I Remember You / Muistan sinut
short film, 10 min
A group of young friends arrives at a secluded beach for a weekend of camping. As night falls, strange events unsettle them. When a local man vanishes, they become suspects, questioned by authorities who believe they know more than they admit. But is the true darkness lurking in the shadows… or within?
The story was created together with a group of young people, Rosa Kumar Saarinen, Lili Smith, Kastanja Rissanen, Ada Nykvist, Ali Tabassam, and Linda Larkovirta, all of whom also act in the film. Also the crew consists partly of young people.
Premiere: Imbolg – Women Who Terrify Film Festival, Dublin, Ireland, January 30, 2026.
2026 Bloody Mirror Film Festival, Georgia
2026 No Filter Film Festival, Belarus/Helsinki
2026 Red Rose Cinema, Helsinki
Actors Rosa Kumar Saarinen, Lili Smith, Kastanja Rissanen, Ada Nykvist, Ali Tabassam, Linda Larkovirta
Story by Rosa Kumar Saarinen, Lili Smith, Kastanja Rissanen, Ada Nykvist, Ali Tabassam, Linda Larkovirta, Marjo Viitala
Director, Screenwriter Marjo Viitala
Cinematography Joni Juutilainen
Editing Saara Välimäki and Mira Puhakainen
Sound Salla Hämäläinen ja Ville Katajala
Costume Linda Larkovirta and Marjo Viitala
Production Design Marjo Viitala
Makeup Linda Larkovirta
Graphic Design Simo Pitkänen
Trailer Juha Lankinen
With support of Art Promotion Centre Finland and City of Helsinki
Critics in Leffahammas (in Finnish)
Article in Kon O’Star (in Finnish)
Article in Vuosaari-lehti (in Finnish)
Director’s statement
I Remember You was created in close collaboration with a group of young people who also star in the film. The story emerged through a screenwriting workshop I led for teenagers, where I promised that our work would culminate in an actual film. Their desire to explore the horror genre became our starting point, and the project quickly developed into an ensemble piece shaped entirely by their ideas, energy, and presence.
Having worked extensively with teenagers and youth both as a film director and through my years of experience working in special education, this background deeply influenced the film’s perspective. The story could not be told from a distant adult viewpoint; it needed to remain strictly inside the emotional and moral logic of youth.
In the film, the characters commit a horrific act driven not by clear, calculated motives, but by imagination, collective fear, and shared belief. While the narrative contains supernatural elements, it is ultimately grounded in a reflection on real-world youth psychology. For me, this narrative closely echoes the chilling undercurrents of a tragic, real-life case in Finland, where a group of youth murdered one of their peers. It made me realize how easily violence can be justified through distorted narratives within a peer group. The reasoning is disturbingly familiar: the idea that the victim somehow deserves what happens to them, and that collective perception completely outweighs objective facts.
To bridge this raw reality with the film’s supernatural atmosphere, I utilized a central, poetic voiceover that examines the philosophical nature of evil. This film is not an attempt to explain violence, but to observe how it takes shape — quietly, collectively, and often without a clear boundary between fantasy and reality. The true horror lies not in what is shown on screen, but in how easily individual responsibility dissolves into the group.
Trailer
MARJO VIITALA 