Acting
Mar 15, 1955
Hämeenlinna, Finland
Kari Heiskanen
Acting
Biography
Kari Heiskanen is a prolific Finnish actor with over 70 credited roles since his debut in 1978 upon graduating from the Finnish Theater School. He has also acted in, written and directed several plays, now regarded as one of the pillars of the Helsinki City Theater. Originally focusing on television, he first became well-known for the TV series 'Velipuolikuu' in 1983 and remained a fixture of popular Finnish television series for the remainder of the decade before establishing a greater presence in leading cinematic roles. In 1991 Heiskanen received the State Prize for Cinema and later the Pro Finlandia Medal in 2008.
Feature Films (38)
Sari is a young, beautiful and intelligent girl who is busy studying at university,but she suffers from epilepsy and has to face death on a daily basis. Mikko is hersomewhat older university teacher, who is tired of life, and who one day decides toabandon his wife, children and idea of a perfect life. Both characters have been tooscared to live their lives to the brim for too long. But they meet, and in spite oftheir prejudices and reserved natures, they manage to create a dramatic and movingmodern romance which confronts numerous taboos. While the imagery explores theboundary between life and death in a most poetic way, the odd couple's romance istold with both bite and humour. Society - be it in the shape of angry ex-wives,overprotective parents, conservative aunts or embittered colleagues - is doing whatit can to put a spanner in the works."
The Year of the Wolf
It is the summer of 1941 and the Finnish army has been mobilized along the border with Russia. A platoon led by Lt. Eero Perkola is waiting for orders to go on the offensive. The platoon receives orders for a recon mission through the wilderness around the Lieksa lake to search for possible Russian defensive positions.
Ambush
Jed (19) walks out on his former life, without destination, without explanation, and gets on a train. He ends up by happenstance in a small eastern town in Finland where he soon comes face to face with the daily rigors of independent life. Coping becomes a challenge for him almost to the point of being an obsession. Of all the people in town, Jed seems to constantly run across the prickly and quick-witted Lulu (17). Gradually, without either of them admitting it, their relationship changes from bickering, picking on each other and a battle of wills to friendship, and as can happen, finally to love.
Garbage Prince
In a small village in Eastern Finland in 1918, Patrick, who has taken care of the chaplain, teacher and physician, has been filled with loneliness and brutal spirit of work for five years.
Lunastus
A group of men all called Frank—except for one named Pekka—have had enough of life in their working-class neighborhood, so they set off for a better existence in the magical seaside district of Eira. But the way is long, and the group face many hurdles including stray dogs and defunct streetlights.
Calamari Union
Three middle aged men, long time friends, get together in a normally closed Karaoke bar to drink their failed lives away. Secrets are revealed and sometimes discovered and they sing their miseries one by one during Karaoke sessions. The arrival of a lone woman to the bar will facilitate revealing of the final secret.
Three Wise Men
In this somber, psychological drama about the conflict between a man's innermost feelings and a society that puts these feelings in a strait jacket, the mood is ruminative and depressing throughout. Alone, Viktor (Sven Wolter) heads off for his usual summer vacation to some islands where he can ostensibly look for antiques for his wife's shop in Stockholm. His marriage is a failure or worse -- he raped his wife before he left home, and he is obsessed by erotic imaginings. Once on the islands, he makes friends with a little girl whose mother is mentally disturbed and is kept by her husband in a locked room. The islanders are as tight-lipped as Viktor, and any communication is stiff and artificial. Viktor's own alienation begins to slip as he takes surprising, violent action to turn around the imprisoned mother's life -- but it does not work, nothing seems to work -- and his last actions indicate that he may not be willing to simply give up.
Sista leken
Inspector Timo Harjunpää works on harassment and extortion campaign case against successful computer expert.
Harjunpää ja kiusantekijät
The story of one man's struggle after he gets caught in a nuclear fallout and gets sick with leukemia.
Valkoinen kääpiö
Television & Series (16)
Black Widows is a series about 3 ordinary women, friendship and an impossible secret.
Black Widows
The life of Aki Honkala, a blindly dedicated Member of the European Parliament, takes a radical turn during one scandal-plagued election night. The fall from grace is no surprise to anyone but himself. The people have spoken, let the chatter go - but what remains of a man who has lived and breathed politics for most of his adult life?
Kansan mies
Rauta-aika (The Age of Iron) is a dramatic four-part miniseries completed in 1982 by Finnish broadcast network Yle TV2. The production attempts to adapt the national epic of Finland, the Kalevala, for the television audience by way of humanizing the mythological characters whose thoughts and actions drive the narrative. The protagonists of Rauta-aika, Väinö, Ilmari and Lemminki, have been inspired by the tales in the Kalevala and go in search of a woman, eventually finding themselves at war with the Nordic people, and in the end pay dearly for their pursuits.
