Lágrimas de Abril

Taking place in the Finlands civil war, "whites vs reds", a woman soldier of reds is captured by the whites. She is ordered to be executed, but saved by an idealistic soldier. Together they begin a journey to face the field court, which becomes the main stage for the drama.

All the acting is done with care. Main characters played by Vauramo and Viitala are easy to relate to. Eero Aho is also quite impressive in the role of judge Hallenberg, a talented writer whose ideology is ruined by the war. Judge Hallenberg is easy to see as the most interesting character in the movie, its up to viewer to decide if hes good or bad. Also a side role of sergeant-major played by Mikko Kouki is worth mentioning for. He seems to be just the right person to play this character representing absolute moral decay of war.

As Im not the biggest fan of finnish movies I was not expecting much but Käsky (translation:order) really impressed me. Director Aku Louhimiehi is one of the top directors in finnish movie and I'd say Käsky might really be his best work. The overall mood in the movie is a bit tense, usually dramatic piano and string music playing. Great filming and good nature shots make it exceptionally beautiful. The script has just the right twist to keep the viewer entertained. I really enjoyed Käsky for the philosophical side of it, thought some of the viewers might find this movie too shocking.

9/10

Well most of this movie is soft porn. In fact the name of the film should be Levottomat 7 or something similar, this is the same stuff again but now in some historically motivated context. Unfortunately the actors in main roles had read their history lessons much better than the script writer or anyone in the production team.

The movie represents a white side soldier who, despite being clearly a Nazi, suddenly starts to feel pity when the evil whites shoot at unarmed and barely dressed ladies. He decides to save the one good looking one. It is a factual mistake that the man is given a rank of Private, despite being a Jaeger trained in Germany. Absolutely none of the Jaegers in the Civil War served as mere Privates, even the ones with bad physical condition were promoted to at least to the rank of Corporal.

Another thing that I quite wondered was the Judge's Russian wife, who wasn't familiar with German language at all even if she could play Beethoven numbers by request. The academical Russians of the early 20th century knew German rather well. The same wife character could be a bark at the modern custom of having a Russian wife, whom the writer presents as a rather lustful Lady.

Nothing new really in this one, except that it's the least story conveying good vs bad juxtaposition for a while.

A great film depicting a relationship by encounter in the middle of a civil war. I had no idea before this movie that Finland had a civil war, or that the reds had women battalions. Reprisals were severe and brutal and rape as a weapon of war utilised. Amongst all the trauma real character development and well made complexities of how nothing is as it may first be seen. This movie is one that will keep those viewers who like historical side interested along with those that look for the romance, relationship dramas.