Rounding out our selection of WW2 films, here’s something more cathartic—as we focus on Finland, one of many nations in that conflict sandwiched between the oppressions and onslaughts of vying nations. Already caught between the desires of Stalin—which it had stymied a few years prior—and now Nazi Germany, the Finns were forced to ally with the latter against the former aggressor, only to have to change with the pressures of war that would see the plains of Lapland desolated. In the midst of all this, however, there was no faltering in a determination to survive—and when backs are against the wall, there can be no greater force than that single focus. Hence the Finnish term Sisu—and hence our topic for today.
Jorma Tommilla plays Aatami Korpi, an ageing ex-soldier living in the gloriously shot expanses of Lapland—one hoping only to get by via prospecting, only to soon run afoul of a brigade of SS soldiers ravaging and kidnapping during their scorched earth retreats through the area. A desire for gold leads to one thing after another, and that’s enough for Korpi to join the war by himself.
Things start off at least somewhat grounded—but director Jalmari Helander doesn’t stop there. No, things soon ratchet up as it becomes apparent that nothing—not drowning, not hanging, not tank fire—will stop Korpi. There is a certain talent to gradually cranking things up for the audience, and luckily Sisu does that well enough—so that when things start punching into absolute insanity near the end, things feel earned enough.
Jorma is also someone who demonstrates that sometimes, all you need to emote is just the eyes—and there’s no point you may doubt that this is someone who simply never cedes defeat.
As over the top as it gets, things remain tight, straightforward, and suitably set up—we have our secondary characters with the kidnapped Finnish women who of course get their own chance to strike back, we have our antagonists who are all too natural to hate, and we have our single all-consuming thread to get our lead from A to B. Sometimes, the simple ways work best.
Sisu remains for the most part pure over the top grit and then catharsis—the latter it delivers all too well, and that’s the key to how it hit it off well with audiences. Sometimes, there’s something to be said about never relenting in the face of hopelessness. That’s how so many made it through worldwide horrors 80-odd years ago, and there’s something to be said for taking sisu as a concept in other times more uncertain…
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