PEOPLE WE COME ACROSS

MISSÄ TIET KOHTAAVAT

By Mia HALME

NAPAFILMS OY - as PROD

Documentary - Completed 2021

700 Finnish tourists travel to Benin to take part in a vaccine trial in an understatedly funny film with a warm eye for human flaws and the tension between good intensions and harmful effects.

Festivals
& Awards

CPH:DOX 2022
SCIENCE
    • Year of production
    • 2021
    • Genres
    • Documentary
    • Countries
    • FINLAND
    • Languages
    • FINNISH
    • Duration
    • 80 mn
    • Director(s)
    • Mia HALME
    • Producer(s)
    • Marianne MÄKELÄ
    • Synopsis
    • A bus full of Finnish tourists is on its way to Gran Popo, Benin. They are not going on a beach holiday, but to take part in a voluntary research trial on a vaccine against E. coli bacteria. With humour and a warm eye for human error and misunderstanding, 'People We Come Across' moves into a bit of a cross-cultural minefield where the fight against deadly diseases is nevertheless the real goal. Director Mia Halme herself does not just observe the experiment's twists and turns from a safe distance, but actively participates in it with her own body. At a time when vaccines have become hot topic of conversation again, her film is a welcome - and often very funny - contribution to nuancing the conversation on global health policy.