Shoes

Personal Info

Known For

Directing

Gender

Male

Birthday

1929-01-31

Place of Birth

Äänekoski, Finland

Mikko Niskanen

Biography

Mikko Niskanen was a Finnish film director and actor. He was born in Äänekoski, Central Finland in 1929. He was the third of six children, and his father worked as a timber barge pilot. His mother too had a job outside the home, so the children often spent summers with their grandmother in Viitasaari. At the age of 13, Mikko Niskanen started working in timber felling and floating. Two years later he enrolled in a vocational school in Jyväskylä to become a car mechanic. He took a serious interest in amateur theatre and was accepted to study at the Finnish Theatre Academy in Helsinki from 1947 until 1950. He then acted in Jyväskylä and Kuopio theatres until 1954 when he landed an actor's job at the film studios of Suomen Filmiteollisuus in Helsinki. One of his first film roles was in Edvin Laine's The Unknown Soldier (1955). Between 1958 and 1961 Niskanen studied at the Moscow Film School in the Soviet Union. Niskanen's 1962 film The Boys was entered into the 3rd Moscow International Film Festival. He continued his directing career focusing on themes such as rural life and youth. His second breakthrough was Under Your Skin (Käpy selän alla, 1966), a story of two young couples spending a weekend camping in the countryside. The film received six Jussi Awards and was followed by another story about young lovers, Asfalttilampaat (1968). Niskanen's tour de force as both actor and director was the five-hour television drama Eight Deadly Shots which was also released as a 145-minute theatrical version edited by Jörn Donner. Based on a true story from late 1960s Finland, it is a naturalistic drama about a poor farmer struggling to make a living for his family. He gradually becomes a violent alcoholic who goes on killing spree when the police arrive to calm him down. Besides directing, Niskanen gave a powerful and intense performance in the leading role. The film, like many of Niskanen's works were shot on locations around his home province north of Jyväskylä. Mikko Niskanen died of cancer at the age of 61.

Known for

Eight Deadly Shots

Eight Deadly Shots

Small-farmer Pasi shoots four policemen who have come to arrest him for raged drunkenness. The movie is a flashback examining the events that finally lead to the tragic shooting. As time goes by, Pasi sinks deeper into poverty, gets into trouble with police and tax officials, all while family arguments grow more and more serious. Based on a real story.

Hamsterit

Hamsterit

The Age of Iron

The Age of Iron

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.

Gotta Run!

Gotta Run!

Juuso, Late, and Pyry return from military service to their small village in the Finnish countryside. Finding work is difficult there, so Juuso decides to take a job on a Norwegian oil drilling platform. Late could start working on his family's chicken farm but wants to break free from his father who has a new wife. Looking for work in Gothenburg, Sweden, he only runs into more problems and is deported back to Finland. Pyry would like to take over his late father's farm but family quarrels over the estate make him quit his agricultural studies and, together with drifter Late, take a job in a steel mill in southern Finland.

Nuoruuteni savotat

Nuoruuteni savotat

Lumberjacking is a second part of saga about young author, Kalle Päätalo. It's a story about growing up and becoming a storyteller in hard times when their father was in the forced labour camp. He was a lunatic.

Eight Deadly Shots

Eight Deadly Shots

Small-scale farmer Pasi shoots four policemen who have come to arrest him for raged drunkenness. Rest of the movie is a long flashback examining the events that finally leads to the tragic shooting. As time goes by, Pasi sinks gradually deeper and deeper into the poverty, gets into trouble with both police and tax officials while family arguments grow more and more serious. Based on a true story.

Elämän vonkamies

Elämän vonkamies

Portrait of rural life in 1920s Northern Finland. The film follows the early life of a boy called Kalle and his family in the shores of river Iijoki.

Kaunis Kaarina

Kaunis Kaarina

Kaarina, an orphan girl raised by Taneli, the innkeeper, notices that her friendship with her childhood friend Antti is turning into romance. Henrik, the patron, also has his eye on Kaarina.

Sodan ja rauhan miehet

Sodan ja rauhan miehet

Pulakapina

Pulakapina

Based on a true story about the so called 1932 Horse Rebellion in Nivala, Finland. The decision to put down a sick horse owned by a poor farmer rises the farmers in open rebellion against the authorities.

Isaskar Keturin ihmeelliset seikkailut

Isaskar Keturin ihmeelliset seikkailut

The unlucky layabout Isarkar Keturi brings a criminal gang to heel with the help of his assistant Mikael. He frees Irma, the daughter of mining magnate Tömstet, from captivity and a forced marriage to Kurt. Irma achieves her dream of becoming a pop star, with Isaskar's help.

Mona ja palavan rakkauden aika

Mona ja palavan rakkauden aika

Growing up story of a high school girl that struggles with the emptiness of her life.

Syksyllä kaikki on toisin

Syksyllä kaikki on toisin

A small Finnish town bank manager gets caught in the midst of local politics, with dire effects on his family and himself.

Here, Beneath the North Star

Here, Beneath the North Star

Täällä Pohjantähden alla is based on the book with the same title. It is a story of the little village. The movie starts in the 1890's and it ends to the Finnish civil war in 1918. Story concentrates around a tenant farmer family, although it gives us a good look at the society at whole. While the class struggle depends, people of the village are driven to bloody civil war.

Pekka ja Pätkä sammakkomiehinä

Pekka ja Pätkä sammakkomiehinä

Pekka Puupää and Pätkä, who return to Helsinki from an unsuccessful variety show tour, are forced into refresher training, where they are trained as frogmen. During the diving exercises, the friends encounter the mermaid Helmi, whom they help into the bathtub at home, to Justiina's shock. The friends, who have become civilians, eventually end up on a plane bound for Suez, being cornered by UN soldiers.