{"id":11164,"date":"2025-11-24T15:58:50","date_gmt":"2025-11-24T13:58:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kouziproductions.com\/blog\/?p=11164"},"modified":"2026-04-01T19:00:57","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T17:00:57","slug":"days-of-wonder-interview-with-karin-pennanen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kouziproductions.com\/blog\/2025\/11\/24\/days-of-wonder-interview-with-karin-pennanen\/","title":{"rendered":"Days of Wonder, Interview with Karin Pennanen"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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During her childhood, the director spent much time with her uncle Markku. Markku is a multi-talented composer and an artist. Suddenly, he disappears without explanation. After withdrawing to his self-designed artist house on the outskirts of a small town in Finland, Markku produces an immense amount of art, storing all of it in his house, without anyone knowing. Now, the director finds his hidden world and starts to make a film about his life \u2013 to her surprise, together with him.<\/strong><\/em> A cinematic journey into the hidden world of a reclusive Finnish artist, bringing his lost genius to light.
<\/strong><\/em>
Interview by Dimitra Kouzi <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dimitra Kouzi:<\/strong> When you first opened the door to your uncle\u2019s house after his passing, what was the most surprising or emotionally powerful thing you discovered?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Karin Pennanen:<\/strong> We hadn\u2019t talked about his home at all. We knew he was an artist, but he\u2019d lived there for thirty-four years, and no one had entered. I went in with a mix of curiosity and fear \u2013 your imagination runs wild: what might be hidden, what will I find? Among the piles of things were paintings and thousands of newspaper cuttings. I realised this wasn\u2019t rubbish but material for art. He had been making collages for years, cutting out images from the papers he delivered as a night-time newspaper boy. We saved sixteen big boxes of these clippings. But there are nearly a thousand collages. He was incredibly productive. It felt like a huge relief for me when I found out he had been making art all along.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dimitra Kouzi: <\/strong>Why do you think most people choose to live conventional lives when they have the freedom not to? He clearly lived an unconventional one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Karin Pennanen: <\/strong>I\u2019ve often wondered that. He\u2019s been a great inspiration to me. My own life is quite conventional \u2013 I have a family, I work \u2013 though being an artist adds another dimension. I think it comes down to the need for security. We\u2019re herd animals; we follow one another.
He, however, kept his inner child alive. Children think freely and play; adults often lose that connection to what they truly want. He never lost the ability to play. It\u2019s sad that so many people forget it.
Of course, society and capitalism encourage us to conform and consume. People are insecure, and it\u2019s frightening to live differently. But we only have one life \u2013 we should listen to ourselves and follow what truly moves us.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Director Days of wonder, Karin Pennanen <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Dimitra Kouzi: <\/strong>How do you push yourself out of your own comfort zone, both as a filmmaker and as a person?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Karin Pennanen: <\/strong>I\u2019ve made a habit of it. I started out in scenography, worked in theatre, but wasn\u2019t happy, so in my thirties I went to study film in Norway. Most of my classmates were ten years younger, so that was already a leap. I\u2019ve always felt this inner push. For me, it\u2019s scarier to stay put. I\u2019m a bit of an adventurer \u2013 I love surprises, excitement \u2013 even though I\u2019m actually quite a fearful person, yet I keep moving towards what scares me.
Just last week I started a new job as a journalist for a popular Finnish talk show. I keep learning new things \u2013 though it\u2019s harder now than at twenty! And stepping out of your comfort zone always comes with a dose of embarrassment; you must learn to live with that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dimitra Kouzi: <\/strong>Embarrassment often leads to self-censorship. Since you appear in Days of Wonder<\/em>, you had to direct yourself and others at once. How did you handle that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Karin Pennanen: <\/strong>I don\u2019t enjoy being in front of the camera anymore. When I was younger, I dreamt of being an actress \u2013 not anymore. But in this film, I felt that if I was revealing so much about my uncle, I had to put myself there too. It had to be a dialogue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, it was difficult. I\u2019m a visual director, I like watching the frame, but here I had to trust the cinematographer and simply be<\/em>. I have highly appreciated cinematographer Pietari Peltola\u2019s earlier work, so he was easy to trust, and he is great in all other ways too, so that helped me. In development phase, we had Ville Tanttu as cinematographer, and I really appreciate him, too. He came with me to the house when I first went there. But it is a schizophrenic situation \u2013 you know that good documentary moments happen when the subject forgets themselves, yet as a director, you can\u2019t.
In editing, I forced myself to see \u201cme\u201d as a character. I\u2019d even say to my editor, \u201cThat person there,\u201d not \u201cMe.\u201d That distance was essential.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dimitra Kouzi: <\/strong>Let\u2019s talk about that dialogue. How did it take shape between you and him?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Karin Pennanen: <\/strong>My uncle left an immense archive \u2013 over five hundred hours of recorded phone calls and audio diaries. Listening to them felt like he was talking to me from beyond death. It was almost magical.
