Guests

LAMBERTO BAVA

The headliner retrospective guest of the April 2025 edition of Night Visions International Film Festival and a third generation filmmaker, Lamberto Bava (b. 1944 in Rome, Italy) arrives to Helsinki from Rome. The living legend of European horror and thriller film has cited his father Mario Bava (1914-1980) as his first Maestro. Deservingly so, as Mario is commonly recognized as one of the genuine giants of Italian genre film industry.

Lamberto started his career as an assistant director in a number of his father’s films now considered classics (Danger: Diabolik, Kill, Baby… Kill, A Hatchet for the Honeymoon, Bay of Blood, Baron Blood). Following the apprentice tradition of the golden age of Italian cinema, he was also working under the supervision of a number of other highly influential filmmakers. Gigs as an assistant director in Ruggero Deodato’s Cannibal Holocaust and Ultimo mondo cannibale as well as Dario Argento’s Inferno and Tenebrae provided invaluable working experience and networking opportunities.

Bava’s directorial debut Macabro (1980) is a deeply twisted psychosexual thriller that defies genre conventions and is guaranteed to leave the viewer flabberghasted also by today’s standards. It was followed by the slasherish giallo mystery A Blade in the Dark (1983), the First Blood inspired Quentin Tarantino favourite Blastfighter (1984), and Devil Fish (1984), an entertainingly exploitative riff on Jaws.

Bava got his first big break by attracting the attention of Dario Argento to the story of Demons (1985). Argento agreed to produce and got Bava all the required resources, resulting in one of the tentpole films in the Italian horror film canon of the 1980s.

Its box office success triggered the production of Demons 2 (1986), an inventive and satisfyingly graphic variation of the original masterpiece. In between the two, Bava finished the giallo You’ll Die at Midnight (1986).

When television started to eat up the market from the film industry in the 1980s Italy, the genre veterans decided to up the ante. Delirium: Photo of Gioia (1987) is a perfect manifestation of this renegade attitude. An updated version of Mario Bava’s classic Blood and Black Lace (1964) spiced up with a layer of sleaze, the story set in the world of “adult fashion” also features a few glimpses of Sabrina Salerno of the Boys (Summertime Love) fame in front of the camera.

Towards the end of the 1980s and throughout the 1990s, Bava kept himself busy with (monstly genre related) directing gigs for television. His biggest international success of this period was Fantaghirò: Cave of the Golden Rose (1991-1996), a massive chunk of fantasy miniseries sold to 44 countries worldwide.

His latest feature film as a director, the horror thriller Ghost Son starring Mulholland Drive’s Laura Harring alongside British veterans John Hannah and Pete Postlethwaite, was released in 2007.

Bava returned to his favourite subject in the 2012 miniseries 6 passi nel giallo. He directed three episodes of the show himself. The directorial efforts of one episode are credited to his son Fabrizio Bava (b. 1967) – who started his career in film in Lamberto’s features Demons, You’ll Die at Midnight and Demons 2.

Lamberto Bava will be presenting the Night Visions screenings of his films to the audience:

Macabro on Wednesday, April 2, at 06.30 PM at Cinema Orion

Delirium: Photo of Gioia on Thursday, April 3, at 07.15 PM at Cinema Orion

Demons on Friday, April 4, at 07.15 PM at Cinema Orion

Demons 2 on Saturday, April 5, at 07.00 PM at Cinema Orion

JOE BEGOS

Joe Begos arrives to Helsinki from Los Angeles to present his latest tour de force Jimmy and Stiggs, the raw energy of which has been drawing comparisons to Peter Jackson’s Bad Taste (1987) and Sam Raimi’s The Evil Dead (1981).

Begos kicked off his career in horror and science fiction film with a bang: His directorial debut, the sci-fi horror hybrid Almost Human (2013) starring Night Visions favourite Graham Skipper was selected to world premiere in the coveted Midnight Madness section of Toronto International Film Festival. His other features include the 2019 vampire cult classic Bliss, the star studded action horror explosion VFW (2019), and the 2022 Christmas themed robot slasher opus Christmas Bloody Christmas.

His work is distinguished by practical effects, bold visuals, and an emphasis on intense, visceral storytelling. Joe Begos has built a reputation as a filmmaker dedicated to preserving the spirit of practical, independent horror cinema. His commitment to genre storytelling and his distinct, uncompromising vision have made him a rising figure in modern cult horror.

Joe Begos will be presenting Jimmy and Stiggs to the Night Visions audience at its both festival screenings:

Thursday, April 3, at 07.30 PM at WHS Teatteri Union

Saturday, April 5, at 11.15 PM at Cinema Orion

HTOO LWIN MYO

Director-screenwriter-producer Htoo Lwin Myo (b. 1983, Myanmar) celebrates the Scandinavian premiere of No Magic for Socialists, his fascinating dive into the fantasy and horror film culture of Myanmar of yesteryear, at Night Visions. The documentary feature arrives to Helsinki straight from its world premiere at the acclaimed Film Festival Rotterdam.

