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I saw this at the 2005 Toronto International Film Festival today to a sell-out crowd with a very engaging Finnish director, Klaus Härö present. This film had real heart and honesty. It can and should be appreciated both in and outside of Scandanavia.

The film highlights a significant event in Finnish history -- that during WWII, around 70,000 Finnish children were sent to Sweden among other countries to be temporarily hosted as their real parents stayed in Finland to continue in the war. The story is made accessible and immediate by taking us through the experiences of one child -- Eero (Topi Majaniemi) -- who as a 9-year old boy is dealing with language differences, a desire to return home, and a host family that can provide materially, but maybe not in the non-material ways that Eero really needs.

That the film stays true to the viewpoints and desires of the child really makes this movie work. From the opening sequences, the warring environment was clear. As the movie continued, the sense of the unknown, a certain amount of foreboding and the ever-present desire to connect with family was also subtly introduced to give a very full sense of the conflict within this child's mind. The soundtrack nicely complemented everything the movie was going for.

This is a great total package with a movie that is assured, concise and crafted from a very fine director. This film gets my recommendation. Moreover, I'm very much looking forward to seeing the next film from this decidedly capable director!

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 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.

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!

This movie is amazing as it is simply beautiful. Never a movie I have seen with such a delicate subject made into big screen so beautifully. Its a story of a kid who has to leave his mother to be safe from bombing and gets into another country to other parents who lost their child in some accident. The kids longing for his own mother and in time love for his new mother is depicted amazingly by the child, he is absolutely brilliant kid actor. Also brilliant acting by both the women in the central character's and also the kid's new father is superb in his role. The movie shows how the war has affected everyone using a simple story yet based on some true events of evacuating kids to a safer land, removing them from their birth parents. Its a very touching movie. I am actually beginning to love foreign language movies for their excellent depiction of human nature in a very caring and sensitive ways.