Directo Risto Jarva and Producer Kullervo Kukkasjärvi originally wanted to film Arto Paasilinna's novel 'Onnellinen mies', but when they heard that Reima Kekäläinen had already been planning a TV-film of the very same novel for long time, they decided to film Paasilinna's other novel 'Jäniksen vuosi'.
1,770,000 viewers in it's first TV screening.
In the accompanying letter of the first draft of the film that was sent to the Finnish Film Foundation production company Filminor published a manifesto that said: "The meaning of the film is to show how precious nature is and how preserved it should be. The film is also meant to show how beneficial is nature's influence on the hectic and distress urban human mind that is been pushed forward by the competition-mentality and the selling of oneself. The Year of the Hare is a story about a flight to the country site, a flight to nature, to a lifestyle that is more simpler and more agrarian. It is an idealistic tale in the spirit of Henri Rousseau and Frank Capra. The Year of the Hare is a story about aligning the one who is weaker, a story about how goodness makes one's life pleasant - even today."
In the Paasilinna's novel Kaarlo Vatanen is a journalist, but in the film his occupation is an advertising-agent.
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