"My Dear Friend" is a heartwarming short film by Finnish director & photographer Lauri Laukkanen. The film follows the deep-rooted friendship of a young girl and her beloved teddy bear, through seven decades - beginning in the 1940's and ending in this day and age.
The scenes span through several decades, which creates an interesting progression in the storyline, but is a challenge to convey in less than 6 minutes. That said director Laukkanen succeeds in delivering a realistic and emotionally strong story onto our screens.
“I wanted to make a film that touches people across cultures. In the past few months, we've seen the media spreading news and headlines filled with negativity and hatred. I felt it was time to remind people about the things that actually matter the most - family, love and friendship", states the Director.
The inspiration for this mostly online-distributed short film was drawn from another video clip on the web.
Mr. Laukkanen writes in his recent blog post: “October 28th, 2015 I sat in my office and browsed around the internet pointlessly, when suddenly I bumped into a viral video that featured an iPhone-video of a woman that was reunited with her childhood teddy bear on Christmas and experiences what the reporters called a "happiness meltdown".
“Something in this video really touched me, and got me thinking about the importance of christmas gifts. The video and especially the woman's reaction to the gift reminded me of my last year's trip to Romania with Operation Christmas Child, where I got the opportunity to give out Christmas gifts to some of the poorest children in Europe. On that trip I got to really experience the power that one single present can have on a child's life.”
In a genre that is often considered clichéd, and at times a bit daft, the short film “My Dear Friend” feels surprisingly genuine and honest. It is a rare example of a high-quality, noncommercial Christmas short film.
