Entrepreneur
Virpi Suutari has directed a visually mesmerising motion picture that plays with sound and rhythm remarkably. The Finnish documentary Entrepreneur (Yrittäjä) depicts two universes and cleverly shows the differences and similarities between them. It’s truly a piece of art.
Virpi Suutari’s latest documentary tells the success story of the start-up Gold&Green Foods, founded by Maija Itkonen and Reetta Kivelä, and the decay of Akseli Laine’s family businesses. The former two embarked on a journey because they wanted to. Their business centring on plant-based food grows rapidly and attracts several investors – even from abroad. Akseli and his family, on the other hand, have to try something new. The loss of his steady job forces them to invest all their energy into their side hustles to earn money – to make ends meet. However, the light at the end of the tunnel has not even started flickering yet. No matter how hard they try, they hardly sell any meat, and their amusement rides don’t seem to enjoy as much popularity as they used to either. The dimensions and volumes of these businesses cannot be compared at all, but the personal struggles create the opportunity to draw some parallels between these entrepreneurs. Ultimately, they are only humans with the desire of getting by and providing just enough for their families. That being said, they belong to two worlds, and they would probably never cross each other’s path.
Source: Oktober
The film focuses on entrepreneurship. It also reflects on Finland’s current status as one of the most innovative countries in the world. It informs about the emergence of a new entrepreneurial class and the disappearance of the one representing the past. It does all this without propagating biases or taking sides. It only observes and examines the challenges entrepreneurs face today. Nonetheless, it highlights the shift happening in the field of entrepreneurship. While certain types of businesses manage to scale up soon after their launch and have the potential to ignite the interests of foreign investors, other types promising nothing new and innovative slowly but surely vanish.
In the current capitalist and neoliberal system, money speaks. If a company cannot generate enough profit, it’s destined to go bankrupt. Companies don’t have a choice but to design and implement new strategies to find new customers. Both Gold&Green Foods and Akseli Laine’s family are well aware of this. Through their everyday efforts, not only the crucial role innovation may play in the success or the failure of a business but also the choices and decisions made by business owners receive attention. The situation is, of course, not black and white. Several factors influence the outcome of every decision as shown. Sometimes life just happens, taking away all control a human being might have.
The film raises a number of questions but doesn’t offer any answer. It respects the viewers enough to let them think and formulate their own thoughts on the subject. It does it in a way that the film pleases both the eyes and the ears. It plays with pace, music, sounds, and colours. Editor Jussi Rautaniemi did a fantastic job bridging the two worlds. The plot develops gradually, thus providing the viewers with the opportunity to fully be absorbed by the experience – to identify with either of the subjects visited and presented in their natural settings. We hear their monologues and dialogues and see them engage in a variety of activities. They really open up to the director and the cinematographers, Heikki Färm, Tuomo Hutri, Marita Hällfors, Jani Kumpulainen and Hannu-Pekka Vitikainen, and trust them with their joyful and dreadful moments.
No doubt, Virpi Suutari is a talented filmmaker who knows how to tell a compelling and thought-provoking story. Entrepreneur is an example of cinematic excellence that explores the hidden territories of the admired Nordic welfare model while simultaneously making the case for watching more documentaries. Considering the harmony between sound and image, with a portion of hypnotizing potion, the documentary somewhat resembles The Visit by Danish filmmaker Michael Madsen. Its subject matter connects it to documentary films such as Nokia Mobile: We Were Connecting People (Arto Koskinen) and Dream Empire (David Borenstein).
The film was screened at the Göteborg Film Festival in 2018. | Featured image: Facebook
