The Punk Syndrome

Pertti Kurikan Nimipäivät, or Pertti Kurikka’s Name Day, may well be the world’s last quintessential punk band. True to the genre, they scream and yell at a host of chosen targets, from politicians and their social policies to… pedicurists. And though aggressive, coarse and raw political and social rage has always fuelled punk esthetics everywhere the music has played for the past 30 years, what sets Pertti Kurikka’s Name Day apart from the rest is that all the band members live with various forms of mental disabilities, ranging from learning difficulties to Down syndrome. Directors Jukka Kärkkäinen and J-P Passi offer a sober portrait of mental disability, documenting the band without patronizing the musicians or pandering to easy sentimentality. The film is a great piece of behind-the-scenes filmmaking that captures the band and its best and worst moments. But, more than that, it also suggests politically charged questions about how we define ‘normality’ and for whose benefit.