Täällä Pohjantähden alla

While director Edvin Laine's adaptation of "The Unknown Soldier" is often considered to be a definitive example of Finnish cinema, his 1968 masterpiece deserves attention as well. The art of cinema made some advances in the decade between these two films, and it shows. While some parts are still suffering from the old style of filmmaking, i.e., trying to create a movie like it is a theatre production (static camera, characters entering a location and delivering their lines like straight from a book), other parts are great and visually interesting. Especially lighting deserves praise: imagine an early 20th century village in rural Finland without much electricity, and this is what comes to mind. Especially some of the night scenes are simply beautiful to look at with the newest high-definition remaster.

The first part of the film marches on at breakneck speed. As some 20 years of story are compressed into roughly one hour of film, there are some jarring time jumps if you do not know the book, lack the historical knowledge, or simply fail to pay attention to every scene. The tone of the film is also something to be praised. It starts with light-hearted though dramatic scenes, with plenty of humorous exchanges and musical scores. Once the civil war breaks out, this lightness is tossed out and the horrible events are depicted almost without any score, in a matter-of-fact, documentary-style.

"Täällä Pohjantähden Alla" is a classic that everyone should see at least once.