Our Summer

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A documentary film by Mika Ronkainen about the phases of a family and the cycle of generations. A story about a middle-aged woman who decides to change the direction of development, even just for one summer. Anitta Kolehmainen (42), a mother of five children, lives in a small village of Karunki close to Swedish border in the Finnish Lapland. Both of Anitta's parents are in an old-age home thirty kilometers north from where Anitta lives with her family. Anitta's father, Lauri, has got Alzheimer's disease. After having several strokes, her mother, Viivi, has lost her ability to speak and move by herself. Anitta's parents live in separate rooms in the same corridor. Anitta would like to take better care of her parents, but she can't due to the situation in her own life. She's feeling guilt about it. Three of Anitta's children are adults and they have moved away from home already. The oldest one, 23-year-old Jari, is about to become a father. The youngest two are 10-year-old Markus and 5-year-old Roosa. Anitta has entered a stage, where she has to re-think about what's imporatant to her in her life. Big changes are about to happen to her: she's becoming a grandmother for the first time, and her marriage is in a crisis. Anitta's childhood home, Ojalanpää, which is situated 60 kilometers north from Karunki, has been empty and cold for several years. A small farm, built by Anitta's parents, has gone thru the same big change as a big part of Finnish countryside: the villages are getting smaller when people are moving to towns and cities. The people from this farm have moved to an old-age home. In the beginning of the summer, Anitta finds a solution to both her problems. She takes her father out of the old-age home, and moves back to her childhood home, Ojalanpää, with her father and the two children, Markus and Roosa. Their summer begins.