A Beauty Odyssey
2024, experimental short film
13:32, HD video, sound
“You are rewarded for youth and beauty, beyond anything else you can achieve.”
Trailer
Full film available for professional preview on request.
A Beauty Odyssey draws on Rosaliina Paavilainen's experience of filming and editing content for social media influencers. Paavilainen performs the film's central character herself, undergoing increasingly invasive beauty routines and cosmetic procedures on camera and incorporating photographs from her own childhood. Throughout the film, the character is searching for a "time machine".
The film moves between polished images and the work required to produce them. Close-ups of skin, needles, and cosmetic procedures show what the effortless transformations circulated online leave out: repetition, waiting, pain, and expense. Told without spoken dialogue, the film unfolds through scenes linked by intertitles.
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Director: Rosaliina Paavilainen Cinematography: Aake Kivalo
Editing: Heli Kota & Rosaliina Paavilainen
Sound: Janne Masalin
Grading: Hannu Käki
Graphics: Kalle Järvenpää
International premiere
Nordisk Panorama, New Nordic Voice Competition, Malmö, Sweden (2024)
Selected festival screenings
Filmfest Dresden, Dresden, Germany (2025)
CosmiX – International Experimental Cinema Festival, Paris, France (2025)
Tampere Film Festival, Tampere, Finland (2024)
Helsinki International Film Festival – Love & Anarchy, Helsinki, Finland (2024)
Zagreb Film Festival, Zagreb, Croatia (2024)
Nordic Film Days Lübeck, Lübeck, Germany (2024)
FILMZ – Festival des deutschen Kinos, Mainz, Germany (2024)
Exhibitions
A Beauty Odyssey, Kronenboden, Berlin, Germany (2025)
The Anatomy of Desire, Galleria Huuto, Helsinki, Finland (2023)
The Anatomy of Desire, Galleria Rajatila, Tampere, Finland (2023)
Supported by
Finnish Cultural Foundation and Arts Promotion Centre Finland (Taike)