Leijonasydän

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.

I find this movie very enjoyable. Character interactions, emotions, scenes, dialogues and so on. The only problem with it is that it doesn't belong in this world. There are no people like this. I've spent most my childhood surrounded by right wing skins (many of them still my best friends). Then I've spent nearly 10 years being an immigrant and surrounded by people of very mixed origins. Again I repeat - people are not like that. What this movie does is it perpetuates harmful stereotypes and prejudice on both sides in the name of universal love and leftie brainwash. Use with caution.

The director is very talented but should rely more on his own life experience when telling stories rather than doing his liberal homework to get praise from his Starbucks friends. I think it would take him to another level.

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.

This film is like the French film "French Blood" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4168502/ The acting is very professional, straight forward and not over acted which happens in lots of films with violence. Both of these films shows what happens when there is too much of energy, anger and no thoughts how to live life as human until something happens that makes the changes.

The film shows well the conflict that arises after one has had enough of all that idiotic ideology and how difficult it is to break the old ways, they keep haunting in the background all the time. Both films are extremely good drama and I would say these are a must to watch especially for all those who think they have all the answers but no idea what to do.

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.