Steam of Life awarded at Visions du Réel

Steam of Life (Miesten vuoro) by Joonas Berghäll and Mika Hotakainen has won the Prize of the Interreligious Jury at Visions du Réel - International Documentary Film Festival in Nyon, Switzerland (April 15-21, 2010). The screening in the Compétition Internationale of Visions du Réel was the international premiere of the film. The prize is worth CHF 5000 (ca. 3500 Euro), and the jury consisted of representatives of the Catholic and Protestant churches as well as the Muslim and Jewish communities.

Steam of Life has earlier won the Risto Jarva and Audience Awards at Tampere International Film Festival in Finland. From Switzerland the film travels to Canada, where it has its North American premiere at Hot Docs in Toronto (April 29 - May 9, 2010).

In Finland, Steam of Life was theatrically released on March 26, and has since found an exceptionally large audience for a documentary film: it has sold ca. 14 000 tickets in less than four weeks. The Finnish distributor is Nordisk Film.

International sales are handled by Jan Rofekamp / Films Transit International. The film has so far been sold for TV in Estonia, France, Germany and Sweden and for theatrical release in Poland and Sweden.

The main artistic crew of the film includes, besides the directors Berghäll and Hotakainen, cinematographers Heikki Färm and Jani Kumpulainen as well as composer Jonas Bohlin. The film is produced by Joonas Berghäll / Oktober Oy.

Visions du Réel website:
www.visionsdureel.ch