Hilton! - Täällä ollaan elämä

Hilton! - Here For Life

One apartment block in the Eastern suburbs of Helsinki is known as “The Hilton”. The mostly young people living there are school drop-outs and drifters. Such as Janne, Toni, Mira, Pete and Make, who live in a tenement owned by a youth foundation. Their attempts at gaining control over their own lives have been in vain. In this small world full of rage, depression and desperation everything seems lost. But over the course of time we are part of their kind of family we can see each individual through different eyes and even a glimmer of hope emerging in this parallel society. In 2006 Crossing Europe dedicated a Tribute to Virpi Suutari and her cinematic collaboration with director Susanna Helke.

Director's Biography

Virpi Suutari, born 1967 in Rovaniemi, Finland. She studied journalism and communication studies and graduated in photography from the University of Art and Design in Helsinki. Suutari made several short films for Finnish Television before becoming a documentary filmmaker and freelance journalist. // Films (selected): JOUTILAAT (The Idle Ones, 2001, doc, in co-direction with Susanne Helke; CE '04), PITKIN TIETÄ PIENI LAPSI (Along the Road Little Child, 2005, doc; CE '06), AUF WIEDERSEHEN FINNLAND (2010, doc), HILTON! – TÄÄLÄ OLLAAN ELÄMÄ (Hilton! – Here for Life, 2013, doc)