Lapland Odyssey is a comedy about Janne, a man from Lapland in northern Finland. Inari, his girlfriend, is tired of Janne’s incapability of getting a grip on life. Janne wasn’t even able to buy a digital TV box that Inari had given money for. Inari gives an ultimatum: a digital box needs to arrive by dawn or she leaves. Janne sets out into the night with his two friends. On their way to the city of Rovaniemi, Janne and his friends face many challenges, obstacles and temptations. They learn that they need to be daring. “There are areas in Lapland where the unemployment rate is over 40%. In the winter, you barely see the sun. In the summer it doesn’t go down, so people can’t sleep and go crazy. I always questioned how one can live in those areas. But when you meet locals, you understand. It’s because of the Finnish perkele. Perkele has no translation. Sometimes it’s used as a curse word but it actually means something between stamina, will power and damning the gods. That perkele is what the people of Lapland have. Inside the biggest loser, a hero can be found. Inside the biggest cynic you can still find hope. That is what Lapland Odyssey is about: perkele, tells Dome Karukoski.
