Interview with the director Samuli Kuusisto, Award Winner for the Short Film ‘The Days of March’

Hi, Samuli! Huge congratulations on winning ‘Best Indie Short’ and on being nominated ‘Best 1^st time Director’ in the March 2021 edition for your short film ‘The Days of March’

You wrote, directed and edited ‘The Days of March’. What should the audience expect to see?

The Days of March is a story centered around the early days of the coronavirus pandemic. It follows Nina, a young introvert, who’s looking to have a good time in the city after all the people have disappeared, but things don’t go as planned after her evening is interrupted by a voice message from her estranged mother.

It’s a realistic look at the situation back in March 2020 when the world started shutting down and coronavirus deaths started going up.

Tell us a bit about your background. When did you decide to become a filmmaker?

I’m not sure if there’s ever been one specific moment where I actually sat down and decided that I want to become a filmmaker. I think it has been more of a gradual, growing interest over the years. I’ve been drawn to movies since I was a teenager, but never really understood what it was that was pulling me to them. Back in 2010, when I was still in high school (we call it lukio here in Finland), I started my first creative endeavor with electronic music. That’s when I think the first sparks inside me ignited. I realized I could make something out of nothing – something that could evoke feelings in the listener, to have an impact on them. After a few years, I tried my hand on instrumental soundscapes and composing, but soon realized I wasn’t musically talented enough. Then over the years I got interested in different crafts such as sound design, photography, graphic design and eventually videography, where I’ve spent my later years making corporate videos, music videos and so on. While doing those it dawned on me, that the thing I’ve always been drawn to has been storytelling and specifically the ability to evoke an emotional response in another person, no matter the medium. That’s when the puzzle started to piece itself together and I knew I wanted to tell stories by making movies, as it’s the greatest storytelling device there is. 

The director Samuli Kuusisto and the official poster of ‘The Days of March’

Where did you get the inspiration from for creating your story?

The inspiration for this story came to me literally in the middle of March last year, when the world started to shut down. I was walking down the street one night in my hometown Seinäjoki and everything was eerily quiet. No cars, no pedestrians, nothing. It felt like I was in some dystopian future where the world had ended. Being the introvert that I am, it felt amazing and I wanted to crystallize that feeling into a short film. During the writing process the story naturally evolved into much more, but that was the starting point.

What did you enjoy the most about working the film?

This was the first real short film for me, so I think easily the biggest one is gaining experience and learning a ton of new stuff while doing all this. I always want to get better and do bigger and more ambitious projects, so the experience from this project has been invaluable and is definitely a good launching pad towards my goal of eventually getting to work on feature films.

How did you choose your leading actress, Unna Takalo? Was this your first time working with her?

I live in a relatively small city here in Finland where the film community is pretty tiny, so finding crew and actors here, I’ve found, is pretty much asking around who’s interested and hoping you get at least a few hits. Thankfully, there were several interested actors from whom I decided to choose Unna. She had the right kind of look that I had in mind for the character, but she’s also an artist who does interesting paintings and music. I sensed she had this deep inner life which I wanted the character to embody, as she was written as an introvert. This was our first time working together, and I also believe it was her first time acting in a film, but she knocked it out of the park for sure.

Do you have any on set stories you can share?

Unfortunately no, they are rather scarce since our principal shoot only lasted 3 days.

What is the message that ‘The Days of March’ conveys?

I think everyone can draw their own conclusions about it, but for me, I wanted to show a different kind of relationship that I bet many people around the world had at the time and still do, where there might be unspoken things or ‘bad blood’ between loved ones, and people are spending their days bitter, deep down still hoping that someday they can reconcile with one another but before you know it, a global catastrophe hits and takes your chances away in the blink of an eye. After all, what is life, if not the people around us?

What are you currently working on? Is there any upcoming project you would like to share?

I’m currently developing an original fantasy story set in an alternate universe that draws some inspiration from Finnish and Scandinavian mythology, with magic and various magical creatures. There haven’t been many fantasy-themed stories made in Finland, even though our diverse landscapes are perfect for it, so I want to try and make a change there. People are hungry for entertainment that grabs them and takes them on a journey to a different world instead of watching the mundane police shows and comedy movies year after year for which the Nordic film industry is known for. We are currently starting to search for interested parties to secure funding for the project, which we hope to turn into a possible miniseries or something along those lines. Exciting times ahead 🙂

Connecting to Samuli Kuusisto:

Official Instagram: @samppawe

Business inquiries: samuli(at)halocreative.fi