Heart of a Lion

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.

a film about small things. far by ambitions, almost unrealistic, scene for old fashion values and form a form of revelation who is not easy to convince. but a courageous film. for the absence of high ambition. for to not pretend be a moral lesson. only picture of few decisions and choices. it is an impressive film for its profound modesty. honest, amusing, using vulnerabilities and fears in a manner who except the heroism in common sense. a film about love who could be only result of acceptance. a film who surprise because it is clear, seems be slice of every day life, not propose a model only present the way of a man to himself. short, a film easy to criticize it. but that could be its fundamental virtue.

The movie has a good message, the relationship between the "stepfather" and his son is heartwarming, their dialogue and the way they open up to each other is great, but all of that get's torn apart and gets ridiculed by the unbelievable stuff that is happening around them.

The conflicts and scenarios created in this movie are highly unrelatable and unrealistic, they don't mirror the reality at all, which is bad if you want to create a believable and relatable story. Some of the stuff that is happening is exaggerated at best, but most of the stuff that is happening is just outlandish fantasy.

One example.

All the hideous acts of racism and all the violence that has happend in this movie and not ONE single time was the press or police involved?! I mean no one calls the police or get's jailed, EVER. Like the only scene that someone got into CUSTODY is after something gets blown up with a grenade and even then, the person simply gets released without an investigation.

I don't know why they couldn't keep things more grounded and based on reality, it would have made this movie sooo much better, but instead this movie just tries too hard to shock people with exaggerated fights and conflicts.

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

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.