The Cuckoo

'Kukushka' or 'The Cuckoo' is one of those movies that remind us so often that there is a lot of great cinema happening beyond the American or West-European circuit. Director Aleksandr Rogozhkin brings to screen a human story happening at the end of WW2. A Russian and a Finn soldier are being brought by fate together to the house and care of a young Lap woman. Each of them is far from the real soldier character - the Finn is a pacifist, the Russian is actually a prisoner brought to trial for writing some subversive poetry. Yet, the level of misunderstanding brought in each of us by the war machines they are part of is only accentuated by the lack of communication due to the barrier language. Each speaks only his own language, and none of them understands the other. The message of this simply filmed but yet rich movie is that human communication is beyond and above words.

The treatment reminds not only the traditional Russian cinema relying so much on the contrapunct of dialogs and silence and acting, but also draws from the Far East cinema (Korean especially) in its treatment of the landscape. Acting is superb, but of all three main actors I will give a special mention to Anni-Kristiina Juuso, an amateur, who takes the role of the Lap woman to heights of ingenuity combined with feminine wisdom reminding and not falling below similar roles played by Audrey Tautou and Emily Watson.

A touch of magic adds to the reality, and good camera work helps. It's only the ending that falls a little in the zone of the expected but overall this is a sensible and beautiful movie, very much worth watching.

Absolutely heart-warming comedy about two stranded soldiers from opposite lines who get both taken in by a beautiful, child-of-nature like woman in the remote wilderness between Finland and the Soviet-Union. The trio speak three different languages, and on top of all the linguistic chaos, the two men naturally try to continue the warfare against each other. 'Kukushka' plays like an ode to humanity and is just a pure joy to watch. 8 stars out of 10.

In case you're interested in more underrated masterpieces, here's some of my favorites:

imdb.com/list/ls070242495

Russia's film industry is in a drought of international distribution, but the World War II-era drama KUKUSHKA(CUCKOO) seems set to break away from that rut. The film, by St. Petersburg-based director Alexander Rogozhkin, has been picked up by Sony Pictures Classics for limited distribution through American art-house theaters. Rogozhkin has achieved a level of recognition on the world festival circuit with his previous works, the comedy OSOBENNOSTI NATSIONALNOY OKHOTY (PECULIARTIES OF THE NATIONAL HUNT) and the Chechen-war drama BLOKPOST (CHECKPOINT).

PECULIARTIES OF THE NATIONAL HUNT, produced at Lenfilm Studios in 1994 during a low point in the studio's general track record, was a box office success in Russia, and spawned something of a franchise, with two sequels, spin-offs and even a brand of vodka named after Kuzmich, the tireless, boozing outdoorsman played by Viktor Bychkov. The plot of the original film involved a young Finnish man (played by Ville Haapasalo) coming to Russia to experience a real Russian hunt, only to fall in with Kuzmich and his motley group of friends, who seem more interested in drinking than hunting.

Work on the film OSOBENNOSTI NATSIONALNOY RYBALKI (PECULIARTIES OF NATIONAL FISHING) cemented the friendship between Bychkov and Haapasalo, who went from relative obscurity to becoming household names in their respective countries with subsequent work on other films and TV commercials.

Haapasalo, a Finnish graduate of the St. Petersburg Theater Arts Academy, also acts on stage in Finland and is working on new translations of classic Russian drama into Finnish. Having appeared together in a stage adaption of Fyodor Dostoevsky's "Diary of a Madman," Haapasalo and Bychkov asked Rogozhkin to write a stage play for three people, something in which they could appear together. Rogozhkin accepted the challenge, and the screenplay for KUKUSHKA was the result.

"They asked me to write a play, but I didn't see a play," recalled Rogozhkin at a press conference before the film's release. "I saw the story I was writing as a film, and once I had the ending down, I knew I had the film."

A former history student, Rogozhkin was intrigued by the Continuation War, a protraction of the Russo-Finnish Winter War and part of the greater WWII conflict. The cease-fire with the Soviet Union began officially Sept. 4, 1944, although forces on both sides continued firing until the next morning. This is when the film's story begins.

Unaware of the conflict's end, one Soviet Army officer and one Finnish soldier are imprisoned in the wilderness for different, unexplained reasons. They escape through a mix of effort and circumstance, and end up in the hut of a lonely but spirited Saami woman who does not take sides, but takes care of - and comes to love - them both. Rogozhkin wanted to go beyond the story of three people converging in the hinterlands of war, to create a situation where three people speak three different languages but come to understand one another in other ways.

After some consultation with Haapasalo and others, Rogozhkin decided that the third person in the film would be a Saami woman, the correct term for the people more commonly known as the Lapp. The Saami language is part of the Finno-Ugric group, but is very different from Finnish. Traditionally, the Saami hunted wild reindeer, though they have adapted to herd semi-domesticated reindeer. The film offers a glimpse into Saami life through the microcosm of the life of Anni, a young widow living on the Karelian coast. Anni is played by Anni-Christina Juuso, a Saami who dealt with language barriers on the film's set. She does not speak Russian and depended upon Haapasalo for translation.

