Sister Cities sponsors study of Finnish culture with film and supper

• "Under the Red Star"

"Under the Red Star"

Talk about it

Duluth Sister Cities International invites the public to two events celebrating Finnish culture on Sunday.

“Under the Red Star” will be shown at 1:30 p.m. at the Zinema 2 theater, 222 E. Superior Street. The docudrama is about the culture and politics at the heart of Canada’s largest labor hall, The Finnish Labor Temple, in Thunder Bay, Ontario. Duluth has a sister city relationship with Thunder Bay.

The “Big Finn Hall” opened in March 1910 and was known as the center of Finnish cultural and political life in Northwestern Ontario. “Under the Red Star” tells the story of union organizers, strong-minded women, athletic children, actors and even poets. The film integrates archival footage, photos and fictionalized scenes to bring to life the lively and dramatic past of

the early years of Finnish immigration to Canada in the early twentieth century. A discussion with director Kelly Saxberg

will follow.

Later, the Sister Cities is hosting a “Petro Supper Club,” which will feature Karelian and Slavic cuisine, from 5 to 8 p.m. at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Duluth, 835 W. College Street. The public is encouraged to RSVP to dsci@duluthmnsistercities.org so that enough meals can be provided.

The dinner is one of a series of events sponsored by the Petrozavodsk Committee to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the sister-city relationship with Petrozavodsk, Russia. The evening will include a discussion of “They Took My

Father” by Mayme Sevander, a memoir of American Finns from

the Midwest who traveled to Russia during the 1920s and ‘30s to help build communism. Kelly Saxberg will show her film “Letters from Karelia,” chronicling similar stories of Canadian Finns.

Freewill offerings will be accepted at both events.

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