OPENS NOVEMBER 28, CERT 12A, 99 MINS It sounds like the first line of a national-stereotype joke: a young Finnish sniper, a weary Russian soldier and a Lapp woman are thrown together in a remote corner of Lapland just as WWII is winding down. The punchline is that none of them speak a word of the others' languages, yet somehow they forge a precarious harmony that transcends cultures and nations as they attempt to survive the coming winter. Writer-director Aleksandr Rogozhkin's nimble script generates honest comedy out of the trio's mutual misunderstandings. Occasionally the peace fractures and the Russian tries to kill the "fascist" Finn (actually a peace-loving conscript left to die by his own army). Somehow he's always saved by the Lapp's feminine intervention, which reveals its mystical powers at the end. Despite it being a three-hander set almost entirely in the Lapp's aboriginal compound beside a stunning lake, Rogozhkin generates taut drama simply out of the combustible characters themselves. Also, watch closely and you'll learn how to make handy things with twigs and cured reindeer hides.
OPENS NOVEMBER 28, CERT 12A, 99 MINS
It sounds like the first line of a national-stereotype joke: a young Finnish sniper, a weary Russian soldier and a Lapp woman are thrown together in a remote corner of Lapland just as WWII is winding down. The punchline is that none of them speak a word of the others’ languages, yet somehow they forge a precarious harmony that transcends cultures and nations as they attempt to survive the coming winter.
Writer-director Aleksandr Rogozhkin’s nimble script generates honest comedy out of the trio’s mutual misunderstandings. Occasionally the peace fractures and the Russian tries to kill the “fascist” Finn (actually a peace-loving conscript left to die by his own army). Somehow he’s always saved by the Lapp’s feminine intervention, which reveals its mystical powers at the end. Despite it being a three-hander set almost entirely in the Lapp’s aboriginal compound beside a stunning lake, Rogozhkin generates taut drama simply out of the combustible characters themselves. Also, watch closely and you’ll learn how to make handy things with twigs and cured reindeer hides.
