Residency artists and researchers Cinema Kirsi Marie Liimatainen Director The Scream of the Butterfly It was the summer when 7-year-old Maria became an Indian, Uncle became Jesus, and when mum stopped loving dad and grandma left grandpa … That summer the grass turned pale, the wind flummoxed, and watching over it all was the sun of suns… Pispala, a suburb of Tampere, in the late seventies in Finland. When the summer arrives, a dangerous light reveals everything that had been covered by the long winter’s snow. During one scorching summer, 7-year-old Maria sees her family break apart for good. Maria’s uncle becomes mentally ill, her grandfather’s drinking gets worse, her father and mother are breaking up and her grandmother works two shifts at the factory in order to save whatever there is to save. In her uncle’s world, the sun whines, trees talk and butterflies mourn their short existence in the world. When an ambulance once again comes for her uncle, Maria is sad. She doesn’t understand why Uncle must leave again. Once the evil light fades, the rain comes and the butterflies scream their fears away. Summer has ended. Documentary Comrade, where are you today? In 1988, I moved to East Germany to study at an international school of higher education. This Marxist-leninist educational institution was closed the following year when Germany was united. My class was the last in the forty-year history of the school. Today, twenty-two years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, I leave for a trip across Europe, Chile, Nicaragua and Bolivia, Lebanon and South Africa. Where are my former classmates now and have they changed with the world? Comrade, where are you today?