KARELIAN COWGIRLS

2008, 10:20 minutes

Film Website

In 1939, at the start of the bitterly cold Winter War the Soviet Red Army invaded Finnish-Karelia forcing hundreds of thousands of civilians deep into Finland. With men at war front and women looking after the small children, the responsibility of driving the family cattle through deep snow and hostile lands was forced upon the oldest girls. A lifetime later, Annikki, Inkeri and Hilkka look back on their adventures on a journey that coincided with their journey to adulthood – and the effect the war had on their lives.

To get a copy of your chosen film, please contact Eve Korzec from the Scottish Documentary Institute  at . Please cite ‘Moving Worlds, special Refugee Week‘ package in your email so you can pay the discounted screening fee £20. Don’t forget to check out the complementary post-screening resources to help navigate public conversations.

Selected Awards & Nominations

OFFICIAL SELECTION – Hidden Door Festival – Edinburgh 2010

OFFICIAL SELECTION – Parvin Etesami Women Film Festival, Teheran, 2009

OFFICIAL SELECTION – Oulu FF (Finland) 2009

OFFICIAL SELECTION – Vancouver FF 2009

OFFICIAL SELECTION – Dokubazaar 2009

OFFICIAL SELECTION – I’ve Seen Films FF 2009

OFFICIAL SELECTION – Dawson City Short FF 2009

OFFICIAL SELECTION – London Short Film Festival 2009

OFFICIAL SELECTION – LIDF, 2009

OFFICIAL SELECTION – Vancouver Film Festival, 2009 (Canada)

OFFICIAL SELECTION – Tampere Film Festival, 2009 (Finland)

OFFICIAL SELECTION – Tromsø International Film Festival, 2009 (Norway)

OFFICIAL SELECTION – LIDF, 2009 (UK)

NOMINATION- Best Short Documentary Film Award – Edinburgh International Film Festival, 2008 (UK)

Post-screening Conversation Questions

  1. What role does first person narrative play?
  2. How does the director convey the feelings of fear and uncertainty experienced by the protagonists through the film’s visual language?
  3. “I got a written order, just like the soldiers. If you didn’t comply, you’d be court-martialled.” What do the speaker’s words reveal in relation to their experiences of the Soviet Red Army’s invasion?
  4. Why do you think the filmmaker chose to position the speakers’ narratives of the homes they left behind within the space of a new home?

Resources

Moving Worlds Resources Page or KARELIAN COWGIRLS

Karelian Cowgirls – the best short, Geist blog piece