Memmetaal Special: ÁHKUIN & Yn myn dreamen hear ik dy

Within the Memmetaal programme line, we present two documentaries in this block, one from Sápmi and one from Friesland:

ÁHKUIN (Sunná Máret Nousuniemi and Tuomas Kumpulainen, 2025)

The short film ÁHKUIN, a poetic and inspired documentary by Sunná Máret Nousuniemi and Tuomas Kumpulainen, focuses on the cultural transmission within three generations of a Sámi family. The film uses joik – the unique oral tradition of reciprocal singing and storytelling – to connect the present with the past. 

Through archival interviews and the joik of Maarit-áhkku, Nousuniemi's grandmother, a visual and musical dialogue unfolds. Simple daily tasks such as fetching water or cooking reindeer bones become more than everyday chores: they convey indigenous knowledge, music and precious memories. Although the film does not shy away from the melancholy of Sámi history shaped by colonisation, it is above all a playful and heart-warming story about reciprocity and resilience, and a tribute to cultural survival. 

In my dreams I hear you (Murk-Jaep van der Schaaf, 2025)

While participating in a European theatre project for minority languages, three creators develop a strong bond in their search for identity and inclusion. For all three, the minority language is not their mother tongue, but this makes their desire for it all the greater. As they struggle to get to grips with the languages, stories of social taboos, religious exclusion and oppressed cultures come to the surface. For Yn myn dreamen hear ik dy, Dutch documentary maker Murk-Jaep van der Schaaf (1985) followed Wessel de Vries (Frisian), Inger Birkelund (Kveens) and Christophe LeMenn (Breton) on their inner journey through Friesland, Brittany and Northern Norway. LeMenn and Birkelund find a great similarity in their troubled pasts and are able to heal something by creating theatre in their almost lost language.