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This film is about a Finnish boy who got sent to Sweden during the Finish-Russian War in 1939.

The film is very powerful, touching and affecting. There are so many memorable scenes where nothing is said, and yet they convey a thousand words. An example is that Eero's mother seeing a priest coming to their house. The despair and hopelessness is portrayed so vividly, and yet not one word is said. Maria Lundqvist deserves particular recognition for her acting skills. She plays every emotion very naturally. From the initial rejection and disgust to the eventual love and trust, these emotions are all so natural and real. Another point that deserves mention is that the present days are in black and white while the past is in colour. Such an arrangement is not so usual, and yet suits this film well. The soundtrack is very good, it really captivates and enhances the mood and emotions of the scenes.

The plot is particularly touching, especially when one is reminded of the fact that 80,000 children had a similar fate during the war. I am glad to have a chance to watch this film, and I urge others to watch this too!

I saw this at the 2006 Palm Springs International Film Festival and of the 35 films I saw there this one was my #1. The audiences at the festival seemed to agree in that it won the Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature. Actually it tied with the film Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont for the award in a rare first place tie. I was hoping this would gain a nomination for Best Foreign Language film at the Academy Awards but it's submission didn't make the final five. Director Klaus Härö, Producer Ilkka Matila and Music Score Composer Tuomas Kantelinen were on hand to present the film and take Q & A after. I was happy that they brought with them the guy who scored the music soundtrack because the music was a perfect fit for this film. Topi Majaniemi as Eero is charming and Michael Nyqvist as Hjalmer Jönsson is excellent but Maria Lundqvist as Signe Jönsson is superb and really carries this film. This is a very, very good film and I would rate it a 9.0 and highly recommend it.

"Mother of Mine" tells a story about nine-year-old Eero (Topi Majaniemi) who is one of the war children who were sent from Finland to Sweden in order to escape the war against USSR. It is a very hearty film, and especially at the beginning, when the ruthlessness of the war begins to show its ugly head, it contains downright heartbreaking material.

On the other hand, those parts where grown-up Eero (played by Esko Salminen) converses about the past with his mother feel a bit too much like commentaries, and they might have benefited from a little more liveliness. On the first viewing I thought also that Eero's relationship with the foster mother Signe (Maria Lundqvist) doesn't ever really open and warm up like the narration implies later. However, on the second viewing I noticed that the scene in the graveyard is honestly trying to deal with this point. So that part of the theme is not completely left undeveloped.

Michael Nyqvist as Hjalmar Jönsson does a pretty good job, but one of the best virtues of the film is the fact that director Klaus Härö has been able to cultivate an extremely believable Eero-boy from young Topi Majaniemi. Praises also belong to the numerous incredibly beautiful scenes, of which one of the finest is a shot where a bus comes from the left side of the panorama picture and continues its drive to a stop in the middle of desolation with Eero as its only passenger traveling towards his new home.

In short, "Mother of Mine" is a recommendable movie for everyone who considers him-/herself to be a friend of honest and straightforward drama. See it by yourself or show it to the mother of yours.

Haven't been so totally blown away by a movie for quite a while - it's rare in Hong Kong that all the 5 audience in the cinema all ended up soaking in tears - if that didn't tell you enough about the movie..

There were movies, like the Dutch movie Simon, that tried to capture the subtle dynamics among fathers and sons, or the Canadian one, Barbarian Invasion. This movie, however, has yet overrode those movies by its subtle but yet delicately constructed interplay among father, mother and the son. More so it touched so much upon young man's hope and tie with the mother. Just when you think that was the whole thing about the movie (i.e. mother and son, anti-war wake-up call), the movie got brilliantly galvanized by the two women in how they dealt with themselves and the motherhood, and what they wanted, adding a potent twist to the narrative as well as gently tweaking the emotions of the audience.

For such a long time there was no movies that was able to employ such a basic and simple setting but yet so able to capture the multi-faceted humanities in such an embedded, compiling way.

Highly recommend this movie.

I used to think that it's silly to cry over something like a movie and that it's only girls that do so - until now. I felt like being torn apart when realizing the pain Signe felt when she realized that there was nothing in the world she could do to keep Eero.

It was beautiful to see the development of the bond between Signe and Eero, and it made the outcome so hard to bear. It was easy to understand how deep wounds were left in the souls of the Finnish children that were sent to "safety" in Sweden during WWII.

This is a film everybody should see. It shows a depth I have NEVER seen on the movie screen.

Thank you Klaus Haro!