Finnish Silent Film The Changeling (1927) to Be Screened at Tampere Cathedral as part of Tampere Film Festival’s Programme, Improvised Score by Organ Player Esa Toivola

Tampere Cathedral and the Church Organist Esa Toivola are once again part of Tampere Film Festival. This year the film screened at the Cathedral will be a Finnish silent film from 1927, The Changeling, directed by Teuvo Puro. The screening begins at 19:00 on Friday 7 March and is free to attend.

Based on a play by Selma Anttila, The Changeling is a family drama with a strong societal point of view. It follows a woman who has had to give up her child born out of wedlock. Years later she hires a man she suspects is her son to work at her husband’s factory.

According to Riina Mikkonen, Executive Director of Tampere Film Festival, The Changeling was selected for its cinematographical merits and subject matter.

– The themes in The Changeling, like growing up in an unsafe environment, distress among young people, inequality and eventually women’s rights, are unsolved issues in our day and age as well, says Mikkonen.

– After many twists and turns, the film ends with forgiveness and grace one wishes to witness more of today, too.

The Changeling was filmed in Kuusankoski, Helsinki and Tampere. The scenery of the factory and rapids were filmed at an industrial area in Kuusankoski. The raging rapids present in the film serves as a symbol for the emotional journeys of the characters and highlights the dramatic turns of the film.

– The Changeling is based on a play, but in my opinion was expertly translated to the big screen. In true silent film era fashion, its acting is very expressive and dramatic, Riina Mikkonen describes.

Writer Selma Anttila Was Well-Known in Tampere

The film The Changeling is based on a play by the same name by Selma Anttila (1867–1942). The play premiered at the Finnish National Theatre in 1912.

Born in Orimattila, Anttila was a societally focused writer who left her mark in Tampere as well. Anttila worked as the director of the extension course at Tampere folk school from 1894 to 1903, and actively participated in different associations. She worked as the secretary and vice chairperson of the Tampere Women’s Union, and founded the first nursery in Tampere in 1989. The nursery was aimed for children whose mothers were a part of the workforce.

The harsh conditions facing children born out of wedlock was a big concern for Anttila, and she wrote numerous works to help better the status of children and mothers.

Anttila’s first published work, Kuvia työväen kaupungista (1904), was created while she lived in Tampere. Anttila was concerned with the fate befalling the unemployed and those unable to work, and wanted to use her writing to help people wake up and see these societal injustices.

Anttila was also one of the founding members of The Finnish White Ribbon Union, Tampere Stage Company, and the Peace Union of Finland. She was granted the National Prize for Literature in 1923 and 1939.

Directed by Teuvo Puro, Pioneer of Finnish Film, Starring a Young Ilmari Unho

The director of The Changeling is one of the pioneers of Finnish Film, Teuvo Puro (1884–1956). In 1907, Puro co-directed The Moonshiners, the first ever fiction film made in Finland, with count Louis Sparre. Puro was also the founder of the first Finnish film company solely focused on narrative films.

Puro directed ten silent films during his career. The Changeling was his last.

The most well-known name in The Changeling is one of its main cast members, a then 21-year-old actor Ilmari Unho (1906–1961). He plays the role of Oras, a hot-tempered office assistant, who the factory director’s wife Anna suspects to be her own illegitimate child.

Unho would go on to become one of the best-known directors of Finnish film. Between 1939 and 1959, he directed a total of 26 films for Suomi-Filmi.

Tampere Film Festival’s Sixth Time at Tampere Cathedral

This is the sixth time Tampere Film Festival and the Federation of Tampere Ev. Lut. Parishes have worked together to arrange a silent film screening at Tampere Cathedral. Organist Esa Toivola has improvised a score for each screening.

Tampere Film Festival’s first screening at the Cathedral was in 2019 with the 1926 film Murtovarkaus, based on a play by Minna Canth. In 2020, the film shown was Victor Sjöström’s The Phantom Carriage (1921); in 2022, it was Carl Theodor Dreyer’s La Passion de Jeanne d’Arc (1928); and in 2023, the Ukrainian silent classic, Dziga Vertov’s Man with a Movie Camera (1929). Last year the screening was of Juho Kuosmanen’s silent film trilogy, consisting of Romu-Mattila ja Kaunis nainen (2012), Salaviinanpolttajat (2017) and Kaukainen planeetta (2023).

Tampere Film Festival 5–9 March 2025

VAIHDOKAS (THE CHANGELING)

Organ: Esa Toivola

Fri 7 March 2025 at 19
Free Entry
Duration: 61 min
Age Limit: 7

Vaihdokas (The Changeling)
Finland, 1927
Directed by Teuvo Puro
Written by Carl Fager, based on Selma Anttila’s play Vaihdokas (1912)

Starring:

Sven Relander – consul August Lumiala, Director General at Ruuhkakoski Factory
Helmi Lindelöf – Anna Lumiala, the consul’s wife
Lilja Haltia – Silja Lumiala, the consul’s daughter
Ilmari Unho – Oras, Office Assistant at the factory
Hilja Jorma – Maria, Headmistress at the children’s home, “Aunt Mari”
Birgit Hästesko – Orvokki, a woman raised at the children’s home

Subtitles in Finnish, Swedish and English

Source for facts about Selma Anttila’s life:
Sari Anttila: Kirjailija Selma Anttila. Aikakautensa sydän ja omatunto (2018)