(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
At the Gothenburg Film Festival, director Virpi Suutari presents her new documentary contractor, which deals with two small companies in Finland. Jani and Satu travel around the country with a market stall selling traditional meat products. They also visit a number of amusement parks. Maija and Reetta, for their part, start a company – Gold and Green – that produces an oat product as an alternative to meat. The film follows both business teams for a limited period of time.
Suutari contrasts Janu and Satu's rural family business with Maija and Reetta's urban ditto. And while they share a number of characteristics, they are also in many ways different.
A traveling amusement park
Partners Jani and Satu struggle to make ends meet; Their turnover seems to decline. They repeatedly wonder whether customers will be interested in their meat and why their children do not seem to be interested in the entertainment industry. Suutari follows them as they travel around the country – more of necessity than of conviction: Jani lost her job and what started as a hobby suddenly becomes the basis of the family's life. Parts of the year are spent on various amusement parks, the rest on a round trip with their portable meat market stall looking for potential customers. With their four children, they are visually safely integrated into the family life of the Finnish countryside. Indoors one finds a lively stir consisting of a family of six; outdoors, they have to deal with the conditions that they are, whether it's rain, snow or sun.
A Chinese business adventure
Close friends Maija and Reetta work under very different circumstances. They have just opened a factory that will produce Reetta's invention "pulled oats" on a large scale. At the moment they occupy only a small corner in a large, empty hall. Idealism drives them; they want to change the eating habits of the world with a product that is not like meat. Dressed up in white lab coats and white hats, they work their way onto laptops and phones during breaks from factory work. Their product is a domestic success and they struggle to meet demand. They usually stay indoors – in sterile environments dominated by shades of gray – and do business through the use of modern technology rather than personal meeting activities. Reetta travels to China with colleague Zhong-Qing to meet a Chinese investor – the first step on the path to world domination. At an outdoor restaurant with her Chinese hosts, however, she seems completely lost.
Local and Rural vs. global and urban
Suutari uses an observational style and provides very little background information. Besides what the participants talk about and show, the only factual information we get is in the form of place names. Honkajoki (northwest of Tampere) is where Jani and Satu are located, Järvenpää-Helsinki indicates the location of Gold and Green's factory, and Changsha the location of the Chinese adventure. Suutaris visualization of the two teams fills in the cinematic image. While Jani and Satu represent old-time entrepreneurial art – local, rural, small-scale and personal – Maija and Reetta represent modern entrepreneurship – globally (at least as far as ambition is concerned), urban, large-scale and digital. The old economy is also represented with a natural product – the new one with an artificial one.
A new economic world order
While we previously got our food from nature and our immediate neighborhoods, the food of the future will be factory-produced and made available globally. While meat was previously an important and harmless part of our diet, alternative sources of protein are increasingly replacing it. In the film, and despite the risk that their products will be copied, the move to China seems an obvious move; Zhong-Qing is a natural link between the two countries, and if global change is to occur, China is a crucial market.
At a time when the United States seems to be retreating from the world stage, China seems more than willing to contribute.
However, Chinese investors' interest in Gold and Green symbolizes an important, more general shift in the global economy. At a time when the United States seems to be retiring
world stage, China seems more than willing to contribute, for example with large investments in Africa. Both in terms of eating habits and business practices depict Entrepreneur in many ways the transition from an old to a new economic world order.
The flow of human life
The film has a rather tight form, although it easily moves between the two teams of entrepreneurs and their daily activities. It opens with Jani practicing the wedding speech to her chosen one. Gradually, their stories unfold, and Suutari unites the two through their rather repetitive use of music. Towards the end – after a personal setback – Jani and Satu get married. Maija, in turn, becomes the mother of two twins. The film's second last scene shows Maija and Reetta sitting on a couch as they feed the newborn. Thus, two of life's great moments form the frame for the rest of the film. Enterprises come and go, but the flow of human life continues unabated.
