Notes from an island

It's a shame that Tove Jansson is mostly associated with the Moomin characters she created. Not to say that these books and cartoons weren't great - they are. It's just that her other books, and her art, have remained quite off the radar. My sister used to talk a lot about her and Tuulikki Pietilä's book "Anteckningar från en ö", published in 1996. I read the book, and was moved by it. In "Haru, yksinäisten saari" ("Haru - ensamhetens ö"), video clips filmed by Jansson & Pietilä are accompanied by Birgitta Ulfsson's reading of some of the texts (in Finnish for some reason, maybe there are two copies of the film?). Ulfsson's humorous delivery fits the material since it brings out its warmth, a no-nonsense perception of life in the archipelago.

Jansson & Pietilä spent many summers in the Pellinge archipelago, on an island inhabited by nobody else - Klovharun. Jansson writes about their day-to-day life on the secluded island. She talks about the surroundings, but there's no hints of pastoral sentimentalism. Her observations are dry, and very evocative. There's joy, melancholy and grief. Ordinary things: how they grow more quiet, as there is so little to talk about, how they talk about the weather, how every small change of weather becomes interesting. Having grown up in the archipelago, I am familiar with this enormous fascination with weather. That it can mean different things. That you can say: "there's northerly wind" in a thousand ways, all of them expressing different things, depending on the context.

But it is the pictures, the clips, that truly make the text come alive. The transformations of nature; wind, sunshine, rain, but also the daily activities of fishing, resting, boat trips - dancing.

When I read the book, my immediate reaction was that this is one of the most moving accounts of love I've ever come across in my life. That impression stuck with me as I was watching the film. There's the way one of the women films the other, gently. Watching their faces, usually smiling, cracking up into a hearty, beaming smile. It is very beautiful. They are very beautiful. Just watching the pictures and listening to Jansson's matter of fact tales of Pietilä's skillfullness with regards to machines, their inventions, their boredom - convey so much.

RinneRadio, an excellent Finnish jazz/electronica band, performs most of the music of the film. A tasteful choice of music, if you ask me. The only thing that puzzled me - amused me! - was the use of Scott McKenzie's "If your going to San Franscisco (wear flowers in your hair)" in combination with pictures of one of the women's joyous dancing movements. It's a long way from Frisco to Pellinge. But maybe that's the point.

I also want to recommend the documentary about Pietilä's and Jansson's travels together, "Tove & Tooti i Europa" (2004).