Joonas Berghäll

Joonas Berghäll? Oh, this guy’s got a knack for digging into the stuff most folks sweep under the rug. Think about it: he’s the brain behind Miesten vuoro (2010), which isn’t just a movie about Finnish men in a sauna, but a raw, stripped-back look at vulnerability that hits way deeper than you’d ever expect. It’s sweaty, it’s honest, and let’s just say, it doesn’t shy away from the kind of confessions that’d make most people squirm. Fast-forward to The Red Ring (2021) and you’ll see Berghäll taking a sledgehammer to silence around chronic illness. He doesn’t do drama for drama’s sake. Instead, he puts real people and their struggles in the spotlight, refusing to sugarcoat the pain or the frustration. There’s a grit to his style—he’s not afraid to get right into the mess of human experience, whether it’s mental health, sickness, or just the plain old weirdness of being alive. Then you’ve got Yrittäjä (2018), where he zooms in on the lives of Finnish entrepreneurs. It isn’t all “rah rah” business success—there’s anxiety, doubt, and all the night sweats that come with trying to make it. Berghäll’s storytelling is like pulling back the curtain on what people are really juggling behind the scenes. He’s got this way of making you feel like you’re peeking into someone’s diary, except it’s all real life. If you’re in the mood for documentaries that don’t hold back, this dude’s definitely worth a watch.