I popped along to Northampton Filmhouse last week to watch Sisu, a Finnish action thriller flick, filmed in the English Language. I’ve spoken about the Filmhouse before and I’m going to recommend it again. Loads of room, comfy reclining seats, a wide range of films to watch, including some stone cold classics. Check out what they offer:
Sisu is a Finnish concept described as stoic determination, tenacity of purpose, grit, bravery, resilience and hardiness and is held by Finns themselves to express their national character. It is generally considered not to have a literal equivalent in English.
Wikipedia
A retired legendary Finnish Commando (Aatami Korpi) is prospecting for gold in Lapland in 1944. The Finns and the Nazis had been fighting the Soviets together, but due to the terms of a ceasefire, all Nazi soldiers had to leave Finland. During this time, the Nazis retaliated and attacked the Finns in Lapland. Our uncompromising hero strikes it lucky and finds gold. On his journey by horse with his trusty Bedlington terrier companion to Helsinki he crosses paths with an SS platoon who leave him alone. After crossing paths with more Nazis who search Korpi and find his bounty, a scuffle ensues which attracts the attention of the aforementioned SS platoon, who then chase him down in their tank.
Sisu is a film that is in colour but for some reason I keep remembering it as black and white. It just had that old fashioned feel. There wasn’t grand music behind action shots, simply the sound of the action. Our hero was handsome in a way, but rugged like the land surrounding him. He saved the women but didn’t get off with any of them. I suppose actually, older films would have had him kiss at least one of the women. Nevermind. It has a slightly implausible premise that one man could take down multiple well trained Nazi soldiers who not only hold numerical advantage, but also have a fucking tank. But I suppose that’s Sisu. Grit, bravery, resilience. A movie without much dialogue that showed the story properly, rather than having an annoying sidekick character who’s only job is to explain what is happening to a distracted audience.
It was good. I enjoyed it. I mean who doesn’t love Nazi fuckwits getting their just desserts from a lone hero pushing through the pain of multiple gunshot wounds, with a trusty cute companion who lollops along in the background? And there’s some great action set pieces, as well as close up gore. There’s also a satisfying vignette towards the end when the women the Nazis had kidnapped and raped explored their own sense of sisu and got their own satisfying ending. If you get the chance, watch this film.
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