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Susanna Helke's documentary film Ruthless Times – Songs of Care (2022) was awarded 13 August for its social importance with the Locarno Zonta Club Award at the Locarno Film Festival Critics' Week section. The award is given to a film with a particularly strong social impact. Locarno Film Festival is one of the oldest and most important film festivals in world.

The film directed by Helke and produced by Timo Korhonen is based on a unique method, which utilizes Finnish nurses' testimonies composed into choir songs by Anna-Mari Kähärä. The film was made as part of the Critical Cinema Lab's artistic research project Images of Harmony and Rupture, funded by the Kone Foundation and the Aalto University Department of Film.

The jury's statement: 'The Premio Zonta club di Locarno goes to “Armotonta Menoa – Hoivatyön Lauluja” by Susanna Helke. Optimization and rationalization can be deadly weapons. The director shows how a group of courageous women fights for the life and dignity of elderly people as public service is gradually transformed into a profit machine.'

Read more: 

Susanna Helke, susanna.helke@gmail.com, +358 50 4489889