Aku Urban Louhimies (born 3 July 1968) is a Finnish film director, writer and producer. His films include Restless (2000), Frozen Land (2005), 8-Ball (2013) and The Unknown Soldier (2017). He also directed historical drama miniseries Rebellion (2016).
Computer professional Vesa Rajala rushes to home from a work trip because his wife Sanna is leaving for Greece with her new lover, Georgios from next door.
Release Date1994-11-11
DepartmentDirecting
JobAssistant Director
Charactersd Odottava isä (uncredited)
Vote Count17
Acclaimed Finnish director Rauni Mollberg made several scandalous yet widely appreciated films. Former co-worker Veikko Aaltonen’s eye-opening documentary The Dinosaur looks at the relentless, often disturbing directing techniques behind Mollberg’s art and success.
Release Date2021-03-10
Charactersd Self
Vote Count6
Release Date1995-08-24
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Episode Count37
Vote Count4
A small, Finnish seaside town is preparing to celebrate midsummer's eve. An unknown enemy arrives and takes the entire area hostage.
Release Date2024-11-30
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Episode Count6
Vote Count27
A group of young men and women in Dublin in 1916 are embroiled in a fight for independence during the Easter Rising. The story begins with the outbreak of World War I. As expectations of a short and glorious campaign are dashed, social stability is eroded and Irish nationalism comes to the fore. The tumultuous events that follow are seen through the eyes of a group of friends from Dublin, Belfast and London as they play vital and conflicting roles in the narrative of Ireland's independence.
Release Date2016-01-03
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Episode Count5
Vote Count61
The idyllic and secluded Finnish archipelago. The pandemic soars across the world. Elli’s world trembles as her husband’s old friend arrives at the island.
Release Date2022-04-01
DepartmentProduction
JobProducer
Vote Count58
The siblings discover their father has left everything to a woman they have never met. As his death becomes the subject of a police investigation, the siblings hunt for his previous will.
Release Date2023-09-04
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Episode Count4
Vote Count11
The Unknown Soldier miniseries expands the story of the 2017 film of the same name. The World War II series based on Väinö Linna's classic novel closely follows a machine gun company of the Finnish Army on the Karelian front during the Continuation War between Finland and the Soviet Union, from mobilization in 1941 to the Moscow Armistice in 1944. It's a story about how camaraderie, humor, and a desire to survive connect men on their journey. War upends the lives of both the individual soldiers and those left on the home front, and leaves its mark on the entire nation.
Release Date2018-12-30
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Episode Count5
Vote Count26
Ari, a paramedic, is a chronic womanizer; he makes it a point of pride to never sleep with the same woman twice, and his nights are a long series of brazen one-night stands. But when Ari meets Tiina, something unexpected happens – he falls in love.
Release Date2000-01-28
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Vote Count57
The film follows Finnish army machine gun company in Continuation War against Soviet Union, 1941–1944. Based on Väinö Linna's best selling novel Tuntematon Sotilas (The Unknown Soldier) and the novel's uncensored version, Sotaromaani (A War Novel).
Release Date2017-10-27
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Vote Count218
Young soldier Heikki fights on the Karelian Isthmus alongside his friend Pauli. Arvo, recently released from prison, joins the company, challenging the others' views on war and duty with his worldview. The ceasefire raises hopes of returning home, but it soon becomes clear that Finland must turn against its former German allies in Lapland. At the same time, Saara, who works as a German interpreter in Rovaniemi, must choose her future: stay in Finland or flee to Germany with her beloved, Major Duisberg.
Release Date2026-10-23
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Jussi Ketola, returns to Finland from the great depression struck America only to face growing political unrest. One summer night of 1930, nationalist thugs violently abduct Ketola from his home. Beaten and forced to walk the Eternal Road towards a foreign Soviet Russia, where cruelty seems to know no end, his only dream is to return to his family cost it what it may. Hope dies last.
Release Date2017-09-15
DepartmentWriting
JobScreenplay
Vote Count46
Hundreds of years ago in Lapland, a little boy named Nikolas loses his family in an accident. The villagers decide to look after the orphaned boy together. Once a year - at Christmas - Nikolas moves to a new home. To show his gratitude, Nikolas decides to make toys for the children of the families as good-bye presents. Over the years, Nikolas's former adoptive families become many, and soon almost every house has presents on its doorstep on Christmas morning. At thirteen, Nikolas is sent to live and work with Iisakki, a grumpy old carpenter, who forbids Nikolas to continue making presents for Christmas. Gradually, however, Nikolas wins Iisakki's trust. Together they begin to look after the Christmas traditional that Nikolas has begun. When the aged Iisakki has to leave Nikolas and move away, the tradition of Christmas presents is once again at risk. Thankfully, Nikolas comes up with a solution that brings children joy every Christmas, even continuing to today.
