Hannaleena Hauru is a Finnish screenwriter and director. Her rst feature lm ”Thick Lashes of Lauri Mäntyvaara” (2016) was developed at Torino Film Lab and Cannes Cinéfondation Residency, and premiered at Torino Film Festival 2017. Her earlier short lms have been premiering in Cannes Critics’ week, Berlinale Generations, and awarded at Oberhausen, Uppsala and Tampere Film Festivals.
Hannaleena has gratuated from Aalto University, ELO Helsinki Film School majoring in screenwriting, but is more known from her active participation in Nisi Masa European Network of Young Cinema and the Montreal based “Kino Movement” community. Since lm school Hannaleena has been juggling with directing mainstream Finnish TV drama and participating in European underground cinema by creating short lms.
While Hannaleena’s “traditionally funded” rst feature lm “Thick Lashes…” was critically acclaimed in Finland, ve years of developing the lm under the structures of the European lm industry led Hannaleena deciding to make her next project ”Metatitanic” (2018) outside the funding structures as a low-budget – or more to say, as a no-budget lm. The 50 minute ”Metatitanic” premiered at Helsinki International Film Festival 2018 and toured around Finnish Independent Cinemas.
Hannaleena has a background in theatre. Building dramaturgy and characters as an ensemble together with the crew and crossing roles of actors also being cinematographers, and other way around, comes from her theatre background. Also, juggling between writing, shooting and editing, and dropping into meta-levels in the process is essential to her work, yet very tricky to establish as a method under traditional funding schemes.
Outside artistic work Hannaleena volunteers at the school for guide dog puppies and goes swimming.