Sisu gives me hope

A well written and engaging action film is possible and shouldn’t need a vast budget.

As someone with Finnish ancestry I was immediately taken by the premise of an action film that references all the classic ‘Western’ tropes, set in the wilds of Finland towards the end of World War Two. The name ‘sisu’ comes from an untranslatable Finnish word that speaks to resilience in the face of extreme adversity. But would it be any good? I am pleased to report it is and somewhat restores my faith in the possibilities of filmic story telling – something which has almost completely gone missing in mainstream cinema.

The first thing to be clear about is that this is a ‘Western’, despite its twentieth century Nordic setting. It has all the classic elements of the genre. These include the use of a vast desolate landscape as a kind of protagonist in itself. A hero who must survive terrible hardship, and above all else a quest for possession of gold that renders the moral brushstrokes of the larger setting a mere backdrop and occasional annoyance. In ‘Sisu’ the hero even survives a hanging – think of how two of the three main characters in ‘The Good, The Bad and The Ugly’ survive hangings and the significance of this in so many Westerns. It is used again and again as a powerful motif for the heroic narrative arc in which the protagonist must reach rock bottom before he can prevail. In ‘Sisu’ the hanging scene is visceral to say the least and he survives in a manner that just takes the whole trope up a level. And of course there must be bad guys who also vie for the gold and given the film’s late war setting a band of retreating soldiers in motley Waffen SS uniforms fits the bill perfectly. Their credentials as arch bad guys is enhanced by another staple of the Western genre, namely treating women shockingly badly. They have a truck with a bedraggled group of women in it and there is no guess work about what they are doing with them. What contrasts with most mainstream film making these days is the effort that goes into developing enough depth in the bad guy characterisations to build a degree of buy in. Rather than being one dimensional caricatures they have their own fears and motivations, which provides the necessary counter point for the hero to play off.

The film opens in the desolate wilds of Finland, which looks remarkably like a very cold version of the classic cinematic West. The landscape like so many Westerns, dwarfs the individual which in this case is a grizzled older man who is digging holes everywhere. There are hints of a great conflict taking place in the distance, but for now it seems far away. When he discovers a vast seam of gold he sets out on horseback with his dog, presumably to take it to a bank. He then runs into the band of retreating German troops who discover his treasure and the action unfolds from there. The establishment of his back story is handled in a reasonably clever way – the Germans get their hands on one of his dog tags and radio it through only to be advised that he is a legendary Finnish commando responsible for killing countless Soviets.

To provide context for people who don’t know much about Finland’s experience of the conflict, the Soviet Union invaded Finland in what became known as the Winter War of 1939/40. Finland managed to hold them off and inflicted massive casualties on what had been the largest invasion force in history to that point. At this stage National Socialist Germany was in an alliance with the Soviet Union, and Finland received almost no help from the global community. When Germany backtracked on the alliance and invaded the Soviet Union in 1941, Finland continued fighting the Soviets only this time with a small amount of help from Germany. When the Soviets turned the tide and swept the Germans aside they took a small portion of the area of Karelia – where my ancestor comes from – but left the rest of Finland alone provided they kicked out the Germans, which they agreed to and which sets the scene for the events of ‘Sisu’. It seems to me that the protagonist is somewhat inspired by Simo H?yh?, a Finnish sniper who is said to have killed over 500 Soviets, and became a semi-mythical one man army.

Suffice to say the bad guys get systematically reduced in numbers in more and more inventive ways, and the protagonist survives increasingly brutal and unlikely scenarios. There is also a female empowerment narrative sub arc that enjoys a deft inter play with the main plot line as the female prisoners take the opportunity for a bit of payback. It avoids the banality of most modern films in which female characters are never seriously threatened and overcome challenges with little effort. Just like the protagonist the female characters reach a rock bottom, only to claw their way back and this creates an emotional buy-in mostly lacking in mainstream cinema, all played out against a backdrop of ever escalating violence.

I think Sergio Leone would have approved of this film. It does venture into ‘Mission Impossible’ ridiculous, especially towards the end, but it has all the classic ingredients of a very accomplished Western, with enough narrative depth and character development to create some buy-in, whilst avoiding the path of tedious over explaining. In other words it is really good, unlike almost all mainstream films. And it has clearly been made on a fraction of the budget, so no quibbling over the historical realism of the tank.

‘Sisu’ has given me some hope that we may be seeing a return to compelling story telling and engaging action in films. Maybe.