All your films have a distinctive tone – they feel light and humorous, with deep, meaningful undercurrents. Rhythm, relationships, and a touch of absurdity play a unique role – and all of this unfolds without a single word. This makes your films outstanding.

How do you develop your characters and stories so that they express such clear emotions without using dialogue? Is that something you plan from the beginning?

Actually, it took a long time for me to realize my strength would be to do this kind of film. In the beginning of my animation studies, I admired dramatic and dark animated films and wanted to do something similar. The thought that my drawings have more comedic value grew very slowly on me. So far, every one of my films has developed differently, so I don’t have a recipe for that - I wish I did!

The aspect of telling stories without dialogue originates from my studies in both Turku and Tallinn. Basically, it’s the only way I can think of the story. I think it gives space for other means of cinematic expression, like movement and sound. Personally, it helps me to distinguish animation from the rules of live-action cinema.
When I was younger, I relied heavily on music as a tool for delivering emotions in my films. Recently I’ve become more critical of the use of music.

Your graduation film Penelope begins with an everyday situation that many can instantly relate to: the doorbell rings, and chaos reigns throughout the apartment. Using all the tools that animation offers, your Penelope sets about bringing order to her home—and to herself—before finally opening the door. What inspired this scenario?

I was trying to develop another script for a long time, I felt totally stressed and late. My professors Olga and Priit Pärn kept telling me it’s not a film yet - they were right. One evening at home, I was exhausted and doodling and came up with these cleaning related scenes. They delighted my professors, and I felt like I found something interesting for both myself and others. I was so happy I finally had a story that I bought daffodils for myself. It was the first time I intentionally tried to make a funny film.

In general, I think it’s a relatable situation. I’m not good at keeping things in order and cleaning seems so pointless to me - it’s never ending. I’d say some of the scenes of the film were quite inspired by Priit’s storyboard classes and his surrealist exercises, some were inspired by Igor Kovalyov’s thoughts on rhythm. And the carpet beating scene was inspired by Bonnie Tyler’s music video “Total Eclipse of the Heart.”

The title Penelope naturally brings to mind the mythological figure — but while Penelope traditionally waits for Odysseus, in this film, she is the one who keeps someone waiting at her door. Is it Odysseus?

It might be, considering the sandals… But I came up with the name “Penelope” when the animation was already finished. I thought that my character is naked quite a lot so some name from Greek mythology might be fitting. I looked at Wikipedia and Penelope felt like a good match. 

In your last film Nun or Never! The title plays on the double meaning of “nun” and the urgency of “now or never.” How important was this wordplay – and the exclamation mark?

The name of the film, with the exclamation mark, was sent to me by text message a long time ago, by someone who I really liked at the time. I thought it’s clever, and it included a nun. In short, I tried to come up with another name, but I couldn’t.

What was the starting point for the story? And how did you come to choose such an unusual setting? Was the idea of the convent as a feminist or subversive space part of your thinking? Was it important for you to portray female solidarity and sisterhood?

The idea started from a stupid joke, by me saying I will go to the convent tomorrow and start to live as a nun. The thought of nuns stayed with me many years as it held some emotional value. At some point I felt like I needed to make this film about nuns to close a certain chapter in my mind. 

I then started to explore the possibilities related to nuns as characters and convent as a place. My starting point wasn’t any theme or value - I don’t really believe in that. I think the themes that are important to us come through from everything we do. If I’d make a film about the inner life of a water boiler, the result would probably still reflect my values and themes that I’m contemplating at the time.

The convent was a good place to start because everyone knows how people should behave there. As a filmmaker, you can then play with those expectations.

You present the convent as a strict, uniform community –at the same time, it’s a place of fun, hidden individuality and quiet freedom. Was that contrast central to your vision

Yes, I think convent provides a delicious opportunity for breaking prejudices, but I’m definitely not original in that. Popular culture is full of sinful nuns, scary nuns, nuns secretly wearing high heels and so on. Nuns are a bit mysterious so they tickle people’s imagination. In my film there’s even a man in the garden, so it’s a full package of nun clichés.