Release Date2007-11-16
DepartmentWriting
JobStory
Vote Count140
Release Date2003-09-29
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Episode Count12
Vote Count3
The reception for Finland's Independence Day is rudely interrupted when the presidential palace is attacked and the state leadership is taken hostage. Max Tanner of the Security Police is appointed as a negotiator in the hostage crisis, that unfolds as part of a bigger plan to undermine European security.
Release Date2021-11-19
DepartmentProduction
JobExecutive Producer
Vote Count77
Isänmaan toivot tells about roommates, Vellu, Antti, Henrika and Titta, describing their life, work and free-time.
Release Date1998-09-14
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Episode Count35
Vote Count6
In a multicultural suburb of Helsinki, a bullied Russian immigrant decides to fight back, a young woman dreams of superstardom at any cost, and a junkie couple schemes their way out of debt.
Release Date2012-02-03
DepartmentWriting
JobWriter
Vote Count49
When a schoolteacher is sacked, he projects his bad mood at his troubled teenage son. The son, in turn, buys a CD player from a pawnshop with counterfeit money. This starts a chain reaction of misery as every victim projects his problems on to another person.
Release Date2005-01-14
DepartmentWriting
JobWriter
Vote Count66
An anthology of one-minute films created by 51 international filmmakers on the theme of the death of cinema. Intended as an ode to 35mm, the film was screened one time only on a purpose-built 20x12 meter public cinema screen in the Port of Tallinn, Estonia, on 22 December 2011. A special projector was constructed for the event which allowed the actual filmstrip to be burnt at the same time as the film was shown.
Release Date2011-12-22
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Vote Count7
8-Ball tells the story of single mother Pike who, having just been released from prison, is trying to start her life anew. When her former boyfriend Lalli comes back from abroad, it opens a window into a past that Pike wants to put behind her.
Release Date2013-02-22
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Vote Count36
Release Date2022-08-19
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Episode Count4
Vote Count5
Norway, 1942, during World War II. After being separated from her family, Esther, a young Jewish girl from Trondheim, arrives at an isolated farm where she must assume a new identity in order to survive the Nazi persecution.
Release Date2019-03-08
DepartmentProduction
JobCo-Executive Producer
Vote Count66
There is civil war in Finland between "Whites" and "Reds". A woman soldier of the Reds is captured by the Whites. She is ordered to be executed. A lieutenant is enforced into a homosexual relationship with his commanding officer to save the Red female with whom he is infatuated.
Release Date2008-08-29
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Vote Count26
Three vacuum cleaner salesmen go door-to-door selling dreams of dust-free homes and personal ambitions in a bleak Finland hit by the worst recession in history.
Release Date1997-04-20
DepartmentEditing
JobAssistant Editor
Vote Count7
This movie is about Iiris Vaara. She turns 30 and meets young director Marko. All dreams come true but does Marko share her dreams?
Release Date2002-02-01
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Vote Count18
A story of a priest, who considers himself as a rebel is suddenly asked to run for bishop of Turku.
Release Date2006-09-15
DepartmentProduction
JobCo-Producer
Vote Count16
The Finland of the future has gone mad. A bored young woman, Viola, gets a brilliant idea. She decides to fool the infamous Lone Rider and his sidekick Tonto. Viola makes a wanted poster of herself, and assumes the identity of a highwayman named Gonzales. Viola/Gonzales surrenders to a quirky bandit duo, who now believe they will be well rewarded for bringing this outlaw to authorities. As the pair is taking Gonzales to the gallows, they get lost in the desert. A day's journey turns into an adventure that tests the trio's physical resilience and mental maturity.
Release Date2023-05-24
DepartmentProduction
JobProducer
Vote Count11
Release Date2022-08-19
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Episode Count4
Vote Count2
Vatanen has had enough of his job, his wife, his whole urban lifestyle. One day, without warning, he leaves everything behind and heads out into the wilderness accompanied by a rabbit he found on the side of the road.
DepartmentWriting
JobWriter
Short film by Oskari Sipola
Release Date2009-03-01
DepartmentProduction
JobProducer
Vote Count3
Release Date1995-11-23
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Vote Count1
Looking to outrun the horrors of his past, a tormented cabbie flees Helsinki for an apartment complex in the suburbs, only to discover that new neighbors bring new problems. What ensues is a raw, realistic tragedy with an unwaveringly humane core.
Release Date2006-11-17
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Vote Count15
Release Date1996-01-01
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Vote Count1
A Russian reconnaissance aircraft collides with a Finnish passenger plane over the Gulf of Finland. At the same time unexplained sabotage and cyberattacks cut off electricity and communications across the country. The Finns are left in the dark without news, electricity or heating, while freezing cold turns their dwellings into death traps.
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Release Date1997-01-01
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Anthology film with segment by Asif Kapadia
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
