Mina Laamo is a Finnish director, screenwriter and producer.
Laamo graduated from the University of Helsinki in 2012, majoring in General Literature and Gender Studies and from the Department of Film, Television and Scenography of the Aalto University with a Master of Arts degree, majoring in Documentary Film in 2015.
The Russian attack on Ukraine in 2022 turned the European worldview upside down. In Parikkala, a small town in Eastern Finland near the Russian border, this soon becomes very real as the iron curtain lowers again on the Finno-Russian border. The locals are faced both with a future that is unknown and the heavy historical baggage of the borderland.
During one spring day, nine people dreaming of life or running away from it, plus a dog on the run, either meet, pass or collide on a certain road. Sisters Seija and Sanna are on their way to the airport because Seija is moving to Canada. Silja and Ville are mourning the anniversary of their dead daughter. The comedy duo is off on a tour after a long break, the paramedics are looking forward to a quiz night and Anita is finally ready to scatter the ashes of her deceased loved one in the lake. A strange man hitchhikes along the highway.
Sorrow Tamers is a documentary about people who have chosen to face sorrow without avoiding it or running away from it. The film is about love, change, sorrow and abandonment.
A Roma beggar on his knees raises many extreme emotions: guilt, rage, sympathy and frustration. Most people just walk on by, but there is always someone willing to help. In this film, the director follows the confrontations between the Roma beggars from Romania and Finnish people, and is forced to question, over and over again, her own ideas about helping.
Emma and Joel get dumped by their partners on the same day, and when they meet each other they think they're a perfect match. Emma discovers she is pregnant and ends up taking care of Joel's mother while he goes off on tour to conduct around the world. Pregnancy, a crazy mother-in-law, trust, and loyalty test the couple to make the right decisions.