frans_emil

Hella Wuolijoki was a classic Finnish play-writer, and this is a movie from one of her works, Heta From Niskavuori, a part of five-part Niskavuori-series. I haven't read the series nor seen other Niskavuori movies so this was an interesting journey to this theme.

The play was published in 1950. Niskavuori, the connecting factor of the plays, is a wealthy farmhouse in Hauho, near Tampere. It's 1898 and Juhani's sister Heta, daughter of Niskavuori, is going to marry a poor servant, Akusti. She is feeling ill in the middle of the ceremony. She is pregnant and that's the reason, she exposes, for marrying this servant.

Heta is a powerful lady who's going to be the head her new house no matter of what. Akusti is a nice man who will love Heta and all their children - also those who aren't really theirs. It takes a long time before Heta realizes how good man she has married. However, local society seems to appreciate Akusti, his work and person.

The movie won three Finnish Oscars (Jussi prizes), one from directing (Edvin Laine), one from best actress (Rauni Luoma) and one from best actor (Kaarlo Halttunen). Laine clearly knew how to describe work in it's purest form and the movie is clearly a salute to all men (and women) that have done their best building their life conditions. Especially I liked the performance of Kaarlo Halttunen, an actor who really handled the grass-root characters well. Akusti is a very lovable person.

Tapio (played by Tapio Rautavaara, a famous Finnish singer and London Olympic winner) is a detective who infiltrates in a smuggling league. He ends up to the Finnish/Swedish border in Tornio, Northern Finland where the league is smuggling articles over the border river.

Before an exciting end, Tapio falls in love with beautiful Leila Laine (Assi Nortia) and presents many classic songs like "Pohjolan yö". The movie also consists many cheerful folk songs, performed by other artists.

The views in Lapland are beautiful and the music saves a lot. Intrigue is quite conventional.

Unemployment was a topical subject (well, it always is) at the time when this movie was released. As Kaurismäki's approach is more refined when speaking about the subject, Piirainen uses comedy as a way to show what's wrong in society. The hungry queue at the start of the movie is a sad sight but when these two fellows (Lehtinen and Koivula) start to act, one will find lots of fun about ordinary life.

Kokki and Rane start a cleaning business and they buy a cleaning machine (a unique one, as they express it). They have to live without apartment. But Rane has lots of "visions" how to get more money and how to feed his family. They meet some other unemployment and show them how things get OK.

These two guys seem to be simple kind of guys when they have adventures with the cleaning business. But after all, innocence is the thing that appeals to audience. This movie gives hope.