The film conveys tenderness, solidarity, but also rebellion. There are magical, almost surreal moments – especially the hidden worlds “under the skirts.”

What do these secret spaces symbolize or represent to you?

Different things… Some came from song lyrics, some were suggestions of other people. I was practicing pole acrobatics at the time I was making the film, so the pole dancers came from there. 

In fact I also forgot to put one world under the skirts. I was planning to have a beehive and bees flying around under one gown, but it slipped my mind. Now I will think about these missing bees forever. It would have been a nice addition to the soundscape.

A central theme seems to be inner transformation through the disruption of routine. In all your films rhythm, tempo and pacing of the movements are at the heart of your films. As someone with a background in dance, does your sense of physical rhythm shape the atmosphere and flow of your cinematic worlds?

I’d like to think so but I’m not sure if there’s any correlation. There are many great animators who are not very physical, at least not that I know of. I have learned about rhythm also by analyzing other animated films, like from Michaela Pavlatova and Igor Kovalyov.

Dance for me is a tool to keep my mind and body functioning. Going to dance classes has surely saved me from several burnouts. Getting out of my own head for an hour a couple of times a week is so essential. Here in Vienna it was also the first thing I looked up. I’m struggling with this hobby on many levels, but it’s a struggle I accept into my life.

I’ve noticed that animators often enjoy dancing and are really on fire on the dance floor. So maybe there is something with the expression of movement that’s connected. Or maybe they are just so happy to finally get out of their animation caves and move their limbs.

What role does coincidence, the unexpected play in your films, in the stories you create, and in the production process?

It does play a role! I perhaps pretend that I have everything in place when the production starts, but it’s not true. However, it’s easier to leave things open when I’m working on my own on the project. If I’m working with a team, I have to think of their well-being. It’s very unmotivating for the animator to animate something again because the director got a better idea. So in a way, having a team restricts this freedom, but also new good ideas and suggestions come in from the other people.

Nun or Never! received numerous awards around the world.

Have there been any audience reactions or interpretations that surprised or moved you?

My warmest memory with the film is the international premiere in Annecy. During the festival I got a lot of feedback from the students that was very sweet. I think it all mixes in my head with the overall atmosphere of the festival.

There’s this tangible enthusiasm over all aspects of animation in Annecy, maybe because of the many students attending, and I like the fact that commercial and independent animation gets mixed there. Nun or Never! won the audience award, and American-French animation artist Natalie Nourigat mentioned the film as her favourite in her daily festival comic. She even drew a picture of it in her Disney-like style. It was funny and flattering.

Looking Ahead

In the project description for your residency, you mentioned planning to gather and filter material to see what unfolds. Would you like to share any insights, discoveries, or impressions from this process – perhaps also how your time in Vienna influenced it?

I have done quite much what I expected. I’ve enjoyed discovering the city, but even more staying in my room and drawing. I’ve gathered some lost artistic self confidence and taken time to write applications for future artist grants.

I was inspired by the Tricky Women Tricky Realities festival that took place in the beginning of my stay. It had such a fun spirit yet it still addressed the alarming state of the world and made me think of new ways of how I could be a more active part of it. So, I bought to my patio some spring flowers that the bees like. Seeing my small garden is one of my everyday highlights.

For me Vienna is a friendly city, it's relaxed and bright at the same time. Viennese people feel somehow similar to Finnish, they are friendly but keep a certain distance. Maybe that’s the reason why I feel very natural here. I wonder where the time has gone and wish I could stay another three months. 

You’re currently working on the trailer for the anniversary edition of the Tricky Women, Tricky Realities festival in 2026. can you give us a little glimpse of what’s to come?

Or: is there anything you can already reveal?

After some tests, the trailer is going through a reconstruction phase. I’ll probably change my original idea completely. I think it’s best that at this time I will not reveal anything yet.

Heta Jäälinoja, Finnish animator and filmmaker, won the MQ Tricky Women Tricky Realities Artist-in-Residence Award for her animated film Nun or Never! at Tricky Women 2024. Since March, she has been living and working in the Museumsquartier, where she continues to develop her creative projects until the end of May.