Heta Jäälinoja is an independent animation director and illustrator from Finland. Her main focus is in drawing animation. She studied animation in Turku Arts Academy and Estonian Academy of Arts. Her animated shorts like Penelope (Estonian Academy of Arts, 2016) and Nun or Never! (Böhle Studios, 2023) have been widely screened and awarded in festivals around the world. Heta teaches and mentors animation students in Finland, and sometimes in Estonia, Sweden and Norway. Aside from film making, she likes cooking and forests.

Hi Heta! So nice to have you here. Where are you these days, and how is life in Estonia treating you?

Thanks for inviting me! I just returned from a 3-month residency in Vienna, Austria, provided by the Tricky Women Tricky Realities Animation Film Festival. The residency was a lovely experience, I was well taken care of. It feels fresh to be back. I feel that I see Tallinn a little bit with new eyes now - nothing like Vienna, but it's a quite interesting small city. It's the high point of the year here, the chestnuts and lilacs are blooming. It's our annual short moment of enjoying long bright days, so I can't really complain.

On a smaller scale, I've been trying to get the face of this character right. She's the main protagonist on a festival trailer for Tricky Women I'm working on right now.

We first discovered your work through “Nun or Never!”, currently streaming on MUBI Turkey and felt an instant connection. Can you tell us how the idea for that film came about?

It started from a joke like 10 years ago - from me saying I'll go to the convent and start living as a nun. And things that happened around this joke, some drawings, thoughts. Some years later I decided I'll try to make a film about nuns. And I think I had the theme of shame already at that time. But to be honest, I can't remember it so clearly anymore. Writing this film was a long and winding road.

Nun or Never! (2023)

How long does it usually take you to complete a short film, from the first idea to the final frame?

There's no usual timeframe. It depends on the technique. If I'm lucky enough to have a sensible deadline, I'll finish around that time. Making of Nun or Never! from first draft to final film took 5 years. Most of this time was me struggling with the script. There was a lot of time off in-between when I was stuck, working other works or trying to make another film. The actual production took only 10 months.

In your films, you write, draw, animate… basically run a one-person studio. How does it feel to work solo? What are the joys (and challenges) of that?

In fact I've never worked COMPLETELY alone. In my student films I cooperated with sound designers and musicians and got a lot of help and feedback from teachers and co-students. In Nun or Never! We had a tiny team of two animators, a colouring intern, musician and producer (who was also the sound designer) in the production and I got help and feedback from so many people.

However, the solitude is true in the sense that I don't have a creative partner with whom we'd develop the idea from the very beginning. It feels difficult for sure, I'd love to share the process with someone. But I’m probably quite picky myself and overprotective of my ideas.

Stills from Nun or Never!

We later discovered Penelope, your graduation film — not only was it beautiful, but it also won major recognition at festivals! How long did it take you to complete it, and did you ever imagine it would receive such acclaim?

With this film I was fortunate enough to have my graduation date as a deadline. However, I ended up changing the ending half a year later when the film was already going to festivals.

Making Penelope took a little bit more than 1 year, although this time included other studies, summer work and so on. I also had time to procrastinate - I remember watching a lot of Dance Moms during that year. So the last months were intense. But I was 26 at that time. I couldn't work like that again, with 4 hours of sleep per night and feeling fresh.

I think you can never foresee the acclaim from the audience, you just hope for the best. With Penelope as with Nun or Never it was a surprise that so many people reacted to them. But I do feel that the cinema audience has the need to be amused. I try to do something I think might be funny, and to tell whole stories with satisfying, even happy endings. One can argue that if film imitates life, it should be more in an essay form, with open ending. But I feel life is so messy that I want to do something to counter that in my films.

Penelope (2016)

We were pleasantly surprised to find someone still blogging in 2024! Your posts and sketches are a delight. In one post you wrote: “Every line and every ‘mistake’ made feels suddenly so ARTISTIC.” How do you feel about today’s ever-faster, increasingly digital creative culture?