He\u2019d even recorded reflections on cinema \u2013 on what a film should be and how dramaturgy works. In a way, he\u2019d unconsciously been preparing this film himself by documenting his life. I was simply continuing what he started. It took me a year just to listen to the tapes \u2013 and then there was all the other stuff. The dialogue in the film exists on many levels, in a wider, cinematic sense \u2013 not just words. Sometimes I respond to his recordings directly; sometimes I answer through images, in a visual, emotional, conceptual dialogue. It\u2019s a cinematic conversation between two worlds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Watch the trailer <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dimitra Kouzi: <\/strong>You worked with so much material \u2013 archives, your own poetic images. How did you find coherence?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Karin Pennanen: <\/strong>At some point I embraced collage as the guiding idea \u2013 fitting, since it was my uncle\u2019s main artistic method. Bringing fragments together to create something new.
We had Super 8, digital video, VHS, new material, new Super 8 reconstructions. The process was organic and evolved mostly in editing. My editor, Markus Lepp\u00e4l\u00e4 (<\/a>Helsinki Effect<\/a>), brought a lot to the film. He bravely started editing from what we had. From being in dialogue with my uncle in the research and planning phase, it went to dialogue between me and Markus in the editing phase. We talked a lot, tried stuff out, and I felt we were on the same wavelength. Same with sound designer Ville Katajala<\/a>: sound and music play an important role in the film, and Ville also intuitively understood the quality of my uncle.
The white-canvas scenes, filmed in the studio, were my way of reflecting on the filmmaking process itself. For me, the canvas became a border between life and death \u2013 my uncle on one side, me on the other \u2013 and cinema the tool that allows a dialogue across that border. I like the idea of the cinema canvas being a place where I could meet my uncle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dimitra Kouzi: <\/strong>What would you say is the main narrative or question in the film?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Karin Pennanen: <\/strong>The focus is on my uncle\u2019s life \u2013 his choices, his relationships, how he lived. I ask many big questions, and those never have one simple answer. I like to let the audience think for themselves and draw their own conclusions. Another key theme is visibility and invisibility. He had lived almost invisibly, and without this film, his life and work might have vanished. Making it was a way to make him visible again. I could not bear the thought of his world just vanishing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dimitra Kouzi: <\/strong>Yet he chose invisibility. How did you approach that ethical dilemma \u2013 making someone visible who didn\u2019t want to be?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Karin Pennanen: <\/strong>I thought about it a lot. At first, I asked myself if it was right \u2013 what if he wouldn\u2019t have wanted this? But gradually I understood it wouldn\u2019t harm anyone. My motivation was admiration and love.
He even wondered in his recordings what might happen if someone listened to them one day. But I did not find any note or record of him not wanting to be seen, or anything like that. He didn\u2019t seem to need recognition; he was deeply focused on creating and learning.
Some of my relatives see it differently. My brother, who\u2019s also an artist, was almost angry \u2013 he believes artists have a duty to share their work. In the art world, making art for yourself is often considered wrong or selfish. But my uncle was dedicated to inner growth.
He had even designed his house with large windows so that big paintings could be taken out \u2013 so he must have thought about showing them. But he was shy, introverted, often standing in the shadows. I think he might have also been protecting himself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dimitra Kouzi: <\/strong>Why was it threatening for your father to imagine you becoming like him?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Karin Pennanen: <\/strong>My parents are both successful \u2013 my father a professor, my mother a well-known textile artist. Even if they said success wasn\u2019t important, their lives show otherwise. They used to say, \u201cWhat a pity he never showed his art.\u201d
I think especially my father simply didn\u2019t understand him. They were so different; it is incredible that brothers from the same parents can be so different. Both my dad and mom thought he was wasting his talent by not exhibiting his work.
But he wasn\u2019t interested in success. He was fascinated by life itself \u2013 by science, philosophy, existence. He was sceptical of psychic phenomena but open. When I was a child, he talked to me about UFOs and reincarnation. His computer was like an encyclopaedia. He was constantly learning and thinking about why we are here, how humans function, what connects us. My mother told me he once said to her that he was never bored, \u201cLife is so interesting!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dimitra Kouzi: <\/strong>How has your family reacted?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Karin Pennanen: <\/strong>They haven\u2019t seen the finished film yet. I\u2019m most nervous about my parents because they appear in it, but they\u2019ve been supportive throughout. My father had a complicated, distant relationship with his brother, yet both my parents will come to the Tallinn premiere next week.
It\u2019s brave of them to be part of it, and I\u2019m grateful. Everyone in my family has been positive and helpful. I also interviewed my cousin and brother, but not everyone made the final cut. For all of us, this film touches a shared pain. We wanted to respect his wish for solitude but also wondered what he wanted, whether we should have reached out. The film might be cathartic for the whole family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dimitra Kouzi: <\/strong>You mentioned Leonardo da Vinci earlier. What artists or filmmakers inspired you while making Days of Wonder<\/em>?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Karin Pennanen: <\/strong>Existentialist philosophy influenced me deeply. I also followed the artists and thinkers my uncle admired \u2013 he listened to everything from Bach to Mozart, studying their scores to understand how they thought. He was communicating with other dead artists, in a way. His favourite filmmaker was David Lynch \u2013 one of my favourites too. Maybe you can sense that influence in the film.
