Biography

Ilkka Untamo Järvi-Laturi (November 28, 1961 – March 5, 2023) was a Finnish-born US-based film director whose best known film is Spy Games (1999) starring Bill Pullman and Irene Jacob. The film was shot in Helsinki, New York and Toronto. Järvi-Laturi has a cameo role in the film. Before making the film Spy Games, Järvi-Laturi directed and served as co-director of several films in Finland. He has also acted in the 1985 film The Unknown Soldier. Järvi-Laturi won the Nordic Film Prize for the best Scandinavian Film of The Year and the highest Finnish film prize Jussi Award (best screenplay) in 1990 for Kotia Päin (Homebound). His Estonian actioner Darkness in Tallinn is the most widely distributed Estonian film so far, and won the Silver Alexander in Thessaloniki and the Fassbinder prize in Mannheim. He previously lived in New York and Beijing.