Yhden miehen sota

Yhden miehen sota is a very plain and harsh view at the life of poor working class families in Finland around the late 60's and the early 70's trying to stay alive on the breadline. Erik Suomies (Eero Rinne) is living on the edge of bankruptcy every day and struggling to feed his family, and yet all his friends have things even worse. He is trying his best to help them out, but there's only so much one man can do.

If you are not familiar with these distinctively depressing Nordic movies, I recommend you to start with a movie with smaller calibre of pessimism and anguish at first. The other distinctive element of Nordic, and especially (old) Finnish movies, that might feel a little strange or boring to most people is the really slow and simplified way of storytelling. Yhden miehen sota sure ain't no exception.

I can honestly say that I'm used to watch these kinds of slow and simplified movies, and I enjoy them quite a lot, but still this one was at the limits for me. So it's definitely not the movie for everyone, and it requires a lot of concentration and patience from it's viewer to get anything out of it, however if you do, it might be quite rewarding.