Cool, Calm, and Collected: Finland Helped Carlos Saldanha Bring the Atlantic Ocean to Life

While he recently made his live-action debut with a family film in the US, his newest project, 100 Days, marks a deeply personal milestone: his first feature shot entirely in his native Brazil, and his first film with a more serious, adult-oriented live-action drama. "It's the first time that we do a movie in Brazil with this amount of special effects, with this amount of storytelling that doesn't fall into the cliché," Saldanha notes.

100 Days tells the incredible true story of Amyr Klink, who in 1984 became the first person to row across the South Atlantic alone. It is a tale of survival, storms, and sharks, but at its core, it is a profound journey of self-discovery. To bring this deeply Brazilian story to life, Saldanha found the perfect creative partners in an unexpected place: Finland.

"Every time I say it's a Brazil-Finland co-production, everybody goes, 'What? Finland? Are you sure?'" Saldanha smiles. "I say, 'You'll be amazed by the level of professionalism and the level of care you can find there.' It's one of those hidden gems. It's a very welcoming environment, it's super safe, and it's super quiet."

Through a collaboration with the Totalpost Finland consortium and Good Hand Film & TV the film became an unprecedented Finland-Brazil co-production. "It was really one of those encounters where you’re not sure if it’s coincidence or if it is just fate," Saldanha says of the partnership. 

A film set almost entirely on the open ocean is notoriously difficult to execute. Water is one of the most demanding elements to create digitally, and doing so on an independent film makes the task even more overwhelming. Yet, the Tampere-based Energia VFX team stepped up to deliver world-class results.

"Water is notoriously unforgiving in VFX, and in this film, the ocean is practically the co-star," note Santeri Ojala and Samuli Torssonen from Energia VFX.

"100 Days also shows how much the VFX landscape has changed. With the right experience, smart workflows, and the latest high-performance workstations, a small and focused team can now take on imagery that used to require a much larger facility. For us, the goal was to make the audience feel the scale, power, and isolation of the Atlantic without ever questioning what was real and what was digital."

For Saldanha, seeing this level of dedication and technical problem-solving was a game-changer: "It was impressive to see the amount of shots we had to do. It’s a very overwhelming task with the limitations of the project itself," Saldanha explains. Despite these challenges, the Finnish team executed the film's most ambitious visual moments flawlessly.

"The biggest sequence in the movie is an encounter with whales in the middle of the ocean, and it was all done in Tampere. When that moment comes, everybody's in awe. It's just breathtaking what they've done."

Equally crucial to the film’s success was its auditory atmosphere. When a character is alone on a tiny rowboat, the environment itself becomes a supporting character. Saldanha worked closely with the sound design team at Helea Sound Post Production, Panu Riikonen and Mikko Mäkelä, to build the intimate, sensory world of the sea.

"Panu was incredible in finding the essence of the sound. It's almost like the sound of the silence of the sea," Saldanha describes. "He managed to find the atmosphere, the ambience. A lot of the times, Amyr is inside the boat, and the boat is very small. So all you hear is the waves hitting the hull and the wind going through."

This delicate soundscape was beautifully complemented by the work of Finnish composer Tuomas Kantelinen, featuring soulful violin performances by the internationally acclaimed Pekka Kuusisto. The score navigated the fine line between grand oceanic scale and the quiet intimacy of a solitary rower. The final mix, bringing together Kantelinen's music and Helea's immersive sound design, was completed at Meguru.

Managing post-production across a triangle of New York, São Paulo, and Helsinki could have been a logistical nightmare. Instead, Saldanha found a safe haven of professionalism.

The Finnish working style perfectly mirrored the "cool, calm, and collected" ethos often associated with the country. Saldanha credits Petteri "Petsku" Linnus,  CEO from James Post, who acted as the mastermind coordinating the Totalpost Finland consortium, for maintaining that grounded atmosphere. 

"Even if things were tense, he was able to give us a straight answer and make it work," Saldanha says. "I felt very safe, very secure, and very well guided through the process. That gives you a lot of confidence when you are doing a very ambitious independent movie."

For Saldanha, the greatest strength of the Finnish crew was their lack of ego and their deep emotional investment in the story.

"The best part at the end was not about the cost of making it, but the passion for making it," he emphasizes. "Everybody believed so much in the story we were trying to tell that they poured in more than what they were assigned to. It wasn't, 'I pay you, you do that.' It was, 'We're making this movie together, how can we make it better?' If you feel safe to express yourself, that creative collaboration is what makes the movie special." 

While 100 Days marks Saldanha’s first professional production in Finland, his connection to the country is surprisingly nostalgic. Growing up in Brazil with a father in the military, his family was stationed near Penedo, the only Finnish colony in South America. He grew up visiting the town on weekends, dancing to traditional Finnish music.

Years later, while directing Rio at Blue Sky Studios, Saldanha tasked a brilliant, quiet Finnish animator named Mika Ripatti with animating the lead bird’s samba dance. The result was spectacular.

"When I played that in festivals, I said, 'What, you think Finns can't dance? They dance, and they dance the samba!'" Saldanha laughs. "So, a feeling for Finland was already in my heart before this project."

As 100 Days nears its release, Saldanha is already looking forward to returning to Finland, not just for the film's premiere, but potentially for future projects. He actively encourages other international directors to look past the usual European production hubs and consider the North.

In films like Ice Age, Rio, and Ferdinand, Saldanha has continually explored the beauty of unexpected connections; how crossing paths with the unlikeliest of companions can give life profound meaning and stay with you forever. His experience making 100 Days seems to mirror this very theme. By embracing an unexpected connection across the globe, Saldanha didn't just find a reliable post-production hub; he found a creative family in the quiet, dedicated, and surprisingly rhythmic heart of Finland.