cinema + theatre : writer, performer, director
Sakari Laurila (he/him) is a film and theatre maker, working between Helsinki, Brussels, Gent Berlin and Cyprus. He works in productions as a performer, writer and also film/video designer and technical lead, with the ambition to combine cinematic expression and live theatre.
His own film and theatre projects, which aim to combine comedy and critical theory, exists in general at the confluence of lived experience in contemporary capitalism, psychoanalysis and classical theatre.
With an M.A. in Film theory from West London University, he creates work that discovers new forms between critical thinkin/academic discourse and theatrical expression.
THEATRE
More in detail, his theatre practice is informed by psychoanalytical theory on the logic of desire and its manifestations in contemporary social dynamics. Among writers and performers, using collective creative writing methods and acting practices, he aims at creating narratives arising from the multi-perspective experience of living in the absurdity of our beloved contemporary hyper-consumerist. techno-feudal post-Capitalism, discovering how unconscious drives, as well as social and material relations, shape human behavior and social structures, and thus politics.
His main project in theatre is You Called? – a reversed reading of Kafka’s Trial, using it to understand the multifaceted and multilayered guilt, carried consiously and unconsciously by us all Western European consumer subjects.
As a writer, musician and performer he has collaborated with choreographer Lia Haraki on several theatre works including Sexy Yuppies and Death by Karaoke – performances that employed the contemporary dance in contexts of crumbing fantasies.
Also his collaborations as a writer and performer with the SRSLYours theatre company, notably in Man on the Roof, combine history of critical theory to history of theatre, from ancient Greek drama to Chekhov.
Also he is part of Freinds In Public, a German documentary theatre collective.
He has also made children’s theatre for Sony Music Finland, Hurjaruuth theatre and independent productions.
His projects are produced by the Armas Creative production house.
CINEMA
In the realm of cinema, he has developed a distinctive approach to narrative filmmaking on contemporary political topics that draws on the juxtaposition of lived contemporary experience and critical film theory.
His current film projects – including three fiction feature scripts: a story of mad love with two cleaners in Berlin, a fantasy narrative of two mercenaries in intergenerational fight against humanity’s regression into stupidity and a film absout children establishing a secret pirate television channel.
He is also doing research for a documentary examining democratic processes in Europe.
Since 2018, he has maintained a significant collaborative writing collaboration with philosopher Niklas Toivakainen, producing a body of work that bridges philosophical inquiry and artistic practice. This partnership has generated experimental performances, critical writings, and public dialogues that expand the boundaries of how theoretical concepts and critique can be embodied and experienced through performing art. Their current project is You Called?.
He also makes virtual scenography experiments for theatre and music live shows, designing immersive experiences through new ways of using video and manual art forms and immersive sound design.
As artistic director of an ecological art residency and initiative in the mountains of Cyprus (residency.armascreative.fi), he facilitates space to explore the intersections of ecology, other-than-human realities and new forms of possible future ways of living and making art on an ecologically sustainable basis.