Leijonasydän

I had honestly given up hope of ever seeing a truly good Finnish film. Finnish filmmakers seemed to have this peculiar depressive streak a mile wide and every film I watched was either painfully banal comedy or a dark drama about the cruelty of life. And then I saw this film.

Leijonasydän by Dome Karukoski is the best Finnish film I've personally ever seen. It has the capacity of emotion, the sheer skill and the story to stand side by side with the best international films out there. And the reasons for this excellence are the reasons why most films succeed: excellent characters and a great story. And it's not that the story itself is all that unpredictable or new. The film is about a Neo-Nazi that is forced to live with his new girlfriend's son. A son, whose father just happens to be of African descent. You can probably figure out how the story will pan out just from that. It's the execution here, the way the story is told and how well the actors do their jobs, that pulls the movie through.

And those aforementioned actors are all very skilled. Peter Franzén and Jasper Pääkkönen both do a credible job of portraying two brothers, who both happen to believe in white power. Yet they're not treated unsympathetically. Their actions are condemned, sure, but the film also goes to great lengths to show them not as monster, but as people who believe in wrong things. They both show capability for regret, sympathy and even love, despite their upbringing. Great depth of emotion and humanity.

Laura Birn and Yusufa Sidibeh also shine as mother and son. Finland still doesn't get all that many immigrants, so people of foreign descent are still something of an oddity here. Thus it's great to see films like this one that treat the fact like it's supposed to be: a family, no matter their respective skin colour.

As far criticism goes, I only have a couple of nitpicks. Like how the ending could have gone on for a bit longer, or how Birn's character gets suddenly removed for a part of the film, but these are more matters of taste rather than real flaws in the film.

Leijonasydän is a great film. It believes in humanity, has incredible role performances and is just all around heartwarming to watch. Highly recommended for all.

Movie has a rather good plot, but it's totally biased on the leftist narrative on multiculrural utopia.. Watchable, but biased. All the reasons why right wing is rising has been left out.

Can love save us from an extremist ideology? That's the question addressed by "Heart of A Lion", four times nominated to the Jussi Awards (the Finnish equivalent of the BAFTA) in 2014. In addition to the actors' amazing performances (Peter Franzén is superb), the movie sensitively shows the trouble in having a normal life when we want to be an active representative to an ideology like nazism. Despite some tough moments and Dome Karukoski's accuracy to show how this extremely violent environment is, there is room for light in this Finnish movie. Little by little, Teppo finds his humanity and humbly realizes the limits of far-right ideologies that are indeed quite popular in Northern countries. Even though Finland is going to celebrate the first century of its independence, immigration is still rare and attachment to the roots and the national history are essential. Although the director says that "Heart of a Lion" could have been set anywhere, the story is the more legitimate and realist in Finland. This film sends us a beautiful moral: complicity, wiseness and reason can win against ignorance, exclusion and violence that, as shown by the movie, are synonyms of decay and degeneration instead of progress and growth. Full review on our blog Los Indiscretos : https://losindiscretos.org

I can't comment on movies from Finnland in general or if there have been better ones in recent past than this one. But I can tell you, that this one is pretty damn good. And hopefully you're not offended by the "d"-word, because there's much worse coming your way in this movie. And while most of it could be viewed as borderline cliché and predictable as to were it is heading, the movie itself is able to not only get away with it, but be mesmerizing nonetheless.

It's the central performances (which includes the kid) and also the sensibility with which the movie is handled by everyone involved. Unfortunately stuff like this happens in real life too and it's not just fiction. Is there hope though? For the character(s) involved and for us in general?

This film is like the French film "French Blood" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4168502/ The acting is very professional, straight forward and not over acted which happens in lots of films with violence. Both of these films shows what happens when there is too much of energy, anger and no thoughts how to live life as human until something happens that makes the changes.

The film shows well the conflict that arises after one has had enough of all that idiotic ideology and how difficult it is to break the old ways, they keep haunting in the background all the time. Both films are extremely good drama and I would say these are a must to watch especially for all those who think they have all the answers but no idea what to do.