Ten-year-old Vilja is bored: thee summer holidays don’t promise the exciting trips that she yearns for. Instead, it’s the same old humdrum daily home life, where nobody has any time to spend with this smart little girl. Her father is polishing his coin collection, her mother is busy running the house, and even her sister is a dead loss. And soon it’ll be time to visit Grandma and for Vilja to be good and play another of her nice violin pieces for everyone. But events take an unbelievable turn en route: a group of robbers attacks the car and kidnaps Vilja. She actually feels right at home with the gang of exciting, non-conformist and likeable robbers. She spends her summer vacation with them, playing musical instruments outdoors and joining them on supermarket raids.

Komulainen’s lively film version of the Vilja novel tells an upbeat kids’ adventure shot in the stunning landscape amid Finland’s forests and lakes. In the best Scandinavian tradition, ranging from the whimsical to the anarchically off-beat, the music and wardrobe relate well to the summer mood of curiosity, captured by the camera in sun-drenched shots. Filming of the second part of the colourful series of robbers’ tales has already started in Finland. And a large-screen version of the third volume of the Vilja novels is also planned.

Awards for ›Vilja und die Räuber‹
Prädikat »besonders wertvoll« – Deutsche Film- und Medienbewertung