Je m'appelle Mariia

Directed by Juho Reinikainen

A bittersweet and heartwarming short documentary road movie about a Ukrainian Mariia and her mother Liubov, who depart their newly adopted wintery home town of Somero and start on a journey through Europe, towards Mariia’s big dream of visiting Paris and studying in France. The war looms in the background in the form of remembrance, loss and unanswered phone calls, but in its core the film tells a more universal story of the power of dreaming, transition, shedding the weight of patriarchy and the sacrifices parents make to pave way for the young.