During a visit to the Salpalinja in the late eighties, a friend mentioned this film. We had had a tour by a veteran of the Winter War and the Continuation War of the fortifications and I really wanted to see the film. On our way back to Pyhtää, we hired the video of the film in Kotka and prepared for an evening's viewing.
To say I was stunned and amazed would be an understatement. The film captured perfectly what the aging ex-soldier had recounted to us - he hadn't held back about anything, including atrocities committed by both sides and about the sheer horror of the war.
The Finnish front is barely known elsewhere in the West. Nor were the transfers of populations when Russia took Finland's arm and skirt. What madness possessed the Finns to march on? The film explains the collective frenzy of nationalism gripping the dirigeants and (most of) the men. No dissent was allowed. Those who refused to cross into Russia proper were killed. This was sensitively shown in the film.
Parts of the film were unbearable. The attack on the ambulance stays in my memory. The new lad who doesn't heed the warning about snipers and is rewarded with a bullet in the skull. The line of Russians crossing a snow-covered field only to be mown down to a man.
Loud, lurid and gory, the film captures the dreadfulness of war and the vagaries of the human spirit in a Finnish context. Definitely recommended.
To say I was stunned and amazed would be an understatement. The film captured perfectly what the aging ex-soldier had recounted to us - he hadn't held back about anything, including atrocities committed by both sides and about the sheer horror of the war.
The Finnish front is barely known elsewhere in the West. Nor were the transfers of populations when Russia took Finland's arm and skirt. What madness possessed the Finns to march on? The film explains the collective frenzy of nationalism gripping the dirigeants and (most of) the men. No dissent was allowed. Those who refused to cross into Russia proper were killed. This was sensitively shown in the film.
Parts of the film were unbearable. The attack on the ambulance stays in my memory. The new lad who doesn't heed the warning about snipers and is rewarded with a bullet in the skull. The line of Russians crossing a snow-covered field only to be mown down to a man.
Loud, lurid and gory, the film captures the dreadfulness of war and the vagaries of the human spirit in a Finnish context. Definitely recommended.