Huutajat (Screaming Men)

The Finnish Screaming Male Choir, Mieskuoro Huutajat, led by Petri Sirviö, is a unique choir, which performs its repertoire by shouting and screaming. The appeal of the performance is based on combinations of strong contrasts: the disciplined and smartly dressed male members shout patriotic songs and marches as well as children’s songs in original languages. Everywhere, the audience has been mostly exalted, and sometimes also shocked and bewildered. Their versions of national anthems of different countries do not always make everybody happy. When they were performing at the Museum of Modern Art in Paris, both the museum and the Finnish embassy tried to prevent them from performing the French national anthem and in Iceland, where it is forbidden to perform the national anthem in any other version than the original, they had to find another solution. Screaming Men is a documentary about power, nationalism, intransigence and a firm belief in your own art. It walks the thin line between the dead serious and the absurd.