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tilli79
Reviews
Ronja Rövardotter (1984)
Favourite film from my childhood
When I saw this film for the first time as a child, I remember feeling like I wanted to jump in to the film and live my live as a tomboy robbers daughter.
The film isn't exactly a children's movie, because frankly, it's quite scary at some points, but it's a wonderful adventure and fantasy film for the whole family. It doesn't underestimate the younger viewers and I bet the adults are as enthralled with the story and the characters.
Ronja Robber's daughter was always my favorite Astrid Lingren -book and I'm glad the film did it great justice.
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Lieksa! (2007)
What a wonderful surprise
When Lieksa! had it's release here in Finland, I'm ashamed to admit that I let the mostly lukewarm reviews get to me and I passed this wonderful film. Thank heavens I was able to catch it on TV. I can understand that some people might not be enthusiastic about a film, which is like a fairy tale for grown ups.
The cinematography is incredibly beautiful and it gives the film an other-worldly feeling. The cast is quite good, especially Sanna-Kaisa Palo's Martta and I love the music, especially the song "While Your Lips Are Still Red" by Nightwish.
**** HUGE SPOILERS AHEAD*** **** HUGE SPOILERS AHEAD***
Lieksa! tells a story of a man, who on a wintery night stops his car when he sees a crashed wan on the side of a road. The man is drunk and when he realizes that the crash site was a setup he has very little time to react before his head makes a contact with a shovel. The Koppelo family boys were trying to steal the man's car, but when they saw cops approaching, they panic and enter the shovel. The old-boys take the man with them to their camp, where they realize that the man has lost, not only his memory, but also his ability to speak. They decide to keep him and re-name him as Kasper.
The Koppelo family is like a band of gypsies, traveling the road in old banged-up trailers. The head of the family is Martta, a strong willed woman, who has two beautiful daughters and two slow minded sons. There also few other family members in the group. The family's great grandmother was a a lover of the former Russian emperor, Nicolai the II and the Koppelo family is truly proud of their royal blood, even though they are living from hand to mouth. They are, like their forefathers before them, great tailors and the family is heading for a town called Lieksa, dreaming for the possibility to set up a tailor shop when they get there.
Kasper catches the eye of Lara, the beautiful younger daughter of Martha and Kasper starts to develop feelings for her. Things are complicated by the fact, that Kasper can't utter a word and when the dangerous, handsome Laszlo, the black sheep of the family shows up, he starts to romance Lara, who is starting to grow weary with Kasper's silence. Laszlo easily charms the Koppelo boys, but Martta is suspicious. When Laszlo is caught red-handed stealing the family money, he is driven out of camp and he sells the family to a bunch of thugs. Kasper overhears the plan but is caught by Laszlo and beaten up badly.
Laszol tells the family to leave all their possessions behind and leave or they will be killed. The family decides to fight and with the help (mostly) of the women, they overthrow the thugs. Laszlo's legendary father, who left the family years ago arrives and defeats and disowns Laszlo. Kasper moves in with Lara.
When the caravan reaches the Lieksa city border, the Koppelo boys are sent to check the town. When they come back few days later, they look shocked. They tell the family that they had experienced more during those few days spent in Lieksa, than they had during their whole life and the city-life was not for them or for the family. (The joke is, that Lieksa is one of the smallest cities in Finland). That evening, when the family is sitting around a camp fire Kasper speaks for the first time. One of the boys notes this, while the other one observes that Kasper is only thinking out loud and it really sounds like that. Kasper has narrated the story during the film and his speech sounds just like a narration. He observes that the destination is not important. It is the journey that counts and he says that maybe the Koppelo family is destined to journey on. So they keep on traveling, in to the night.
FC Venus (2005)
True girl power
The movie tells a story of football (socer) crazed men and their spouses, who loathe the game. The men have founded a dismal little team called FC MeMan and their lives revolve around the sport. The wives and girlfriends have finally had it when in turns out that the guys have secretly purchased tickets to next summers football world championship games in Germany. The women are fed up and in the heat of an argument Anna,played by Minna Haapkylä, proposes a wager to the guys. If the women train for couple of months and then challenge the guys to a game of football and win, the guys will have to give up on the sport completely. If the guys win however, the women promise to never nag about football and will also pay for the guys tickets to the world championship games.
The guys are completely assured for their victory, but Anna has a couple of tricks up her sleeve. First of all she is quite accomplished with the game and her father is a famous football coach, both facts of which no-one is aware of. Still all the other women are amateurs when it comes to football and what follows is of course hilarious moments when the women start familiarizing themselves with the game.
The drama bits feel sometimes a little forced on the movie, but the comedy is really enjoyable. The plot of the movie is very predictable, but it doesn't lessen it's charm in any way. All in all, it's a fairly good comedy from Finland and I'll recommend it to anyone who enjoys a light comedy with a bit of girl power.
I've heard that there is also a German re-make coming out this year. I'm planning to check it out and see if it's as good as the original.
Hamish Macbeth (1995)
Love, love, love this show
As someone already noted, this show has some similarities with my all time favorite TV-show, Northern Exposure. At first I thought that it was going to be just another British cop-drama, such as Wycliffe or Heartbeat, but soon I realized that it was so much more.
The people of Lochdubh are a tight group with eccentric personalities, (just like in NE) and they take the extraordinary and peculiar incidents as an everyday life. The main character, is of course the local police officer, Hamish McBeth, but the rest of the cast aren't out shined by him. Hamish tries not to draw too much attention to himself as the local law enforcer so he won't be promoted and forced to leave the town he loves. This is the reason for the low arrest rates in Lochdubh. Usually the town it self acts as the judge, the jury and in very rare cases as the executioner.
It is very difficult to decide in to which category put the series. Drama, comedy, fantasy...? It has all of those qualities and more. They are showing the shows re-runs here in Finland and when it ends once more, I'll be missing the people of Lochdubh.