I also researched personal documentaries: Sarah Polley\u2019s Stories We Tell<\/em>, The Devil and Daniel Johnston<\/em>, Searching for Sugar Man<\/em>, Grizzly Man<\/em>, Finding Vivian Maier<\/em>. Still, I realised his world was so unique that I had to find my own form for this film.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dimitra Kouzi: <\/strong>He <\/strong>says in the film that when we look at another person, we also look into ourselves. What did making Days of Wonder<\/em> reveal to you about yourself?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Karin Pennanen: <\/strong>It revealed how deeply other people shape us without our noticing. Without this film, I might never have understood how much my uncle shaped me as a child \u2013 perhaps I wouldn\u2019t even be a filmmaker without him. The process made me aware of how interconnected we are. Making the film was, ultimately, an existential experience. Through it, I processed my own relationship with death. On a practical level, it was also a huge step in my career \u2013 my first feature. I still feel it was, in some way, a gift, even though it came out of sorrow.
I was dealing with his long absence and with the question I had carried since childhood: why did he move away? Making the film filled a gap in my own story. And I\u2019ve realised that many families have such a figure \u2013 a relative who remains mysterious or distant \u2013 so I think the film can resonate beyond my personal experience. Going through his life taught me a lot that never made it into the film. I loved his slightly anarchic attitude; it reminded me how important it is for artists to keep asking themselves, why am I doing this?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dimitra Kouzi: <\/strong>How long did the film take to complete?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Karin Pennanen: <\/strong>Almost four years. I started immediately \u2013 the very day he passed away, at the end of 2021, I went to his house. Since then, I\u2019ve taken part in international workshops and pitching forums, meeting other filmmakers who often spend five to ten years on their features. It\u2019s inspiring \u2013 though I still wonder how they manage financially!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dimitra Kouzi: <\/strong>Funding a personal documentary about someone who isn\u2019t famous must have been challenging. How did you and your producer, Sonja Linder, convince funders to support a story without a conventional dramatic arc?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Karin Pennanen: <\/strong> From the start I knew it would be hard to convince people. Competition for funding is tough, and personal films are easily questioned by financiers \u2013 even though, as a viewer, I often find them the most powerful. We live in a world of formatted content; I believe what stands out is authenticity and a personal voice. My uncle\u2019s uniqueness helped: he wasn\u2019t just anyone \u2013 he was an exceptionally intelligent, complex artist, even a member of Mensa. But I also needed a distinctive perspective. The idea of a dialogue across the border of death<\/em> gave the film its form and its emotional strength. Of course, as a debuting filmmaker for a feature-length documentary, I didn\u2019t know so much about the funding process. I\u2019m sure I would not be here with the film if it wasn\u2019t for producer Sonja Lind\u00e9n<\/a>, who is more experienced and networked. Thanks to her, the film is a co-production with Denmark and Norway, which feels great since I have studied film in Norway and value Scandinavian collaboration. And she advised me with workshops, pitching forums; she really has helped me so much with my whole career through making this film happen. We can\u2019t make it alone in this business. I am grateful.<\/p>\n\n\n

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producer Sonja Lind\u00e9n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Dimitra Kouzi: <\/strong>Since your uncle didn\u2019t care about recognition, I wonder \u2013 do you? Who did you make this film for?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Karin Pennanen: <\/strong>Every filmmaker is asked that, and my answer might sound selfish: I believe artists must first make work for themselves. Otherwise, you risk losing authenticity.
Of course, I hope the film speaks to anyone interested in how to live \u2013 in existential questions like why we are here<\/em> and what makes a meaningful life<\/em>. It\u2019s for people who are curious about others. It\u2019s a contemplative film; it doesn\u2019t hand out answers or information. It follows its own poetic logic. So-called transcendental<\/em> films have always attracted me, and I hope I\u2019ve managed to capture something of that atmosphere in my own work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dimitra Kouzi: <\/strong>It connects beautifully to what we discussed earlier \u2013 the courage to live differently. Do you hope the film might inspire people in that way?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Karin Pennanen: <\/strong>That would make me very happy \u2013 and I think my uncle would have liked that too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

World Premiere @Doc@P\u00d6FF International Competition Best Film<\/a> 2025 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Credits<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Director: Karin Pennanen<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Script: Karin Pennanen<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cinematography: Pietari Peltola, Ville Tanttu<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sound: Ville Katajala<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Editing: Markus Lepp\u00e4l\u00e4<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Music: Markku Pennanen<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Producer: Sonja Lind\u00e9n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Financed by: The Finnish Film Foundation, YLE, AVEK, Konstsamfundet, Svenska Kulturfonden, Finnish Cultural Foundation, KMS, DFI, Den Vestdanske Filmpule, Viken Film Center<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More about the film HERE<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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