Aku Louhimies is a Finnishfilm director and screenwriter. He has directed feature films, documentary films, commercials and music videos. His international breakthrough was the 2016 serial drama Rebellion. He has directed and produced Unknown Soldier which is the most expensive feature film ever made in Finland.
Education
Aku attended school in the United States, graduating from Billings West High School in Montana. After he studied history at the University of Helsinki, and film directing at University of Art and Design Helsinki in Finland. Louhimies' military rank is Reserve Senior Lieutenant. He is fluent in English, Finnish, Swedish, and Spanish. December 2019 Louhimies was promoted to an officer rank of Senior Lieutenant by Finnish Defence Forces.
Career
Feature films
Louhimies has directed nine feature films, among them award-winning Frozen Land, war drama Tears of April, multi-narrative drama Naked Harbour and hard-hitting crime-drama 8-ball. In 2017 Louhimies worked on a World War II Drama The Unknown Soldier that had its premiere October 27, 2017 as a part of the official 100th anniversary of Finnish independence program. The film is based on Väinö Linna's acclaimed novel The Unknown Soldier from 1954. The international premiere was on 23 November 2017 at the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, followed by Ireland, Sweden, Iceland and Norway. The film was described by critics as gritty, forlorn, honest and realistic as well as a pacifist piece confronting less pleasant sides of Finnish history. The film gathered most audience of all the Finnish films in 2017. Over 1 million people saw the film in 2018 and it is still gathering audience in 2018.
Television projects
Louhimies has also directed several television projects, among others the multiple awards-winning television serie Fragments. In 2019 Louhimies directed a whole season of an English language thriller series which will air in 2020. Starring Rune Temte, Filip Berg, :fi:Andrei Al%C3%A9n|Andrei Alén and Natalie Gumede. ‘’ is one of NENT Group’s most successful original series. In 2016 Louhimies made his international breakthrough by directing the serial drama Rebellion for Irish broadcaster RTÉ and Netflix. The five-part television mini-series depicts fictional characters in Dublin during the 1916 Rising and it was commemorating the 100th Anniversary of the Easter Rising. The 5 parts of the serie are Young Guns, To Arms, Under Siege, Surrender and The Reckoning. The series premiered on SundanceTV in the US, on April 24, 2016 and on YLE, on June 1, 2016. The series is available on Netflix worldwide, except in Ireland and Finland.
Other projects
Aku Louhimies has also directed short films, documentaries, music videos and commercials since 1995. In 2004, Aku was elected Director of the Year by the Association of Finnish Film Directors. 2011-2014 he was the chairman of the association In 2012, Louhimies accepted the role of jury member for the first Saint Petersburg international film festival and his film Naked Harbour was added to the festival's non-competition programme "Screenings in honour of filmmakers".
