Setting and characters

The film's setting is based on the unit Väinö Linna served in during the Continuation War, Infantry Regiment 8 (Finnish: Jalkaväkirykmentti 8). It follows a fictional Finnish Army machine gun company in the Karelian front from mobilisation in 1941 to armistice in 1944.^[7][8][9] The soldiers of the company are sympathetic but realistic portraits of men from all over Finland with widely varying backgrounds.^[7][10] Their attitude is relaxed, disrespectful of formalities, and business-like, even childish and jolly, throughout the story despite the war and the losses the company suffers.^[7][11] The film occasionally shifts to the homefront, showing for example The Company's Commander Kariluoto marrying his fiancée at Helsinki Cathedral in the midst of war and Corporal Antero Rokka visiting his wife Lyyti and children at their farm on the Karelian Isthmus.^[12][13]

Plot

The machine gun company is deployed in June 1941 from their barracks to the staging area to prepare for the invasion of the Soviet Union. The company's first attack is over a swamp on Soviet positions. Following a series of battles, the soldiers advance into East Karelia. In October 1941, they interact with the locals while positioned in the captured and pillaged city of Petroskoi (Petrozavodsk). The company is ordered to defend against a Soviet winter attack along the Svir river. Lahtinen is killed during a Soviet breakthrough, but Rokka halts a flanking 50-strong enemy unit by ambushing them with a Suomi KP/-31 submachine gun from high ground. The film follows the trench warfare period of the war from 1942 to 1943. The soldiers drink kilju (a home-made sugar wine) until intoxication during Commander-in-Chief Field Marshal Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim's birthday celebrations, a new recruit is killed by a sniper and replacements reinforce the company.

The Soviet Vyborg–Petrozavodsk Offensive of summer 1944 forces the Finnish Army to start a withdrawal from the conquered area and to stall the Soviet advance with counter-attacks. Hietanen is first wounded by artillery and later dies when his ambulance is attacked. In the subsequent fighting, the company suffers large numbers of casualties, including Captain Kariluoto, and abandons its machine guns during a retreat from a hopeless defence. Shortly afterwards, the company must hold the line against another Soviet attack. Koskela is killed while disabling a Soviet tank with a satchel charge. After the last counter-attack by the Finns, the war ends in a ceasefire in September 1944. The soldiers rise from their defensive fighting positions after the final Soviet artillery barrage stops and they listen to the first radio announcements on the eventual Moscow Armistice. The film closes with a montage of the impacts of the war and actual war-time footage.

Development

Development of The Unknown Soldier began in September 2014 when the Finnish Film Foundation granted 30,000 euros to Aku Louhimies' production company and his plan to base the film on the original novel's manuscript version Sotaromaani ("the war novel"), released in 2010.^[16][17] According to Louhimies, his vision for the film was to make a modern version of the classic, similar to new versions of Macbeth or Othello, and bring the original novel to "the audience of today" and within the reach of the younger generation—who hardly knew Väinö Linna's novel or the first film at the time.^[18][19][20] Louhimies compared the screenplay to Thin Red Line which both selectively feature storylines from the source material.^[11][20][21]

With a budget of 7 million euros, The Unknown Soldier became the most expensive film ever made in Finland or in the Finnish language.^[22][11][23] Producers pitched the film to investors with the script alone and funding for the film was fully secured in August 2015 with €5 million of the financing coming from private investors, such as video game company Supercell, banking group LähiTapiola and foundations.^[24] Additionally €1 million came from the Finnish Film Foundation and €1 million from the national broadcaster Yle.^[11][25] The film was produced by the Finnish Elokuvaosakeyhtiö Suomi 2017 with the Icelandic Kvikmyndafélag Íslands and Belgian Scope Pictures as co-producers.^[1] Reportedly, Rafale International, a defense aviation manufacturer whose Dassault Rafale fighter was one of the aircraft in consideration to replace the Finnish Air Force's fleet of F/A-18 Hornets, was the film's main partner.^[26]

Filming

Filming commenced on 6 June 2016 and was shot in 80 days with over 3,000 extras and the support of the Finnish Defence Forces at locations around Finland, such as Suomenlinna fortress and North Karelia wilderness with most of the battle scenes done at Karelia Brigade training area. Initially, over 14,000 people volunteered as extras.^{[21][27][28][3][29]} On 29 June 2016, the film set a Guinness World Record when Duncan Capp of IFX International Special Effects detonated the most high explosives in a single film take, 70.54 kg of TNT equivalent.^[30][31] By day 72 of filming, 458 hours of footage had been captured with a production team of 120 people. Benjamin Mercer edited the film releases as well as the five-part television release with the Final Cut Pro X application.^[32]

