Matti Ijäs

[2] His works for television and cinema are characterised by eccentric characters, awkward situations, warm deadpan humour and witty dialogue.

Ijäs studied journalism at the Tampere University but never graduated after getting a job at Yleisradio, the Finnish Broadcasting Company, making children's television programmes at their regional studio in Turku.

Embracing Marxist ideas like many Finnish artists and media people in the 1970s, Ijäs made children's documentaries about such themes as Chilean refugees to Finland and the international peace movement.

[4] Ijäs' first exercise in feature-length filmmaking was co-writing the Finnish-Hungarian coproduction Duty Free Marriage (Vámmentes házasság, 1980), directed by János Zsombolyai, and Mikko Niskanen’s youth drama Gotta Run!

[5] After these, Ijäs became writer and director for Yle's TV1 channel, making highly individual television comedy dramas such as The Last Gig (Viimeinen keikka, 1984) The Wrestler (Painija, 1985), and Katsastus (1988).