Screaming for humanity

So, little sleep because of the late-night skiers who love to PAR-TEE! Or maybe they were filmfestgoers. Who knows? Anyway, I missed the 9 a.m. press screening and am now back in our condo watching a video of a Finnish/Danish film titled “Screaming Men” (yes, press can rent VHS copies of some movies). It’s a documentary about a group of Finnish men who don’t sing but who scream songs, including the national anthems of various countries. (Maybe they were the ones walking down Main Street last night.) In any event, the idea of a screaming choir is a curious phenomenon presented in an intriguing manner.

At one point, writer-director Mika Ronkainen intersperses shots of the choir shouting and a crowd screaming at a hockey game. One whole sequence involves the group contemplating the Icelandic nation anthem despite an Icelandic law that prohibits any alteration of the song (what they do is a dramatic surprise that causes the Icelanders in the audience to cheer). The leader of the group, Petri Servio, tells a Japanese audience that of all the reasons to shout, the final and most solid reason is “to express the most individual, spontaneous uncontrolled and unlimited human emotions.” When the group encounters problems with the French, the group’s more political motives comes through. In the end, the idea is just bizarre enough to be profound.