What's going on in Uusikaupunki

12 Torstaina 19. joulukuuta 2019 Let’s go to the movies! Granger T Simmons Taru Nevavuori listed going to the movies as one thing you can do to cope with loneliness and darkness during this season. Did you know that Uusikau- punki has its own movie the- ater? Kuvala has been the pre- mier movie theater of Uusikau- punki for ninety-five years. With its opening in the year 1924, it is one of the oldest movie theaters in Finland. It is owned by a very talented manby thename of TeroVall who acquired the theater in the year 2005. I asked Tero a fewquestions about the theater and what we can expect for the holiday season. WILL YOU BE open during the Christmas and New year holi- days? – Yes, we will be open a lot around Christmas and New year holidays, so be sure to check our. What movies will be showing during the holiday season? – In the cinema business, schedules are done always week byweek.The schedule for the hol- iday season is not yet complete so I am not able to tell the exact schedule but I know already that there will be a lot of screenings of Frozen 2 and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker .The exact schedules are published oneweek earlier on our website. Do you show movies in Finn- ish only? – In Finland, the trend is to use subtitles instead of overdubbing. Themovies are shown in the orig- inal languages, which in foreign movies is usually English. Excep- tions are made with movies for children, those are overdubbed in Finnish. Domestically produced films are in Finnish. Occasionally, when there is a very popular chil- dren’smovie, we show the English version. SINCEYOUCAN feature only one film at a time, do you have any plans to expand or make a bigger theater? –We are unable to expand the walls because Kuvala is under museum protection. A second room would be useful, but since it does not fit within the space that we already have we can not add anything. How do you select the movies that come to Kuvala? –Movie selection is always a complex process. We try to pre- dict what movies will do well in Uusikaupunki but it is not easy to predict. We collect all possible fi- nancial data fromother cities and fromabroad. It is very goodwhen we accurately estimate a movies’ success, but it is not a simple task. Inflatable reindeer take-over O Granger T Simmons Sonja Stenman was greatly surprised this year by her husband’s purchase on an online auction website. – My jaw dropped, I thought it was a joke at first. You can’t tell him, ”it’s crazy, don’t do it,” because he will do just that. I was just in the house doing a few things and Jani tells me to look outside the window and there it was a five-meter tall inflatable reindeer. In America, over 7 billion dollars are spent on Christ- mas lights, decorations, and electricity per year. In Fin- land, the amount of money spent on lights and holiday decorations has a lot to do with cultural norms, use of time and the cost of electric- ity. – I feel that Finns decorate now more than they did a couple of decades ago, but still are modest and rather simple in their decorations, shares Sonja Stenman. CONSIDERING that there is nothing simple about a five-meter gigantic inflatable reindeer, Sonja and her hus- band could easily start a new trend of large and elaborate holiday decorations simi- lar to other countries where whole neighborhoods com- pete to see whose decora- tions are the best. – I don’t know about Christmas Decoration com- petitions, it’s not very Finn- ish to do that kind of thing. Although my sister and I have this tradition of walk- ing around town on Christ- mas day to look at the Christ- mas light displays in certain neighborhoods. It’s fun to see what people have created ev- ery year. I think there are a lot of families who decorate their homes quite generously at Christmas time. We hope that during Christmas, the weather is better and ”Poro” can do his duty of making people smile. A five-meter tall inflatable reindeer stands outside Sonja Stenmans house. Going to the movies is one thing to do to cope with loneliness and darkness. w ■ Holiday Cheer Granger T. Simmons When I came to Finlandover seven years ago, one of the most difficult things to copewithwas the fact that it felt like winter for almost nine whole months out of the year. There was even a hailstorm on my birthday in the year 2013, and I was born in June, the month of summer, not snow and hail. So coping during the varyingweather patterns and seasons is not always easy. I asked one of the sweetest, kindest people that I have met in Finland, TaruNevavuori , who is a Music Therapist (as well as a Psy- chotherapist student, Vibroacous- tic therapist and specially trained nurse who provides therapy also in english) to give us a few tips for surviving the dark and cold season that we are entering. W H A T , S G O I N G O N I N U U S I K AU P U N K I ?