Myo’s first film project as a participating filmmaker, the short documentary On Hteedan Road, was screened at Wathann Film Festival in Myanmar in 2013. In early 2018, he founded Pink Bear Production and produced education reform themed short videos. In 2020, Myo made his first docu-fiction short A Song of Trishaw with financial support from Goethe-Institut Yangon. The film was selected in the competition section of SeaShorts Film Festival in Malaysia in 2021. With financial support from the Paris-based non-profit Memory! Cinéma Association, he worked on his second short film A Silent Page from 2022 to 2024. A Silent page had its world premiere at the Jogja-NETPAC Asian Film Festival in Yogyakarta, Indonesia.

Htoo Lwin Myo will be presenting No Magic for Socialists to the Night Visions audience at its Scandinavian premiere screening:

Friday, April 4, at 07.00 PM at WHS Teatteri Union

LOU TAYLOR PUCCI

Accoladed American actor Lou Taylor Pucci (b. 1985, Seaside Heights, New Jersey, USA) arrives to Helsinki to present his mesmerizing work as an alien lover in Touch Me, the hauntingly erotic sci-fi sensation that was one of the highlights of the Midnight section of Sundance Film Festival this January. A familiar face from the recent hit shows Daredevil: Born Again, Physical and American Horror Story, Pucci’s career trajectory of the past 20 years is nothing short of breathtaking.

Pucci broke the bank already with his first starring role in Thumbsucker (2005), a quirky US indie dramedy by Mike Mills. By winning the Best Actor award for his performance at both Sundance and the Berlin Film Festival, 20-year-old Pucci nonchalantly left his co-stars Keanu Reeves, Tilda Swinton and Vince Vaughn in his shadow.

Over the years, he has worked with some of the world’s most talented independent filmmakers such as Richard Linklater (Fast Food Nation), Jonas Åkerlund (The Horsemen), and Richard Kelly (Southland Tales). He has acted alongside the likes of Mickey Rourke and Winona Ryder (Bret Easton Ellis adaptation The Informers), Christopher Plummer and Ewan McGregor (The Beginners), as well as Riley Keough and Kylie Minogue (Jack & Diane). Genre film afficionados certainly recognize him from Fede Alvarez’s reimagining of Evil Dead (2013) and from the starring role in Spring (2015), the Lovecraftian fantasy horror directed by Night Visions favourites Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead.

Having started his career at 12 on a Broadway stage in The Sound of Music, Pucci also has a connection to the mainstream punk rockers of Green Day. Straight after the runaway success of Thumbsucker, he starred in the music video short film Jesus of Suburbia, a single from the band’s album American Idiot.

Lou Taylor Pucci will be presenting Touch Me to the Night Visions audience at its both festival screenings:

Friday, April 4, at 04.45 PM at Cinema Orion

Saturday, April 5, at 06.50 PM at WHS Teatteri Union

MOONIKA SIIMETS

Award-winning director-screenwriter Moonika Siimets (b. 1980, Tartu, Estonia) arrives to Helsinki with her second fictional feature, the deeply clever and amusingly satirical sci-fi sensation The Black Hole. Yet another proof of how well genre cinema is doing in contemporary Estonia, The Black Hole had its world premiere at Fantastic Fest, the most significant genre film festival in the US.

Majoring in directing, Siimets graduated from the audiovisual department of Tallinn University in 2006. Her filmography includes short documentaries World Champion (2009), Trendy Dog (2010), Another Dimension (2012), and fictional shorts Deus ex Machina (2005), As Time Goes on (2012), The Last Romeo (2013), Is It You? (2013), and Pink Cardigan(2014).

Her first feature The Little Comrade (Seltsimees laps, 2018), a drama portraying the harsh reality of the Soviet era Estonia of the 1950s from the perspective of its six-year-old protagonist, premiered at South East Asia’s most significant film event Busan International Film Festival and won the audience award of the festival’s Flash Forward section. In the local Academy Awards of Estonia, also known as Estonian Film and TV Awards, it received the awards for Best Film, Best Director and Best Composer.

After the sensational success of her feature length debut, she returned to the documentary form with a segment in the female director driven anthology Juured (2018) and Two Hours to Happiness (Kaks tundi õnneni, 2022), a 72-minute in-depth look at the lives of Estonian immigrants in Finland.

Moonika Siimets will be presenting The Black Hole to the Night Visions audience at its Scandinavian premiere screening:

Saturday, April 5, at 04.30 PM at Cinema Orion