Centenary of films in Finland 1.4.1996

This lovely First Day Cover and the nice stamps on it given to me by my dear friend Pia were issued on 01 April 1996. It was to commemorate the Centenary of Films in Finland. The eight stamps portray eight well known Finnish movies. They are :-

1/8 – Juha

2/8 – Laveata tietä
3/8 – Tuntematon sotilas
4/8 – Old projector

5/8 – Jäniksen vuosi
6/8 – Valkoinen peura
7/8 – Kaikki rakastavat

8/8 – Varjoja paratiisissa

Finland is a country of exciting extremes — bright summers complimented by long, dark winters. Just about any landscape your film requires, from lush, untouched wilderness to urban environments, Finland is a nest of possibilities. And thanks to first-rate infrastructure, all locations are easily accessible via road. As a world leader in cutting-edge technology, cell phone coverage and Internet access in Finland is never a problem, even in the backwoods. What about working with local crews? Accessibility and punctuality are a trademark of the Finnish people: regardless of weather and unforeseen circumstances, Finns not only get things done, but they get them done on time. And, this is just the sort of infrastructure and environment required for the movies industry to flourish.
The first Finnish fiction film, Salaviinanpolttajat ("Bootleggers") by Louis Sparre and Teuvo Puro premiered on May 29th, 1907.in Helsinki.
"Not even still pictures were preserved. Even the plot is only known on the basis of newspaper advertisements", says Sakari Toiviainen, 60, a researcher at the Finnish Film Archive. He started work at the archive in 1968, and is the longest-serving employee there.
To mark the centenary of Finnish film, he released a magnificent book Sata vuotta - sata elokuvaa ("One Hundred Years - One Hundred Films").
The moving image itself first came to Finland already in the summer of 1896, when films by the Lumière brothers were shown. The first actual cinemas were built at the beginning of the century. The first Finnish short documentaries are believed to have been produced in Finland in 1904.