insigniumdoomster

Hirtettyjen kettujen metsä is based on Paasilinnas book with the same name - the title translates to The Forest of the Hanged Foxes - and was released less than three years after.

The book itself was very popular and remains one of the author's most lauded books. The adaptation seems to have enjoyed less success, and there are several reasons why. It feels like a cheap home made 80's movie, and it was made on a low budget by a company that only released a short film and a documentary besides this. The two main actors were at least professionals with over a decade behind them each. Many of the others don't seem to have any acting background nor experience, this includes the director who only made another B-movie before calling it quits.

The story has something in common with Trainspotting in that the protagonist, Oiva Juntunen, is a criminal who is waiting for his crony, another very dangerous criminal called Siira, to be released from prison. Oiva isn't looking forward to Siira's release, not at all. On the contrary, Siira is quite a violent man and Oiva expects that Siira wants to kill him in his calculated fashion. You see, Oiva sits on three bars of gold, robbed from the Bank of Norway, one of which was supposed to belong to Siira. Another belongs to a third thick-headed crony nick named Sledgehammer, but this information is only found in the book. In any case, Siira (and Sledgehammer) served five years in prison for the robbery - (the book reveals that the three had planned and agreed upon this ahead of time, but the movie doesn't reveal this) - and now Siira's sentence is coming to an end. The thing is, Oiva has gotten used to a life in luxury by now and doesn't aim to give up any of what he sees as his gold. Siira isn't going to be happy to hear that.

So now Oiva hides out in the wilderness in Finnish Lapland, trying to evade both the law and Siira. Chance would have it that Colonel Remes comes upon him, a man prone to heavy drinking and who is tired of all the paperwork his job entails. Together they strike up a curious friendship and make a home there in the wilderness, soon joined by Naska Mosnikoff, a stubborn nonagenarian lady who is evading those who want to put her in a retirement home, and a feisty fox named The Five-Hundred Bill.

One could say that this is 'that' kind of comedy: Put mismatched people with strong personalities together in a small house and comedy will happen. This is at least how this film feels. The book is a tall tale of the Finnish kind, a tradition which Paasilinna upheld throughout his authorship, and which he was the foremost keeper of. A recent popular action movie called Sisu shows that it is perfectly possible to make films that belong to this tradition, yet The Forest of the Hanged Foxes adaptation fails in this.

The actors don't act much. The camerawork is below the standard for most B-movies. The sproingy synth track sounds like a frog that has gotten into Colonel Remes' liquor reserves. At times the film skips part of the book, which the result that some of the things that are going on doesn't make sense unless one also reads the book. That includes part of the ending. But there are parts with great slapstick, such as of Oiva chasing a fox in his underwear and wellingtons. And the sentimental feeling the reader got for Naska in the book is even improved upon in the film.

So, in short, the movie largely fails to be what it perhaps should have been, but still retains some good moments nonetheless, especially if you can see the humour in bad movies.

What Andy asks Hedwig in the third episode is perhaps the most essential question in this series. It can be paraphrased as:

"Who hurt you?"

All the colours of Eden hide the answers, and it's not only Hedwig who withholds theirs. Almost every big character does, and many others. The series isn't forthcoming either. In almost every case it's either revealed through off-hand comments or just hinted at.

Hedwig is the one that ends up missing one night and thereby sparks the plot of the series. The people of Eden, the Australian beach town which the series gets its name from, start search parties to look for her. Our part as viewers is to see the events unfolding through the eyes of the different people who saw her that day.

This doubles up as a study of the characters we get to follow. The aforementioned Andi, surname Dolan, is a famous actor with a drug problem, who is as lonely as he is good at keeping people away from him. Scout, who is Hedwig's best friend, who loves Hedwig as more than a friend, who Hedwig berates for not taking her along. Ezra Katz, the detective with a drinking problem, a sick mother, and who is said to have kind heart. Cam, the too-nice-for-his-own-good drug dealer who Hedwig places her trust in. Chief of Police Lou Gracie, who finds that love isn't always accepted, and many others.

Each of them are portrayed almost exclusively through the show-not-tell method. The observant viewer will get much more out of their characters, and consequently of the town as a whole, than those who approach the series more casually. As an example of the lengths the series goes to, make note of what Chief Gracie drinks. It's always water, and he is shown quite a few times doing so. Except in the single meeting he has with Detective Katz when he drinks a beer. Katz is a dried up alcoholic so this spite from Gracie shows just how he really feels even if he's otherwise cordial towards him.

Chief Gracie is also an excellent example of Eden's dark shadows. There is so much shame, particularly related to sex. Gracie is gay and if this was discovered then he would likely loose his job, likely more. His need for secrecy is absolute and with the norms of Eden being cult-like one could see why. In fact, there is much of what people say and do, especially their sense of morals, that seems to point in the direction of a cult. More than likely the town used to, or perhaps still does, house one. One that hurt the entire Eden at some point, and which we're now only seeing the echoes of. Perhaps this relates in some way to the title of the town and series?

Eden can be seen as a somewhat experimental crime series, colourful to the point where it touches on the psychedelic from time to time, which has vibrant and rich characterisations of the people in it, and whose beauty indicates that it's all a bad thing that happened in a dream. But the undercurrents, if one picks up on them, are darker than in most any other series. It's brilliant, full of carefully considered connections and dialogue, but also a series which has the potential to stick with you. It doesn't seem like most viewers pick up on it, but Eden should come with severe trigger warnings..