Review: Geneve

MEMORIES OF THE BOOM

Pasi Lampela was responsible for one of the finest relationship dramas of the autumn of 2005 with his play Tiimi, and the situation does not look any worse this autumn either, as the new Geneva work is largely the same tree as Tiimi , a tight contemporary drama, full of the familiar analysis of the economic hype of the last decade and the related bursting of the bubble. However, it is not a question of causes and consequences, strict economic laws, but of people and their problems.

Located on the shores of Lake Geneva and considered one of the most beautiful cities in Europe, the medium-sized small metropolis is an idyllic getaway where the play’s Finnish protagonists, businessman Henrik Rotko (Carl-Kristian Rundman), his wife Anna (Merja Larivaara) and their daughter Marianne (Pihla Penttinen) have emigrated. There, they are surrounded by a small circle of colleagues and friends.

Eppu Salminen and Ursula Salo play the play’s other, slightly younger Finnish couple, with whom the Rotkots are prepared to spend a nice evening. The situation is like something straight out of Edward Albee’s legendary play Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf . The evening gets extra electricity when Rotko’s former mentor and business partner Jaakko Halme (Pekka Laiho) arrives.

I liked Geneva even more than the Team. In a short time, Lampela has developed in leaps and bounds. In his last works, the slight sketchiness of his first works has been replaced by an increasingly controlled development of situations and the production of an enjoyable dialogue that fits naturally in people’s mouths.

The magnificent ensemble and the stylishly stylish technical and artistic execution throughout guarantee that the two-hour film in Geneva will fly by almost as if on the wings. I would almost have liked to watch it even longer.