Description

Under The Fed Star is a feature length docu-drama about the politics and culture of the Finnish community in Canada before World War Two. Shot on Super 16 and set in the first decades of the twentieth century, with a cast that included over 200 extras and award-winning actors Jussi Nikkila and Elena Leeve from Finland, this is a different kind of immigrant story.

The film looks at Finnish radicalism in Canada prior to WWII. The backdrop for the film is the historic Finnish Labour Temple, which is the largest monument to Finnish immigration in North America. Originally a gathering place for politics, sports and entertainment, it was the birth place of social democracy in Canada, and it was once home to the Industrial Workers of the World. The events that took place in the Finnish Labour Temple in those early years and the people who organized them, helped shape Canadian politics in the twentieth century and they provide us reflection of the evolution of Canada as a country of immigrants.