9 out of 9 people found this review helpful.
A grim view of modern Helsinki and Mafia-type crime
Date of Review: Aug 24, 2008
The Bottom Line: Not a film for the light-hearted! Grim indictment of old industrial city parts, hard lives, broken souls, crime addicts, drunks and hobos, in today's Helsinki
If you love Scandanavia, here is a film to avoid. The story of a lonely night-watchman, Koistenen, befriended suddenly by a strange woman in an empty cafe, who is misled to believe that he is in love and/or being loved: whew, this is one heavy-duty story. He appears to be a loser, slow and unambitious, without friends, save the woman who sells him hotdogs at the mobile Grill truck. The fake-blonde who appears without any introduction into his life, who then sets him up as the sap who goes to jail, while her Mafia gang robs the jewelry story he was guarding, is portrayed as an immigrant. Possibly she is meant to be a Russian, a hated group in Finland. Viewers who don't know Finnish will have to follow the subtitles, but they will not hear that she is speaking broken Finnish.
Everyone in this film seems to be a broken soul: the security company's employees (all men), the police (all men), the court justices (only one woman), and the double-breasted suit-wearing men setting up this jewelry heist.
I could not in good faith recommend this film to anyone, save those with an interest in seeing Helsinki's old dock area, its old prison where Koistenen is confined for two years, and its loud and disturbing discos.
One strange insertion is a young black boy's presence late at night outside a bar in this run-down part of Helsinki. Our Koistenen appears to know him, and the boy is speaking Finnish, sitting alone with a dog on the street at night. He turns out to be a good guy, who notifies the Grill-lady of Koistenen's final defeat, leading her to his broken body. In Finland, Somalians have been allowed as immigrants, in numbers over 5000, since the 1990's. They certainly stand out when one visits there!
The beauty of this country, the goodness and honesty of its people, and the gorgeous old tango music much loved there, none of this will come through. One could hardly believe that it is Finland! Yet there are always run-down, old and desperate parts of every city, usually by the docks, where the alcoholics and homeless overlap. That is what you are seeing in this film.
Enjoy!!!! The filmmaker meant you to THINK about life.
Family Video
