Jukka is working feverishly on an occult ritual which he hopes will release him from a terminal illness.

Broken Elf is a portrait of Jukka, a young Finnish man who has withdrawn from the outside world. He spends his time working feverishly on an occult operation which he hopes will release him from Huntington's disease, a rare and fatal neurological disorder. The movie features footage and other material gathered during a four year period. It documents the difficult journey of the protagonist from mystical idealism to the edge of sanity.

The man referred to as Jukka shows great interest in handling his many issues with various methods of spirituality and the occult. However, the movie should not be seen as a mere warning towards such practises. I hope to convey a tale of coping, with the protagonist's complexities at the forefront.

As I got to know Jukka, it became apparent he was very confused by all the expectations from the "ordinary" world: ambition, work, romance etc. These things have simply never existed in his world.

I started documenting Jukka's life back in 2000 or so, mostly in the form of photography. He became gradually more isolated and was very hard to track down. The black and white "aftermath" footage from 2007 in Broken Elf was shot on a rare occasion Jukka allowed me to see him. It was clear then that he'd reach a plateau in his journey, not necessarily the kind he was initially aiming for with his mystical practises.

Although Jukka is obviously a troubled individual, perhaps he can teach us something with his absolute indifference towards the prevailing and often meaningless materialist ideals. None of that hip stuff is engineered to awaken a humble happiness within us. There's not much metaphysics on MTV. Surely some of that could be even good for business?