Letters to Father Jaakob

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Now that I've seen all the films Klaus Härö has directed, I can declare that his latest, Letters to Father Jaakob (2009), is his masterpiece. A pardoned convict Leila (Kaarina Hazard) is assigned to help a blind pastor (Heikki Nousianen) with his letters. As the film goes further, both of them have to deal with guilt, loss and even an existential crisis to a certain extent. Härö observes the two main characters carefully and closely. Their hidden complexities are gradually revealed and you can not avoid caring for them by the end of the film. Both of them are only broken souls barely coping, trying to find a way out. Härö's usual sentimentality is very underplayed until the end which is heartbreaking in its magnificence.

The form is refined even in comparison to Härö's earlier films. The cinematography is stunning, the editing is smoother and the music is poignant (a lot less dramatic than the music in his earlier films). The performances by the lead actors are pitch-perfect - even though both of the performances are rather towering, neither dominates the film. 

Letters to Father Jaakob is a vivid film that made me genuinely cry. I consider it the best Finnish film ever made - although that doesn't mean a lot when the film industry is in terrible condition in Finland.

Score: 10 out of 10

Mother of Mine

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Klaus Härö's Mother of Mine (2005) touches on a subject which is rarely discussed nowadays (even in Finland): during World War II tens of thousands of Finnish children were sent to Sweden to avoid the conflict by living with a surrogate family. In Härö's film, a 9-year-old boy's mother sends him to Sweden after his father dies. Initially he hates the surrogate the members of which are just as broken and vulnerable as he is. Eventually their wounds begin to heal and they bond.

The screenplay is magnificent because it handles the subject and characters thoroughly and honestly. Problems concerning coming of age, language and family are explored and observed in an unforgettably poignant way. The screenplay is simply top-notch in all aspects. Härö's form is stunning yet again - especially his cinematography is simply impeccable. The only gripe I had with this film is rather minor: the last 20 minutes had a few weird formal choices that could have been done better. However, that is still a really tiny problem in a fantastic film.

Klaus Härö's Mother of Mine is Finnish (albeit a co-production with Swedes) cinema at its best. Forget Kaurismäki: it doesn't get a lot better than this.

Score: 10 out of 10

Elina: As If I Didn't Exist

The Finnish director Klaus Härö has recently reached international fame with his film Letters to Father Jaakob (2009). I decided to watch his entire filmography and started from the debut, Elina: As If I Didn't Exist (2002) which I had seen once as a kid. It is the story of a Finnish girl who has problems with her strict teacher (played by Bibi Andersson, by the way) and coming to terms with the death of her father. The film shoots questions concering old-fashioned education, bilingual problems and coming of age. Klaus Härö makes most of the short running time (80 minutes). He creates truly wonderful characters and sucks the viewer effortlessly into his world.

Härö's storytelling and editing rely on basic tricks, but he uses them in the best possible way. While these aspects are rather ordinary, his cinematography is breathtaking by any standards. I was flabbergasted at the colors and compositions in pretty much every scene. The way the swamps and the school are portrayed is impeccable.

Elina: As If I Didn't Exist is one heck of a debut for any filmmaker. All of its aspects work well and Härö is able to make the film a truly emotional experience without falling for over-the-top sentimentality.

Score: 9 out of 10

Täällä Pohjantähden alla

Väinö Linna's Täällä Pohjantähden alla (often translated as Here, Beneath the North Star) is one of the most famous and important Finnish novels ever written. Timo Koivusalo's cinematic adaptation of the novel in 2009 seemed like a disaster from the get-go. For those of you who don't know about Koivusalo, all I can say is that he has become a famous director in Finland even though his films' actual quality is on par with Uwe Boll's movies. The idea of Koivusalo directing the adaptation of a great classic is painful - and the result is even more painful than I could ever expect.

The story explores the time when Finland gained independence and the bloody civil war that followed it - through the perspective of a fictional family. Timo Koivusalo proves that even with great source material you can screw up horribly.

First of all, the narrative is utterly aimless throughout the film (what works in a novel might not work in a film) which makes most of the film's points lack the needed impact. Secondly, the characters are never introduced properly so the film is extremely confusing for someone who has not read the novel. Koivusalo doesn't seem to be even bothered by the characters at any point. Thirdly, the film's content is so awkwardly heavy-handed - especially during the later half - that the film becomes rather ridiculous.

What's even worse is the huge amount of both intentional and unintentional humor that is present even in the most dramatic moments. There's also a lot of content that should have been cut because there was no reason to include those moments in the first place!

If you think the content sounds bad enough, just wait until you witness the form: it is chaotic and arrhythmic for no purpose. The editing is random, distracting and ludicrous ALL THE TIME. Koivusalo likes to crosscut different scenes very often for no purpose and it only serves to make me loathe the film more. The cinematography is careless and nauseating in its anarchy: the viewer can't even understand where each scene is even taking place because we are never even given a chance to see where each shot takes place. The only decent thing about the form is the pleasant lighting that makes the rest of the shit look better than it really is.

The film is a disgrace. It is frustrating, dumb and incomprehensible. Even if you were Koivusalo, you can't completely destroy the magic of the original novel so there's the one extra point for the film. My suggestion is to AVOID THE FILM BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY.

Score: 2 out of 10

The Man Without a Past

Aki Kaurismäki is probably the most famous (and arguably the best) Finnish director. The Man Without a Past (2002) is probably his most popular film, partly due to the Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Language Film. A Finnish man (Markku Peltola) is violently mugged and when he's taken to the hospital, he's considered dead. Yet he wakes up and escapes the hospital with no idea who he is. He then proceeds to live with the poor people in Helsinki. The story certainly has the elements of strict social criticism. It goes to absurd extremes of poverty in Finland: people live in containers (which hilariously enough have their own landlord). The film also seems to take aim at bureoucracy, without a proper ID you can't get anything. Yet the film never becomes too preaching because it doesnt try to be too judgmental. Everything is handled with the deadpan humor - Kaurismäki is the master of that. He is known for his peculiar way to direct actors: acting is completely "wooden" and stiff. I guess he tries to reflect Finnish behaviour by that, although it is - of course - exaggerated. His camera rarely moves although his form seems to be quite clean and precise otherwise - especially the lighting is wonderful. That way the wooden acting becomes more distracting and obvious; maybe that's the point, but I find it a little weird to only put acting on a leash instead of the whole form. In overall, it is a fine film, but not necessarily brilliant in any aspect.

Score: 8 out of 10