The Baetyli have fallen from the sky but continue to move freely through the air enveloped in a halo of fire.
-Roger Caillois, Stones
The Devils of Paasselkä is a film about our relationship with the unknown. For more than three hundred years, mysterious lights have appeared floating over the Paasselkä lake, which sits on a meteorite crater. Interested in a phenomenon that sits at the border of science but for which it has no explanation, Straschnoy interviewed eight local witnesses on their experiences. It is their stories that are heard as he and Hermanni Nieminen attempt to find the lights themselves.
Axel Straschnoy (born 1978) is a visual artist and filmmaker from Buenos Aires, based in Helsinki. His work deals with the social practices in science and art. His long-term, research-focused projects span planetarium films, performances, film installations, editions, travelling exhibitions, museum collections and VR films. He is interested in expeditions: literal and metaphorical, scientific and artistic. Straschnoy has participated in the Le Pavillon residency at Palais de Tokyo and has a degree in Art History from the University of Buenos Aires.