yossarian100
Klaus Härö has done two films that I've seen, MOTHER OF MINE and ELINA, which are two of my all time favorite movies, and the only other director who has done that is Akira Kurosawa.Few directors are able to show us the unimaginable sense of loss children can sometimes feel the way Klaus Härö can, and do it in such a compelling, honest, and beautiful way.Utilizing great camera work, a stunningly talented group of actors, and a rock solid screenplay, he goes about painting a portrait so real it broke my heart.Almost anyone can put together a list of 'must see' movies, but, as far as I'm concerned, MOTHER OF MINE and ELINA should appear on a 'movies to see before you die' list. They are both THAT good.This is film-making at its finest!!!
andhol-1
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!
johno-21
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.
henben
I sat down in the salon, at the grand opening in Sweden, not knowing a thing about this movie. It wasn't until one of the movies producers told us, the audience, what it was about that I realized what kind of movie I was about to see and - most important - that this is a story that had not yet been told on the big screen and that this was a story that needed to be told. I couldn't agree more, it's just a shame that this was the particular story that they chose to tell. Parts of this movie is absolutely brilliant - the scenery, the cinematography and the actors. Oh, the actors! Michael Nyqvist, Maria Lundqvist and the young Topi Majaniemi are superb, utterly superb, it's in the script this movie fails and mainly on one pivotal point. In order for this movie to work you have to feel the anguish of young Eero, you have to feel his heart breaking when his mother sends him away to Sweden. And you do. But you also have to feel his heart breaking when he is sent back to Finland. This you don't do and that's because you don't get to feel the connection between Eero and his foster-mother Signe. When Eero and Signe first meet she doesn't want anything to do with him. She alienates herself from him, pushes him away. Towards the end she shows genuine love towards him, the thing is...I'm not aware of when this shift occurs. There aren't enough scenes in which we see them bonding. Suddenly they just...do. And this is where the movie fails. Now, please remember what I said earlier. There are many things about this movie that are superb. The main thing being how the part of Eero is written and portrayed. A lot of films have a tendency to make children more mature than they really are, this movie doesn't make that mistake. Eero is a child and acts like one too. Not knowing why he feels the way he does he simply acts out his frustration in ways that a child would - not by sitting his foster-mother down and offering up wisdom befitting a 70-year old (which is all too common in movies such as these).So, worth watching, just don't expect to get a wholly encompassing movie about what all Finnish war-children went through.
AD
