Joki - Der Fluss

Went to see this finnish film and I've got to say that it is one of the better films I've seen this year. The intrigue is made up of 5-6 different stories, all taking place the very same day in a small finnish town. The stories come together very nicely in the end, reminding, perhaps, a bit of the way Tarantino's movies are made. Most of the actors performed very well, which most certainly is needed in realistic dramas of this type. I especially enjoyed the acting by Sanna Hietala, the lead actress, and Juha Kukkonen. I noticed btw that IMDB has got the wrong information about Sanna. Her name, as you might have noticed in my review ;), is NOT Heikkilä, but Hietala.

Half a dozen short stories of varying interest enlighten us about life in Finland. These stories are interwoven and each contains a scene in which a sonic boom is heard. This indicates that the events depicted happen at the same time.

The film begins with a bungy jump which promises some excitement but the early stories are quite low key. The film improves so stick with it. Two broken marriages in stories that follow provide plenty of drama while a scene in a hospital gives us a terminally ill patient begging for pain relief. The last moments with his wife are both convincing and moving.

While the various scenes of family life take place in Finland, the themes are of a general nature wherever you happen to live.

Collections of short stories are rarely as satisfying as a good tense 90-minute drama.

Set on a Saturday morning, "The River" tells six stories that take place during a sonic boom that changes lives forever. The film opens and closes with one of the stories as two boys try to save Anni, a single mother who wants to drown herself and her baby in the local river. The other episodes include the story of the chronically broke Esa, an unsuccessful musician who comes to his father's 60th birthday party with the intention of replenishing his ailing finances. Then there's the exuberant pizza waitress Leena, who is walking on air because she is in love and wants to matchmake her workmates to spread her happiness. Ilpo feels sick and reluctantly goes home early from work to discover that his wife is having an affair. An old couple are having their last moments together, with the husband in hospital with no hope of recovery. They battle bureaucracy to get the hospital to let him go home to die with dignity. Santeri, a Year 12 student, is on his way to see a girl he loves - but he has to sort out similar feelings he has for a male friend. Finally, a young girl falls in love for the first time in her life. We meet these people as they are confronted by great sorrow, unexpected happiness, difficult decisions, the end of a marriage, and matters of life and death.

This is a top finnish film this year,although Tango Kabaree comes close.The Director Lampela made couple of years back another nice little film called Rakastin epätoivoista naista (I was in love with a desperate woman).Joki is truly true-to-life beautiful film of one saturday afternoon in a little village/town.The actors are maybe not so handsome or beautiful but they do act beautifully.I certainly do hope that many of them get JUSSI statue (finnish OSCAR) next spring.I think this film could make it abroad as well.

Excellent movie, a realistic picture of contemporary Finland, touching and profound. One of the best Finnish films ever made. Captures marvelously the everyday life in a Central Finland small town, people's desires and weaknesses, joys and sorrows. The bright early fall sunshine creates a cool atmosphere to this lucid examination of people in a welfare society. Lampela is indeed one of the most promising Finnish filmmakers. He shows that it is possible to make gripping movies without machine guns and bloodshed. His next film Eila is also worth seeing although the story of cleaning women fighting for their jobs is not quite as universally appealing as the destinies in Joki.