism and has studied multiple languages. She works as a CEO of production company Mikkelin Mediaali Ltd and continues to do journalistic projects for various distribution channels.
Her four doc films give grassroot insights to Finnish society. Her first film The Reindeer belong to Wind (40 min, 2016) lets the indigenous Sámi people up in Lapland tell the world about the challenges they are facing with land use policies. When School broke out of Prison film shows how small schools are being closed down in rural areas and how activists in a tiny village run a school of their own for two years on voluntary basis. Toyota and Windbreaker is a doc film about a brave woman entrepreneur who wants to develop her nursing home company even if international chains are knocking on her door wanting to buy it. All four films have been screened at international film festivals and have received awards.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

The Reindeer belong to the Wind is a doc film on the traditional lifestyle of a Sámi reindeer herding cooperative in Enontekiö, Finnish Lapland. Members of the community are given a voice rarely heard in Finnish cultural and political life. People descrive in their own words the kind of threats their livelihood - reindeer herding - faces in modern world.

This film has been screened a lot at national and international film festival and events over the year. The film was a part of a one-year environmental mediation project funded by Koneen Säätiö.