“We might have a problem!”

Flinthart’s review: Finnish cinema is… a bit of a rarity, really. But that makes it all the more interesting, because when something finally makes it out of the cold, soggy wastes of that distant land, it’s generally pretty unusual. The Leningrad Cowboys, for example – Finnish, and bloody brilliant. Oh, and my favourite horror movie Sauna – not only a lovely bit of Finnish film-making, but literally the only horror movie I’ve ever seen that’s left a lasting impression on me. (Yeah… horror? Generally just bounces off me, I’m afraid.) So when I heard that a fairly nifty action/adventure movie called Sisu had come out of Finland last year, I was curious.

Worth the effort. In spades.

According to characters within the film, “Sisu” is an untranslatable Finnish term meaning something on a spectrum which includes stubbornness, tenacity, determination, courage, and ruthlessly indestructible white-hot supernatural vengeance. And honestly, the plot of this film is so simple that I really hesitate to deliver it… but here’s the summary: Old man is out in the swampy boondocks of Finland, prospecting for gold late in 1944. He finds a lot of gold, but on his way to trade it for actual money, a bunch of Nazis take it away from him.

Sadly for the Nazis, the Old Man in question is an ex-commando from the Winter War, and he proceeds to take back his gold despite the Nazis best efforts to murder him and his dog. Oh, and in the meantime he liberates a truck full of young women who have been ‘commandeered’ for recreational purposes by the retreating Nazis.

That’s it, really. And if I told you any more, I’d just be giving away the details that make the film fun: the ways in which the Nazis try to kill the Old Man, and the ways in which he avoids dying and rains fire, vengeance and crusty, grandfather-powered horror upon his enemies, saving the girls and his dog in the process. Seriously: if I told you more, it would all just be spoilers.

This is lean, clean cinema at something close to its best. Yes, it was made on a budget, but they spent the money in the right places. The cinematography is excellent, and all the performances are right on the money. Jorma Tommila plays ex-commando turned gold-prospector Aatami Korpi with exactly the right degree of implacable rage. Aksel Hennie delivers a nice balance between Nazi brutality and pragmatic greed as chief Nazi SS Obersturmführer Bruno Helldorf.

Everybody else hits their marks and plays their parts with entirely appropriate war-weariness. Oh, and it tells you a lot about the movie in that Jorma Tommila gets exactly one line of dialogue, and that occurs right at the end of the film. This is not a talky-Tarantino piece. This is a straightforwardly bloody, brutal and occasionally over-the-top action movie that delivers where it needs to, and leaves the room well before wearing out its welcome.

If you like this genre of film or you just get a kick out of watching Nazis come to grief (and really, who doesn’t?) you should settle back, make a load of popcorn, and put Sisu on the home screen. You’re not going to see anything groundbreaking, but you’re going to have a lot of fun. I’m giving it 6 out of 7 gruesomely slaughtered Nazis.

Intermission!

• Gosh, Nazis are bad guys, aren’t they? There should be more punching of Nazis. Or failing that, disembowelling, exploding, machine-gunning, and running over Nazis. And just occasionally, driving hunting knives right through their heads.
• Uh-oh. There goes the horse. Is the dog gonna make it?
• Oooh. Nice use of a minefield, there!
• Oh look. The old guy lost his dog tags. And is that foreshadowing? Why yes. Yes it is.
• Huh. That’s… actually, that’s the most innovative method I’ve yet seen for holding your breath underwater for a prolonged period. Hard on the Nazis, though.
• Oh no! They strapped dynamite to the dog!
• Amateurs, these Nazis. You’d think they’d do a better job of hanging someone…
• Aaand nope. He’s not dead. But you can scratch one German fighter plane.
• And several trucks.
• And a tank.
• And a fighter-bomber.
• NOTE: Yeah, I know. In the movies, a lot of people kill Nazis and you have to wonder how they managed to last as long as they did in the real world. But before you dismiss the qualities of the fictional Aatami Korpi, you should look up The Winter War (between Russia and Finland) on Wikipedia. And then you should look up a man called Simo Häyhä, better known as “The White Death.”
• No. Really. Look him up. You’ll understand the movie a whole lot better.