Ikitie

Ikitie (The Eternal Road) is a morbid film of a man's attempts to get back home, set against the backdrop of the untold story about 10,000 people who voluntarily moved from North America to the Soviet Union to build a worker's paradise, but who eventually learned the true face of Stalin's U.S.S.R.

It is 1931, and the Great Depression is on. Jussi Ketola has recently moved back to Finland from the United States with his family. He has bought a farm, and tends pretty much to himself. All is good and well until right wing extremists, who claim Jussi to be a communist, decide to practice their favourite pastime, namely kidnapping Jussi, driving him a few hundred kilometers to the Soviet border zone, then shooting him (though it might sound odd, these things actually happened in Finland during that tumultuous time). Except that they botch the shooting part and Jussi, heavily wounded, barely escapes across the border to the U.S.S.R.

When Jussi wakes up in a hospital in the Soviet Union, he is greeted by a Finnish police working for the Soviets who, instead of letting Jussi go home, summarily accuse him of being a spy. Unable to escape, Jussi is sent out to a collective farm. This kolkhoz has been built by Americans and Canadians, but mostly by Finnish immigrants who had first moved to North America, but then moved to the U.S.S.R. Their common goal is to build A Worker's Paradise. Jussi's task, on the other hand, is to inform on any suspicious activity. And it is here where the story really begins.

Ikitie tells its disturbing story at a laid-back pace. It is not boring by any means, but the scenes, particularly during the first half of the film, are given plenty time to breath. The same goes for the actors. They have both the space and time to act with nuances. Helped by this, acting flows naturally. People speak their native or common languages (Finnish, English, Russian) with appropriate dialects. Cinematography is lovely, particularly when playing with darkness of the night without crushing everything to black. Colours are perhaps ever-so-slightly muted but still realistic, and - thankfully - there are no teal-and-orange scenes to be seen.

As time goes by in the film, tension slowly but surely rises, right until the dramatic ending. Adding to the tension and pain is the knowledge that things that we see in Ikitie actually did take place on a large scale in Stalin's U.S.S.R. during the purges of the 1930's.

What can I say? I saw Ikitie today at our local theater with my mother and son, and it left us discussing for hours, about local and international history, the Great Depression, the Finnish right-wing extremist movement, Stalin's purges, all of it. If that is not a sign of an exceptionally impressive film, I don't know what is.

Judgment: Highly recommended, just don't expect a light-hearted comedy!

A jewel from Finland. The story ignored in the narrative of depiction of horrors of Communism. Very well done.

I'm so grateful that I kept watching once I realized I'll be reading captions. Please continue if you have to do the same. It's absolutely worth it!

A true story is always a difficult one to tell and to stay true to the truth of it. A man who seems to keep on losing everything that makes life worth living for. A man who sticks to what he believes. A true hero, a man of courage, high values and morals. A man willing to stand up again and again. A man seldom found today. Be blessed and enjoy.

Ikitie by Antti Tuuri is a seriously great book about a man forcefully deported from Finland to Soviet Union after civil war. Unfortunately this movie fails to bring the epic story to life. It may not be wise or fair to compare a movie to the book it is based on, but this movie could have been so much more if it would have been done the right way. I wish the movie could have been twice as long so it would include all the key scenes that builds up the characters and the story.

The movie and book is called The eternal road, which was a route used by Lapuan liike to deport suspected communists to Soviet Union. In the film the story about the route was basically left out (one of the best part), and in the mean time so was all the possible scenes that would build up the character of Jussi Ketola, and gives the reader insight what Jussi Ketola is all about. In fact, all the characters in this movie are very poorly built, and so is the story. The film is just scenes and takes that are not explained at all, and do not even sum up as a story.

I wonder if my mistake was to read the book first, but this movie just made my heart ache by how poorly it was made. It looks great and the cast is good, sure, but it is just a weird combination of scenes that make no sense. Tommi Korpela is the perfect actor to play the role of Ketola, and I strongly believe this would have been the role of a lifetime for him.

Very good movie. The story is awful but it was shown without excess, not overdoing the gruesome aspects and yet not saving anything. Good direction, edition and casting. The actors had done a good job. Nice work in showing the time and uses: set decoration, costume design, makeup. Nothing is out of tone. Whenever you hear someone saying socialism is what we need, make them watch this movie. Noone needs socialism, no matter if in the russian way or the nazi one, nor Cuban, Chinese or any kind of socialism. And noone needs any kind of politics that take away your rights. If you need spies and violence to keep people's will, then you know it's not good.

PD I knew I've already seen the actress that play Sarah. I thought she was American because she sounds very American. I've just checked on her and she's the star of Borgen, the excelent Danish tv show!