multimail-2 Fascinating film this, in many ways.Slow to start, as the conscientious objector is nailed to a rock as bait following the ending of WW2 hostilities in Scandanavia. The director takes is through a sometimes quite painfully slow process as or young soldier fights a battle with a nail and chain. The scene when the chain gets released is a relief.The scenery, the close-ups, the human facial reactions throughout carry this film well. I can't understand why some friends of mine say they cannot watch subtitled films - here we have no choice - though non verbal communication or body language is clearly universal, even in adversity.My favourite scene: when the young soldier suffers from the Russian guys bullet. He drifts away into unconsciousness and is bought back the Saami woman's traditional trance like spell - the scene cuts to a young boy in white (angel of death) leading our character away, only to be pulled back to the present at the very end.As someone interested in people and communications this film is a classic - ends beautifully and the camera-work throughout is wonderful.Watch it a few times, be sure to catch the humour!

Ivan Hoe If you get past the slow-paced first 15 minutes, a very funny movie awaits you. It is a very enjoyable watch, not too philosophical or ranting about how war is evil like other movies do. This is pure situation comedy, mistaken identity, hilarious scenes and situations, with only a small moral at the end which does not spoil your enjoyment.Also, at the beginning, Veikko tries to free himself very much like MacGyver, which I find both interesting and amusing. The Russian guy, Ivan, look a bit like Gary Oldman and the few visual effects with airplanes are really very good. 8/10

asinyne This is a film ripe in mysticism. I guess you could say its a film for mystics. A man chained to a rock, a medieval woman practiced in witchcraft, and an eerie vision of the land of the dead....all powerful mystical images. For good measure lets throw in reindeer, fish, twins, and people all speaking in different tongues. Well, if you want to explore your inner spiritual being....this film will certainly help a lot. It would have been nice to see the grandmother actually turn herself into a dog but I guess you can't have it all. Quite a trip this one. This movie has a lot going for it, the cast was really good and there were some nice comedic touches as well. It made me ponder how we become civilized and put our faith in science which is nothing more than an empty bucket that doesn't even have water inside.

ThurstonHunger A parable as told in three simultaneous soliloquies? Anti-war mini drama that succeeds in what must be used to combat such aggression, forcing the enemy to see each other as actual people. Well at least as archetypes.Comedy is introduced via the fact that the three leads share no tongue, and in fact, oft times the exact wrong message is misunderstood amongst them. Again, this amplifies the mistakes that masters of war can make. In more typical comedies, we get the wink in a scene before the scene, i.e. we know a dog is already dead before something peculiar happens...but in this the humor is left to the subtitles, unless you've got polyglot potential.Still the film by and large worked even for this ugly American, the strangeness of the languages and the scenario (I knew vaguely of Laplander life, and had no idea how they would be affected by WWII). In some ways, this film is really quite simple and had Hollywood made it, I'm not sure if I would grade it as favorably to be honest.For example, the Prometheus reference was enough without having Veiko actually utter it. Also how would one accept the near-death journey across the Finnish finish line. And in the US, would we have been as charmed by Renee Zellweger in the female lead? Hopefully we'll never know, this film is perfectly enjoyable as it is. The story/locale is not our nest, and we should respect that.I found the two male leads quite well-spoken on the extra portion of the DVD, as befits their roles. We are led to believe that these two warriors are really more sensitive literal souls, a reader and a poet. I did like the former's attempt to use book titles, "War and Peace", "The Idiot" in his fruitless attempts to communicate to "Ivan." On the extras, the female lead seemed miles away from her "salt of the earth" (ironically without any salt) character in the film. Spoiler coming...again I think this film is worth watching. Stop reading here if you have not yet, please.So the ending, I guess is needed to really play up the parable in this...we are all brothers, or all our children are brothers. Interesting that the film was made by a Russian director, and the Russian character in the film is the more misguided missile. Of course, hinging his hatred upon the Germans and the SS band does make for a more complicated film, but the tale here really is quite simple.Yet not so simply heeded...sadly.7/10