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Kirsikka Saari


Born December 6, 1973

Arts undergraduate, Aalto University, 2009-
Master of Arts (General History), University of Helsinki, 2001

Screenwriter 2006-
Journalist and editorial secretary Anna magazine, 2003–2006
Journalist Ylioppilaslehti (Undergraduate newspaper), 2001, editorial secretary, 2002
Freelance reporter, incl. City newspaper and Image magazine, 1998-2001

Significant screenplays
Korso, feature-length film, (co-writer Jenni Toivoniemi, dir. Akseli Tuomivaara)
Pitääkö mun kaikki hoitaa? (‘Do I have to take care of everything?’), short film (dir. Selma Vilhunen)
Paratiisi, mini-series, 2010 (dir. Reetta Aalto)
Gorilla, short film, 2009 (dir. Hanna Bergholm)
Tyttöjen ilta (’Girls’ night out’), mini-series, 2008 (dir. Reetta Aalto)

Awards and nominations
Oscar nomination, Pitääkö mun kaikki hoitaa? 2014
Screenwriter of the Year, 2014
Sylvi Award nominee, 2011
Prix Geneva Europe finalist, 2010

Photo: Tommi Hakanen
Written by Kirsikka Saari (Tomas Sjöblom, ed.)
Translated by John Calton

Student Days

I began my studies in the 1990s. It was a strange time. On the one hand, we felt pressure from the lingering effects of the recession and the uncertainty of employment. It seemed that no one could count on a pension anymore.

The world felt wide open, even if at that stage this only meant Europe and the Erasmus exchange programme. So I studied in Spain and St. Petersburg. St. Petersburg was in a stage of development. There was Baskin-Robbins being served on the Nevsky Prospect and a Pizza Hut on the banks of the Moika. But in the dormitories on Vasilyevsky Island there were broken windows, showers which only sprayed cold water and stray dogs howling through the night. It felt like a long way from home.

Still, it was a hopeful time. Alternative culture flourished and at Pushkinskaya 10 we celebrated the age with the Russians and believed in the spread of human rights and transparency, as well as the breakdown of the old hostilities between the East and the West. How naive and innocent we were – even if we would not have used those words to describe ourselves back then.

When Kirsikka Saari was an Erasmus exchange student in St. Petersburg, she lived on the Vasili island, in building 5. Her first room mate there was Mikaela Strömberg, who later became a writer.​
When Kirsikka Saari was an Erasmus exchange student in St. Petersburg, she lived on the Vasili island, in building 5. Her first room mate there was Mikaela Strömberg, who later became a writer.​

 

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