The cast, of whom some had prior conscript military experience, went through boot camp training arranged by the auxiliary National Defence Training Association on wilderness skills, how to keep warm during winter and how to move with cross-country skis in a forest. Louhimies wanted "people to feel and understand how it is and feel to be at war". The cast slept at scene locations in stove-warmed military tents, mimicking an actual war-time unit. To imbue realism into the scenes, the film was shot without artificial lighting, using whatever conditions the crew had.^{[10][20][28][21]}

Music

The soundtrack of the film was composed by Lasse Enersen (with whom Louhimies had cooperated before) and recorded with the Lahti Symphony Orchestra at Sibelius Hall. Louhimies wanted the music to display "soul and fragility"^[33] while Enersen described it as "simple, stark, sometimes raw and ugly"^[34] and left out themes of heroism or victory from the score. Louhimies considered it important that the music was produced in Finland in alignment with the 100th year of Finnish independence. Enersen visited locations of the film during filming to talk with actors, find inspiration and to observe. He decided to use a synthesizer and a Hardanger fiddle, a traditional Norwegian instrument, to complement the orchestra's music. Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh, an Irish fiddler, performed the Hardanger on the score.^[34][35] On 15 September 2017, the Finnish pop rock band Haloo Helsinki! released the song "Tuntematon" ("Unknown"), thematically tied to the film through its lyrics and music video. The music video was directed by Aku Louhimies and Aleksi Koskinen.^[36][37]

Box office

In Finland, The Unknown Soldier grossed €3.0 million during its previews and opening weekend. It broke the record for the biggest opening weekend for a Finnish-language film and settled overall third after Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Spectre.^[23] It was the highest-grossing film of 2017 in Finnish cinema with €13.5 million.^[4][40]

Critical response

The film received an average rating of 3.67 out of 5 in Finland according to a review aggregation article by the newspaper Aamulehti.^[48] Marko Ahonen from the newspaper Keskisuomalainen appraised The Unknown Soldier with five out of five, describing it as "an impressive pacifist war film" where the reality of combat is forlorn and unpleasant. He criticised the sound mixing, which made dialogue difficult to understand sometimes.^[12] Hufvudstadsbladet's Krister Uggeldahl called it "as traditional as respectful" and "a movie that breathes and lives (even when death is harvesting its victims), but at no stage apologizes" and gave it four out of five while thanking the actors' complete work.^[49] Markus Määttänen from Aamulehti likewise put the movie at four out of five and compared it to the poetic war experience of Thin Red Line, but disparaged how some characters, Lehto in particular, were diminished compared to previous film adaptations.^[13] Juho Rissanen and Taneli Topelius of Finnish tabloids Iltalehti and Ilta-Sanomat, gave the film a full five out of five. Rissanen called it a masterpiece and "a film the 100 year old Finland truly deserves" and that the "psychological effect of war on men is now presented more visibly than before" while Topelius praised the portrayal of the homefront and the inclusion of women in the film, with both of them calling the film dark, honest and gritty.^[14][50]

Conversely, Juho Typpö from Helsingin Sanomat gave the film two stars out of five, arguing that the film failed to justify its existence because it was too similar to the novel's previous film adaptations. According to Typpö, the film was not bold enough, and instead followed conventional depictions of masculinity in Finnish cinema and was a safe, risk-free attempt to please everyone under Finland's 100 year celebrations. He also criticized that the film didn't take a stand against the rise of far right groups in Finland.^[51]

In Sweden, The Unknown Soldier received an average rating of 3.2 out of 5 according to the Kritiker.se review aggregator website.^[43] Björn Jansson from Sveriges Radio said the film is "a good depiction of the war's meaninglessness and insecurity" but that it is difficult to get along with its "futility, emptiness and waiting in muddy trenches", rating it three out of five.^[39] Johan Croneman of Dagens Nyheter said the film was powerful and sad at the same time, but remarked that "[u]nfortunately, we cannot see the 3-hour original version in Swedish cinemas, instead, the 47-minute cut-off international release, and it's a rumphap^{[clarification needed]} that the film is suffering from. Several shades have been lost, it is quite obvious even if you did not see the original." Croneman put the film at four out of five.^[38] Jens Peterson of the tabloid Aftonbladet rated the film at three out of five and said that it "is well-told and strong, but not as original today."^[52]

Sigurd Vik from the Norwegian radio channel NRK P3 appraised the film with four out of six. He said that the film's chronicle-type screenplay "sometimes becomes a bit stiff and unobtrusive", but concluded that the film is an "interesting piece of war history" and a "raw and realistic infantry movie."^[53] Britt Sørensen of the newspaper Bergens Tidende commented that The Unknown Soldier is a film for those "who are particularly interested in war films and war history, or history in general. But it also has moments of cinematic beauty and profound humanity." She rated it at four out of six.^[54]

Accolades

Other Finnish World War II films