Oslo Pix: Any Day Now by Hamy Ramezan
31.05 - 10.06

Any Day Now

Any Day Now by Hamy Ramezan has been selected to the competition program Grand Pix: Nordic Fiction. In addition, the director joins a conversation about the film, led by Jonathan Harvey from the Department of Film, Television and Scenography at Aalto University.

Any Day Now follows the Iranian Mehdipour family through an idyllic Finnish summer, as they await the decision of whether they will be granted asylum. The film – partially based on writer/ director Hamy Ramezans’ experience of fleeing from Iran to Finland as a child – shows the resilience in the lives of ordinary people, and of life, kindness, and love, against faceless apathy.

While the Mehdipours wait for the outcome of their application, the summer builds towards the son, Ramin – on the threshold of becoming a teenager – starting a new school year. Adolescence becomes a metaphor for the flux the family is in – its uncertainty and confusion, but also the excitement of new experiences in a new place. While Any Day Now is about the battles asylum seekers go through in foreign countries, it is mainly, in its disposition, a slice-of-life film.

Ramezan precicely conveys the patterns of ordinary life inside the state facility where the family lives, and it is this sense of pitter-pattering ordinality that gives the film its emotional power. The undercurrent of the Mehdipours’ desperate situation is always threatening to surface – in every tense look, every passing comment, every halting interaction – but this is held down by the film’s heart: the deep love and affection the family holds for each other, which makes this a story of exalting optimism that will resonate with audiences.

Hamy Ramezan

Hamy Ramezan (b. 1979) is a Finnish-Iranian filmmaker. Since graduating from the film school UCA Farnham in the UK in 2007 he has completed multiple projects, spanning genres such as short film and documentary. His best-known film is the award-winning short film Kuuntele (Listen, 2014). Any Day Now is his narrative feature film debut.

Director Hamy Ramezan joins a conversation about the new, Finnish film Any Day Now, led by Jonathan Harvey from the Department of Film, Television and Scenography at Aalto University. The conversation will be held in English and it will available on the festival’s digital screening platform throughout the festival. Watch the conversation here.

Oslo Pix
Oslo Pix is an audience festival for citizens from all of Oslo, combining film and events in new ways. The festival shows the best of contemporary world cinema: from grand Hollywood productions to indie film, experimental and groundbreaking arthouse films and the gems you will remember long after leaving the Cinema.

Read more and buy tickets: Oslopix.no.

The conversation is held in collaboration between Oslo Pix and The Finnish-Norwegian Cultural Institute.

Text: Elisabeth Aslesen & Oslo Pix
Images: 1. Still image from the film Any Day Now © Sami Kuokkanen / Aamu Film Company 2. Hamy Ramezan © Meeri Koutaniemi