'Minä elän'

Aleksis Kivi was wild and strong but sensitive and vulnerable person who made the best profile of Finnish men living in hard conditions. His books were read in schools when I was young but I'm not sure about today's case. Anyway his books made indelible impression to my mind.

This movie was a biography of that great artist and complex person, who died lone and forgotten, like so many great artists. It looks that the illness has been diagnosed thru the ages from Schizophrenia to Syfilis but it looks today that he had Borreliosis which causes very different kind of bad symptoms.

When I first time saw this movie as young, it produced very tough picture. Today my feelings are a bit different and it still makes me touched feeling but because Rauli Tuomi was so stressed doing this movie (also WWII affected him something, I don't know what) that he made suicide few years after.

You can see that this role was hard job to do and the end is one of the memorable shots in the Finnish movies.

This movie tells the story of Alexis Stenvall, better known as Aleksis Kivi (1834-1872), from 1846 to his death.Minä Elän (1946) is directed by Ilmari Unho.Rauli Tuomi is brilliant as Aleksis Kivi.He puts every bit off him to the role, his very soul.This actor, who committed suicide only three years later, won a Jussi award from his performance.Nothing wrong with the rest of the cast either.Matti Kivi plays Aleksis as a child.Kaarlo Aavajoki and Anni Aitto play his parents.Oiva Luhtala and Tarmo Manni play two of his brothers.Emma Väänänen is Manta Stenvall.Hilkka Helinä portrays Albina Palmqvist.Salli Karuna is Charlotta Lönnqvist, who took Kivi under her wings.She also won a Jussi.Etta-Liisa Kunnas plays her lovely maid Hilda Lindfors.Leo Riuttu plays the part of E.A. Forsell.Eero Kilpi plays Elias Lönnrot.Topo Leistelä plays J.V. Snellman.Helge Ranin is Fredrik Cygnaeus.Uljas Kandolin plays Esko.Kalle Rouni plays August Ahlqvist, who gave some harsh criticism on every book Kivi wrote.Arvi Tuomi is Zacharias Topelius.Arvo Lehesmaa plays Räätäli Bilkenroth.Matti Oravisto is Ylioppilas.Saara Ranin portrays Anna Palmqvist.Unto Salminen plays Kullervo.Reino Valkama plays Krannin Isäntä.Eeva-Kaarina Volanen is Girl on a rock.It is fascinating to watch the life of Aleksis Kivi, who brought "Seitsemän Veljestä" and "Nummisuutarit", being portrayed.He had a hard life, that comes out in this movie.You really feel for the man, like when he goes through typhoid fever.And when he goes home too late, his mother has already passed away.You feel disgusted about the way Ahlqvist treats his work.He would have deserved so much better.This movie works as a history lesson.A dramatized history lesson.