Olli Saarela (born March 16, 1965 in Helsinki, Finland) is a Finnish film director. He has directed films such as Ambush, Bad Luck Love, Rollo and the Woods Sprite and Year of the Wolf, which is based on a book written by Virpi Hämeen-Anttila.
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On May 21, 2006, Saarela married Tanja Karpela (née Vienonen; previously Karpela), who is the current Minister of Culture in Finland and was Miss Finland in 1991. Saarela was previously married to Anu Pirilä, with whom he has three children: Venla, Nicholas and Anton.
Before Saarela started studying to become a film director, he worked as a firefighter.
MRP Matila Röhr Productions is the company that is usually responsible for producing Saarela's movies. Tuomas Kantelinen is responsible for creating the soundtracks to Saarela's films.
In August 2006, Saarela directly attacked Minister of Finance Eero Heinäluoma in an interview for Image Magazine, since, in his opinion, the Social Democratic Party of Finland that Heinäluoma heads had slandered his wife during budget negotiations. Minister of Culture Tanja Saarela ended up having to explain her husband's comments to the press and Olli Saarela later apologized for his rash comments.[1]
That a grown man dares to. He's a miserable, big and bald-headed sissy. I would've punched him in the nose, the way he made himself look good was so outrageous.—Olli Saarela in Image, 8/2006, p. 37