Ah yes, this citation was connected to my inspiration moments in Vienna. Well, you can for sure make interesting mistakes digitally as well. And I found one of my best friends when writing an internet diary as a teenager.

It's another thing how digital platforms are used as tools of power, and what digital consumption does to the environment. We don’t really need AI, we need clean air and fresh water. The ethical discussion can't seem to follow the speed of things.

I actually wish good journalism would have a renaissance. Maybe because I love to read paper newspapers. Traditional journalism can be criticized for a lot of things, but at least it has some kind of rules. In the end, the internet is just a dirty pond. It makes more sense to climb to the tree.

In your blog, you also reflect on the idea of leaving animation to study psychology. That feeling deeply resonated with us — we’re a team of people who turned what we love into our jobs, too. How do you feel about doing what you love for a living? What have been the ups and downs?

It's a very privileged thing to be doing, or trying to do my own films, yet I still complain sometimes. I’ve probably lost some level of awe and become more analytical towards animation. Nowadays I get my magical experiences mostly from other forms of art.

Penelope (2016)

If money wasn’t a concern at all, would you still be doing this work? Or would you choose not to work at all?

If I had thought about money in the first place I wouldn't have chosen to be an independent animation director. It's not a way to become rich but there's other values. However, I very much like my “money job”, which is mostly teaching. It sometimes terrifies me but I get so much from it as well.

There’s something dreamlike and abstract about your films — emotionally clear, yet hard to describe, like a memory or a dream. How do you approach story structure? Do you have any rituals or methods when it comes to building a narrative?

In the beginning I usually try to map out what are the possibilities of the character or a place, and what could be visually interesting. I sometimes go back to my school caricature exercises that were about breaking the rules of reality, getting to the level of things that are only possible in paper, or animation. I also collect visual and audio notes, movements or sounds that I find interesting, or a scene that I just like in my head. Then later I try to put them together and see what fits.

And finally, what’s been on your mind lately? Any current obsessions, dreams, or passing thoughts you’d like to share?

From time to time I look at videos from works by Estonian choreographer Julia Koneva and think, how does she do it? She works a lot with young dancers and creates works that are always lyrical and powerful, but my favourites are her works where there is some weird balance between poetic and banal, humour and pain. These are the works that make me cry. I like how she takes full advantage of the possibilities of dance, like the voices and body sounds of the dancers, the props, the costumes, light and music. It’s also inspiring for me as a filmmaker.

Heta’s List

Your favorite museum or bookstore:

My friend visited me in Vienna and took me to a book shop called Kozia in Bratislava. It was special. They are part of an artist strike in Slovakia, orchestrated against the authorization of the state.

The last book you read:

"Ilo puhua" (Eng. joy to speak) by Ritva Ahonen-Mäkelä. This is a small book written by a Finnish vocal expression teacher, published in 1975. It's about her observations on vocal adaptation and expression, but it includes a lot of truth about creative teaching and creativity in general.

A line (from a poem, song, or conversation) that stuck with you:

Just the fact that as you can say “Oh, man” in English, you can say “Oh, Mann” in German. It amuses me.

A tune you’ve been humming lately:

"Vienna" by Billy Joel.

Your favorite moment in a typical day:

Probably my morning porridge. My mother told me that porridge creates a pillow to your stomach, where everything else lands softly. This story has worked on me. I've been eating porridge for breakfast for all my adult life.

The last thing you saved in your notes:

I don't use my phone notes, but the last thing I wrote down was an angry thing that my studio mate said. I may use it against them later…

Your favorite account you follow on IG or Vimeo:

I’d rather not give a shout out to these constantly shittier platforms. But I'd like to recommend going to the gig of my namesake Heta Bilaletdin. She's a Finnish multidisciplinary artist and musician who sometimes makes international tours as well, right now she’s touring in Central Europe. I myself would also like to get to her gig soon. She makes delightful electronic music and haunting visuals.