pedon syli / embrace of a beast (2021)

Pedon Syli / Embrace of a Beast got it's start when a classmate of mine made a comment about wanting to make a film about witch hunts in the fall of 2019 that she probably didn't expect anyone to take as seriously as I did. We set out to work on a script and a storyboard and the rest is history.

This story is set in an era inspired by the 1600's Scandinavia and the witchhunts of the 17th century Europe. It's about a girl who is hiding her desires about being burned, and who gets those desires torn and spread open by an entity of the woods.

My passion is stories about twisted queerness and grotesque eroticism, and I saw a chance to make something like this with another extremely motivated person onboard with me. We started with Emma being the cinematographer of this film, but seeing how many challenges we ended up making for ourselves (big crowd scenes and live fire), we changed the plan from making a simple short film for a school project in a few months to a big production with a crowdfunded budget and a pre-production time of about 6 months with Emma spearheading the project as it's producer.



It was my first time writing a short movie script seriously, and my very first time being the director of such a project as well. I can only describe it as being stuck in a tornado of creative and passionate people and getting swept away with it, I barely had time to compherend that all these people were doing things for me and my vision's sake or second-guess myself due to the bulldoze of talent that kept just getting SHIT. DONE

I'm very proud of myself for not holding back and pushing to make something very difficult and ambitious. I'm also proud for doing so many things for the first time in my life, and taking on the challenge of directing with very difficult scenes (scenes with intimacy and scenes with a child actor). This was initially a test for myself if I could be a director, especially a director of my own scripts, and it cemented in stone that it's very much what I'd love to do more (and I can only hope for a crew as good as this one for my future projects) It's a project that's very multimedia, it doesn't only involve cinematography and acting and singing excellence, but also hand drawn animation, puppetry, stop-motion animation and music composed for this film only. Due to second wave of COVID happening by the time of shooting, we also ended up changing the script several times to better fit what we were able to do with the resources and time we had available and to make the shooting as safe as possible.

This short-film was shot during summer 2021, it is currently in post-production, and currently it's finishing date is in February 2022.

Below are BTS-photos taken by Antti Korpinen / andy_q_woods



Director, scriptwriter & crowdfunding coordinator: Muura Karu
Producer & 2nd assistant director: Emma Poutanen
Assistant director: Anna Saario
Production coordinator: Ilmari Kangas
Set secretary: Johanna Ala-Karvia
Social Media coordinator: Matilda Jaakkonen
Runner: Ilmari Kangas
Catering: Mira-Pauliina Puhakka

Cinematography & colour grader: Aki Särkiniemi
1:st AC & focus puller: Salma Maronen
2:nd AC & grip: Anniina Mäki
Gaffer: Lilli Laine
Best Boy: Sirkku Kallaperä
Light assistant: Iisa Pellikka

Sound design: Tommi Vieno
Sound recorder: Julle Kanttura
Boom-operator: Eppu Meriö

Costume design: Natalia Knuuti

MUA: Eeva Hiidensola

Editor: Meri-Tuulikki Salonen

Animator: Pessi Pajunen

Graphic design: Jaana Nissinen

Poster artist: dosto

The Witch: Sumu Jaatinen
The Maiden: Sussu Laine

Dancers: Saija Heinonen, Nea Oljakka, Maria Nieminen / Nach Baliye Kollektiv
Child: Iida Rockas