1939

Documentary film about the year of Winter War, a Finnish Holy War.

If you have to elect one film wizard in Finland, probably 90 % of votes will be given to director Peter von Bagh, who has been a number one speaker for film in Finland since 1960's.

Year 1939 had been very important for Finnish books and plays, but never before films year were used to give an impression how the world was before the war. 28 interviews, all from different viewpoints of life and society, fulfill the trends and ideas presented in compilated scenes.

Original idea was to produce a compilation film that is not concentrating that much to Winter War. Only after von Bagh learned the richness of newsreels the form of film came clear: "Reality won over the fictitious. After waiting eagerly the opening of the Olympic Games in 1940, everything turned suddenly to cold realism of war", von Bagh explained later. That is the reason why in the second half of film the archive films are mostly news reels of Suomi-Filmi.