The Punk Syndrome

- FI 2012
- human interest
- 58', 85'
- Jukka Kärkkäinen
- J-P Passi
Awards: Special Prize Swiss Post for Most Innovative Feature Documentary | Films on Art Competition Programme @ New Horizons International Film Festival | Audience Award @ One World Film Festival, Prague | Audience Award @ SXSW Global Section | Special award for passionate optimism and upholding the ideals of humanism in life @ Docudays on Human Rights, Kyiv
The Punk Syndrome is a documentary film about Finnish punk-rock band Pertti Kurikka’s Name Day, formed in 2009 by four developmentally disabled guys. The film follows the band’s journey from their rehearsal room to cult success. It shows the love and hate between the guys, the crying and the laughter.

Loyal to true punk tradition, the band plays loud and harshly, and their lyrics are critical of the surrounding reality: Poverty, housing problems, intoxicants and the attitudes towards disabled are brutally slung to the listener's face. "In The

Parliament, they always talk but you can't understand what they say!"

This is what punk used to be about: misfits screaming their lungs out about real problems. That's why this is the last punk band perhaps in the whole World.

director(s): Jukka Kärkkäinen, J-P Passi
screenwriter(s): Jukka Kärkkäinen, J-P Passi
cinematographer(s): J-P Passi
editor(s): Riitta Poikselkä
producer(s): Carsten Aanonsen, Magnus Gertten, Sami Jahnukainen, Joakim Strand, Lennart Ström
production company: Mouka Filmi
co-production company: Auto Images AB, Film i Skane, Indie Film
TV channel: NRK, SVT, YLE
distribution (national): Danish Documentary Production, Disney

"A poignant, mostly observational documentary about the quartet of disabled musicians, The Punk Syndrome (Kärkkäinen and Passi, 2012) is a prime showcase for the Finnish punk band Pertti Kurikka’s Name Day." Film International

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"Success along the lines of Sacha Gervasi's welltraveled Anvil! - The Story of Anvil (2008) is indicated, with additional interest from events focusing on disabled and human-rights subjects." The Hollywood Reporter

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"The Punk Syndrome succeeds where countless before it have failed: It delivers a heartfelt and earnest feel-good documentary without any manufactured melodrama or beat-you-over-the-head proselytizing…And like the band's songs (e.g., "I need a little respect and dignity in my life"), this film is challenging and breathtaking in its directness. See this film." http://www.austinchronicle.com/screens/2013-03-15/sxsw-film-reviews-the-punk-syndrome/

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