Director Dome Karukoski
Dome Karukoski moved to Finland from Cyprus, when he was four years old. His mother is a Finish journalist and his father an American actor George Dickerson.
He was selected to the University of Art and Design of Helsinki in 1999. That year, three students were selected to become students majoring in directing.
Tyttö, sinä olet tähti (Beauty and the Bastard, 2005) was Karukoski's graduation film. The dramatic comedy became a hit both critically and at the box office.
The film was nominated in eight categories for the Finnish National Film Awards, including best director and best film and it won the audience award. The movie was in the official selection of the Berlinale (14+ section) and Tribeca film festival. It also won the Norwegian Amanda-award (given in co-production with Canal+ & Svensk Filmindustri) for best Nordic Debut-film 2005.
The Home of Dark Butteflies is his second festure.
Karukoski's is 3rd film Forbidden Fruit (2009) is a coming of age story about two religious girls.
Between his feature-films Karukoski has directed 2 Mini-series for TV.
Brothers”(MTV3 Finland, January 2008) a story about a family with an child suffering from ADHD and Protectors (Channel Four Finland, March-May 2008) a series following the life of night guards.
Karukoski has several national championships as a coach and a player in American football and Floorball. Because of that, has an odd trademark of arriving to premiere's and galas: "straight from practice". Has said in interviews, that he never misses practice.
Look at Karukoski's commercial spots here!
A WORD FROM THE DIRECTOR
The sentence above is one of the profound messages that can be found in the novel by Leena Lander.
A lot of people spend their lives projecting guilt onto themselves or others, preoccupied by bitter and cynical views of the world. And it seems as if these sorts of feelings are a growing trend in our society, likely to lead to extremes of behavior such as suicides, school massacres and increasing use of Prozac and other anti-depression medication.
If I, as a filmmaker, can have some impact on society, I will do it. This movie is a milestone in that mission. Life is a beautiful thing and that is what this movie also tries to express.
Feelings, moments and thoughts – we are privileged that we have a chance to experience them. And we should be happy about that. That is what this movie is trying to say, via the story of its characters.
Despite hardships and negative feelings one must always try to go on, to get up after being knocked out.
That is what this movie tries to say through the stories these dark butterflies, these boys who have been knocked to the ground.
Naturally, I want to reach out to a beautiful world in my own way, by trying to give the audience a little smile, a glimmer of hope.
Dome Karukoski
Director
