Compartiment n°6

I have just watched this at the Mostra Internacional de São Paulo.

It feels very genuine: the acting is naturalistic and the story, simple. It's a road movie/coming of age experience that teaches us a few valuable lessons without preaching them. Also a reminder of how much we miss natural-looking people on the big screen.

A Finnish romance of sorts about a woman whose first negative impressions of her fellow train compartment passenger make way for warmer feelings as she gets to know him.

I think "Compartment No. 6" is a lot about the importance of being open to new experiences and the rashness inherent in instantly forming judgements about people. The female protagonist in this movie studies anthropology because she feels like knowing our history is important to understanding who we are now. But is it really? In a cultural and sociological sense, probably. But at the individual level, when does attachment to the past interfere with living in the present?

There's a great scene in this movie that takes place after a fellow Finn, a tall strapping guy with a guitar no less, is crooning songs to the woman as he crashes in their compartment for a bit, and she looks out the window to see the off-kilter Russian who has set her on edge standing out on the train platform punching and kicking snowballs. In that moment, we get what she's feeling, because we feel it to. Yeah, the Finnish guy is good looking and "safe," but he's also boring. The Russian guy is weird and maybe crazy, but he's different, and sometimes different is exactly what you need.

Grade: A-

Let's put one thing to rest. Anywhere at all where there are night trains, the sexes are mixed. Even in Muslim countries - the night sleepers in Morocco, for example, are not single sex cabins. Not knowing this is not a reason for giving low marks just because they find the situation unbelievable!

As for relationships in the film, ideas of distance and travel played a huge part. The further from Moscow, the more the lesbian lover receded and rejected. But the nearer to the petroglyphs, the deeper the bond between the ill matched compartment mates became.

However, the script didn't go overboard - there was no sentimentality in the refusal to swap addresses.

90s Russia was portrayed perfectly. Not yet a consumer society, there were hangovers from the communist times, notably in the appalling service offered on hotels and restaurants as well as the train itself.

As a speaker of (very poor) Finnish, I loved the joke about the terrible swear word in that language that framed the narrative on the train. It means a lot more than the tame subtitled translation that was offered.

I loved this film. The actors were perfect as were the locations. I personally enjoy train journeys and would now want to go on this one.

Finland's official entry to 2022's Oscars, that made it to the shortlist, is beautiful, simple and genuine. The relationship between the leads is so unique and likable. Their performances are superb and their characters are catchy too. The film also tackles interesting topics like passion, relationships and trust. It's sensational but also sometimes feels empty and flat.

Only finnish director that has won that before this was Aki Kaurismäki with The Man Without a Past 2002.

So i was very excited to see this one.

I'm always little skeptical with finnish movies.

But this ended up being very delightful movie.

Very good and beautiful story about finnish woman who travels across Russia to see petroglyphs in Murmansk.

Main part of movie is when she travels by train.

She meets russian guy and they are completely different peoples.

Their unique friendship develops beautifully.

There are also many other very different peoples who she meets in her journey.

Good and little less good peoples.

This movie has many sweet and funny moments in it.

It's mostly spoken in russian but it was very fun to hear finnish language in it too.

Very good performances from two leads definitely.

I also heard that this was chosen to be Finland's Oscar runner for foreign category.

So best of luck with that too.