Finland - The South-West And Its Island Worlds (71/151)

Finland - The South-West And Its Island Worlds (71/151)

The south-west of Finland with its jagged coast washed around by the Baltic Sea and its off-shore skerries is a unique landscape that seems virtually unpopulated. But the impression of emptiness is deceptive. Even in the national park Schärenmeer near Turku some of the larger islands are inhabited. The people who either live there or come every year on their summer holiday are well aware of the beauty of nature and try to preserve this inheritance. En route on various ships and ferries the film explores the Schärenmeer, visits the ancient cities of Turku and Rauma and meets people who talk about their close connection with nature and the landscape. There are the rangers of the National Park, the fishing family on the island of Gullkrona, the friends who meet in their sauna at Fagerholm, the mailman by ship, or the Nordberg family who even stay on the so-called "graveyard island" during the harsh winter. Right on the south-western tip of Finland lays the Aland archipelago, a world of its own, where Swedish is the main language. The Alanders have an autonomous government, their own stamps and car number plates. On the main island there are still shipyards where the traditional sailing ships of this seafaring nation are built. Nowadays, however, the port of the capital Mariehamm is dominated by the large and small ferries that are the linchpin of the vital traffic between Sweden and Finland and also between the approximately 60 inhabited islands of the archipelago.