Haapasalo plays Veiko, a Finnish sniper - making the film's title a play on words, since "kukushka," or cuckoo, is also Russian military slang for sniper. Chained to a rock by SS officers, and clothed in an SS uniform that would condemn him to death if discovered by Russian patrols, Veiko spends a good portion of the film trying to extricate himself.

For the role, Haapasalo wore authentic Finnish army underclothes of the period, some of which belonged to his grandfather. "I changed after working on this film," Haapasalo said. "I began to see my grandfather in another light. I won't watch this film - I don't watch any of my films. But from what I know of it, I think the film will stand multiple viewings. It may take seeing it more than once to fully understand it."

Bychkov's portrayal of Captain Kartuzov is a real departure from his Kuzmich character. Bychkov put on some weight for the role, and his demeanor is solemn and conscientious, markedly different from his happy-go-lucky Kuzmich. The seriousness of the role broke his typecasting a little bit: "Some people who had addressed me informally before started calling me by my first name and patronymic after seeing the film," Bychkov said. KUKUSHKA premiered at the Moscow Film Festival in June 2002, where it won Silver St. George awards for Best Director and Best Actor (Haapasalo). The film has also been received favorably in Finland, and Haapasalo has received a Patriot of Finland Award from a Finnish veterans' association in Lahti.

The film has a lot riding on the Bychkov-Haapasalo rapport, but Rogozhkin is confident: "These are two actors with very different psycho-physical aspects," he admitted. "But they do have a peculiar chemistry."

And Bychkov says Juuso's contribution was no less important: "Despite the fact that Ville had to translate for her at every turn, she understood the story - with her heart."

Somewhere in the forests of Northern Europe during the closing days of World War II, Finnish support for the Nazi cause is nearing an end. Veiko (Ville Haapsalo), a Finnish soldier has lost his will to fight. Forced to wear an SS uniform by his unit, he is chained to a rock and ordered to kill as many Russians as he can before one will eventually kill him. He is known as a "cuckoo", a sniper on a suicide mission. Set in an area rarely seen: Lapland, The Cuckoo (Kukushka), directed by Aleksandre Rogozhkin, is a touching Russian comedy about the failure to communicate. Its seamless mixture of earthy humor, anti-war sentiment, and otherworldly Lapp mysticism is enhanced by strong performances, especially from Anni-Kristina Juuso, who portrays a spunky but radiant young Reindeer farmer who has not seen a man in four years since her husband went to war and left her widowed.

Using his ingenuity and every resource at his command, Veiko manages to free himself after a protracted struggle that takes up a good half-hour of the film. Meanwhile, a few miles away, a Russian captain, Ivan (Viktor Bychkov) escapes while being taken by Soviet military police to be court-martialed for anti-Soviet sentiments. Circumstances bring all three together at a log outpost where Anni (Anni-Kristina Juuso) lives alone, sleeping in wooden tepees with log doorflaps. She gives them shelter and nurses them back to health but no one understands the other's language (the dialogue is in Finnish, Russian, and Saami, the language of Lapland). This leads to many confusing situations such as when Ivan tells them to "get lost" and they mistakenly think he is telling them that his name is Gerlost. Ivan wants to kill Veiko who tries to tell him that all he wants is peace, invoking the names of Tolstoy (War and Peace) and Hemingway (A Farewell to Arms).

In this Tower of Babel, the three can only reach each other through tone of voice, hand gestures, and body language, but Anni has no trouble convincing the men that she has "an aching below the tummy". Though Veiko is mistakenly thought to be a fascist since he still wears a German uniform, the three gradually form a bond based on mutual need and a common humanity. The Cuckoo is a gorgeously photographed and emotionally resonant film that is more than an anti-war fable; it is a film of transcendent beauty that directly touches the soul.

It is rare that a film as simply plotted as The Cuckoo could be so affecting. Subtitled films often lack the subtlety of their original language, but the translation of this film is not only well done, it has its own quirky spin that gives it an extra dimension. The story is easy to grasp and seamlessly portrayed. Except for the very beginning, in which it is not known exactly why Veikko is being chained to his rock (unless you read the description of the film or watch the commentary in the DVD's special features,) the story catches your mind and heart immediately: three unlikely people meet and live together in harmony, despite being unable to understand the native languages each speaks. Though there are some humorous moments and some comic twists, generally, this story is one of accommodation and cooperation. The Finnish soldier, the Russian officer and the Sami woman all manage to make a life for themselves through the hardships inflicted by World War II, and in the end, nothing but the love and friendship shines out from their (sometimes) unwilling and often difficult partnership. The plot is best left to individual discovery by the viewer, rather than recounted here. Suffice it to say that this film will touch you in ways other films of grander scale could not. An excellent and well-played and extraordinarily satisfying story that raises the ultimate question of life on this planet: why can't we just all get along?