A moving image and sound portrait of the aura; seizures in focused parts of the brain that result in sensory, physical and emotional disturbances, sometimes acting as warnings for convulsive seizures that may occur. Told through the voices of individuals who experience this phenomena, the film provides an intimate discussion on the different forms of aura experienced, the social stigma around these and the potential positive impact it can make on artistic expression.

Trapped in a dystopic situation, Susanne (Hanna Schygulla) and her daughter Sylvie (Anja Schneider) trace the last thread that connects them—a phone line—through a surreal journey of fears and memories, racing to find each other at the other end of the line.

With the singular Sámi oral storytelling tradition of joik at its center, ÁHKUIN is a visual and musical call-and-response between a grandmother and her descendants. Archival interviews and the joik of Maarit-áhkku (dir. Sunná Máret Nousuniemi’s grandmother) unspool as a connective thread across time, inviting the viewer through a portal into this corner of Sápmi. Here, the rhythms of time are set by the daily tasks that assured the survival of those who came before; seemingly mundane chores — carrying water from the river, setting up the sauna, boiling reindeer bone marrow — offer up gifts of memory, music, and Indigenous knowledge.


As in Indigenous communities the world over, colonization has profoundly shaped recent Sámi history through stories of loss. Drawing aesthetic inspiration from sources as diverse as duodji (Sámi handicrafts and land-based knowledge systems), the work of David Lynch, Pauliina Peodoroff’s Matriarkaatti (Matriarchy), and the environmentally focused, community-based art of Niillas Holmberg, Jenni Laiti and Outi Pieski, ÁHKUIN presents a melancholy yet playful Sámi story with lessons for a new era defined by giving and receiving.