After Us, the Flood has been selected as the Closing Night Film of the Fantasporto Film Festival
Directed by Arto Halonen and written by Ossi Hakala, The Flood After Us has been selected as the closing film of the Fantasporto Film Festival and among sixteen feature films in the festival's Cinema Fantástico main competition series. The festival's opening film is the Japanese film Suzuki = Bakudan, directed by Akira Nagai.
Fantasporto is Portugal’s largest film festival and one of the world’s most prestigious film and genre festivals.In a press release, festival founder Mário Dorminsky describes the festival's closing film, After Us, theFlood, as "an unexpected Finnish discovery" that serves as a warning about the choices we make in modern society. The festival, which runs from February 27 to March 8, is celebrating its 46th anniversary this year, and its previous main competition winners include David Cronenberg, Luc Besson, Neil Jordan, Peter Jackson, Danny Boyle, David Fincher and Guillermo del Toro.
In February, After Us, theFlood will also compete for the Best Film award at both the Jaipur International Film Festival in India and at the 51st Boston SciFi Film Festival, the oldest still-running genre film festival in the United States. Boston SciFi founder Garen Daly, in an interview with WBUR radio, singles out After Us, the Flood, as one of the festival’s highlights, along with four other films.
After Us, theFlood has been a favorite of international festivals for over a year. It was awarded the Silver Mélièsfor Best Feature Film at the Science+Fiction Film Festival in Trieste, Italy, and was nominated for the Golden Méliès Awardfor Best European Fantasy Film alongside six other films. The film was also awarded Best Feature Film Award at the Ravenheart International Film Festival in Norway and at the Avant-Garde Horror & Fantasy Film Festival in Croatia, as well as the Best Director award at The Fantasy Film Festival in France.
After Us, the Flood travels through different time periods, examining the reasons why humans are unable to prevent climate change. The film stars Elias Westerberg, Linnea Leino, Tuomas Nilsson, Kasperi Kola, Petteri Summanen, Antti Reini, Pihla Penttinen, Hugo Komaro, Jari Salmi, Tobias Zilliacus, Jemina Sillanpää, Robert Enckell, Hannu-Pekka Björkman and Paavo Westerberg.
The film's artistic team includes cinematographer Pini Hellstedt, editor Armands Začs, production designer Teppo Järvinen, sound designer Jevgenijs Kobzevs, composer Jēkabs Nīmanis, costume designer Jaana Aro, and makeup designer Maija Gundare. The film is a Finnish-Latvian co-production, produced by Arto Halonen and co-produced by Latvian producer Aija Bērziņa.