That Kiljunen Family

That Kiljunen Family
Original Finnish film poster
Directed byMatti Kuortti
Written byKullervo Kukkasjärvi
Matti Kuortti
Lasse Naukkarinen
Based onKiljusen herrasväki by Jalmari Finne
Produced byKullervo Kukkasjärvi
StarringJukka Sipilä
Marja-Sisko Aimonen
Jouni Lukus
Kai Lemmetty
Salli Pallasmaa
CinematographyErkki Peltomaa
Edited byJuho Gartz
Music byMarkku Kopisto
Production
company
Filminor Oy
Distributed bySuomi-Filmi Oy
Release date
  • 20 November 1981 (1981-11-20)
Running time
103 minutes
CountryFinland
LanguageFinnish
BudgetFIM 2,7 million[1]

That Kiljunen Family (Finnish: Kiljusen herrasväki) is a 1981 Finnish musical comedy family film directed by Matti Kuortti and starring Jukka Sipilä and Marja-Sisko Aimonen. It is based on the 1914 children's book of the same name by Jalmari Finne.[1]

At the beginning of the 1970s, the production company Filminor had already planned a family film based on Finne's children's book, but at that time the project fell through because the topic was reserved for Yleisradio. After Risto Jarva's death in 1977, Filminor gave the directing opportunity to Antti Peippo and Timo Linnasalo, whose films had a rather weak public success, and the subject of Finne was taken up again: Matti Kuortti, a long-time Filminor native since the late 1960s as a sound engineer and editor in the company, directed That Kiljunen Family as his debut film.[1]

The film was a commercial hit when it came out in theaters, and it gathered more than 200,000 viewers,[2] which was the second most viewed in 1981 after Uuno Turhapuron aviokriisi.[1] Due to the film's success, it received a sequel, The New Adventures of That Kiljunen Family, in 1990, which was also directed by Matti Kuortti.[3]