Puhdistus

Puhdistus is a Finnish film directed by Antti J. Jokinen, based on a play and a book of the same name by Sofi Oksanen. It tells about Estonia and more specifically about two women joined by blood and the horrors that they both have had to go through in their respective timelines.

And that last word is really the key to this movie. It's quite frankly two different stories, sharing screen time in a single movie. Sure, both stories are about the same family line and even feature characters that are present in both. But they're still joined together more by theme and motive than by anything more substantial. Aliide (Liisi Tandefelt as an elder, and Laura Birn when she was younger) is the one character around whom these two stories revolve, but her elder self doesn't bear all that much resemblance to her past self. Which is kind of the point, admittedly, but it also means that the two stories feel rather separate.

It doesn't help that of the two stories I vastly preferred the one taking place in the 30s. Estonia is a new nation, but already it has come under heavy strain from its mighty neighbor to the east. The bells of war are tolling and it's impossible to remain neutral. And now it's up to two sisters to live their lives as best as they can.

Contrast this to the other story taking place in the 90s. And not just any 90s. The most vitriolically shaded 90s possible, where most everyone seems to abuse drugs, everything is either falling apart or already broken, all men hate and abuse women, and where the only thing of beauty is snow falling on a justly murdered adversary.

Sofi Oksanen has opinions about the recent past, is all I'm saying. I'm sure from her point of view they are justified opinions, but I find her to be a bit much, honestly.

Puhdistus has its fans and the story has depth. It's just not told overly well, at least in this form.

I've read Sofi Oksanen book before seeing the film and for me that's obvious that we have here a great film based on a great book. Usually the historic event crush individual lives and destinies, but sometimes is really amassing how peoples can react so different and how unexpected individual desires mixed up with historical event can generate dramas. This film also remembered me another one, a Romanian one, "Somewhere in the East", made after Augustin Buzura's novel "Fetele tacerii", part of the subject being related.

This is an adaptation of the novel by the female writer Sofi Oksanen - daughter of a Finn and an Estonian women (the latter emigrated to Finland yet in the Soviet era). One glance at this woman is enough to see what sort of person she is. People of art, especially in contemporary Scandinavia, are, quite frankly, those 'Jupiters', who are allowed a lot of things we 'oxen' are not allowed. But, seriously, getting acquainted with their works is order of magnitude more interesting and alluring than with, you know, socialist realism novels the authors of which were dressed in respectable jackets.

The same is here: the film based on the book by the contemporary Finnish émancipée really grabs me from the very first frame. The newly independent Estonia which has not yet entered into NATO and the EU. A cursed old house, like in some Grindcore song, hides numerous terrible secrets under its floorboards which are nailed perfectly still. Who lives in it, is of course a creepy old Finno-Ugric woman, who smokes better than an experienced young guy and grabs the sharp ax, should things go a bit wrong. She possesses a pistol as well, as it is later found out. An inscription like 'Russian whore' is shown off on the glass of her window. We see that a lot has gone through this backward old woman and that she would die hard anyway.

In her yard, a half dead escapee - a psycho prostitute girl, chased by her pimps - is trying to hide. Until the end it is not clear: whether God himself brought her exactly to THIS grandmother (in Estonia, after all those dreadful events they have survived, people do not believe in God: this is perhaps the only atheistic country in the world), or she knew beforehand who to seek. In general, in the abundance of flashbacks, the audience can easily read the extremely frank confession of the old Estonian woman, and there will be no doubt that the girl really was at the right time in the right place... And as for the bandits, they once again demonstrated all the riskiness of their ticklish 'craft'. Sometimes, they would get away in such scrapes, that even commandos would not. But here - just a miserable peasant old woman from a single-homestead settlement! Who knew that the granny was kind of Rambo! She would not be frightened by photos of mutilated corpses, by a knife or even by a pistol: in her lifetime, something worse could be seen...

And everything was right about the film (it even, dare I say it, is endowed with the aesthetics of death: puddles of blood with a metallic gleam, flames, carved autumn leaves), but the shocking end. I was just about standing up and cheering the 'Rambo grandmother' who had successfully born everything, when suddenly... The shock was not what I saw there. Shock was in irrationality of the final frame! She has survived all the atrocities throughout her life, if not a lightning incinerates me for such a cynicism, with flying colours. Whatever fell to her lot (torture and abuse, personal life failure and economic disruption) - she would just wash herself thoroughly (hence the name of the work) and her sly life goes on. But the fact of what the author made her heroine to do instead of the happy end, for me, crossed out everything that the author had spoken about the character above.

Hard to say what exactly influenced the author's choice of such a zigzag final (the novel and its film adaptation of the same name end the same, which of course, does not always happen). But one thing is certain. As long as society of many young nations (or rather of those which have existed for centuries, but almost always in their history dependent upon neighbours which have been more numerous, better politically organised and rich) perceives their past as 'genocide' ('playing the victim'), such stories will be just those caps that fit. Whether this is good or bad - who am I to judge. Dwell on the past and you may lose an eye; forget the past and you will lose both eyes out...

Yes ,this movie has plenty of raw scenes, and not for everyone, but for others , you can see the powerful message through it! I consider the film very well directed and performed. Joining history into present problems is phenomenal. Actors and actresses performance is brilliant! This is the best dramas I have ever seen,keeping in mind that I've seen Schindler's List. I will recommend this film to anybody , who is interested in great acting and untold history. It certainly made me realize, how fortunate and blessed I am. Bravo to the cooperation of countries so little like Finland and Estonia, making so great movie! Already waiting for the next movie!

A young woman forced into a prostitution ring in Estonia escapes and seeks refuge with an old lady whose horrific past is revealed through a series of flashbacks, and although I am not fan of a non linear style of filmmaking, it works well for this particular movie.The two main actresses are terrific and the World War Two history lesson regarding Estonia and Stalin's communist Russia is quite compelling. Both the current theme of white slavery and the past one of atrocities committed in the name of patriotism and honor are portrayed in a brutal and honest way. Purge runs a bit too long at two hours and five minutes, but even with that small criticism, I would rank it as one of my favorite foreign language films.