Unknown Soldier

Based on the 1954 novel Tuntematon Sotilas by Väinö Linna about Finnish soldiers during 1941-44, when Finland allied itself with Nazi Germany against the Soviet Union, director Aku Louhimies’s Unknown Soldier is the most expensive film ever made in Finland. The story follows a machine-gun company from its initial mobilization to the armistice that ended hostilities. The squad is made up of various stock characters—the idealistic lieutenant, the Communist, the practical joker, the cynic, and so on—but the focus is on two men in particular. Rokka (Eero Aho) is a crusty old veteran who is unhappy about being recalled to service and having to leave his wife and farm, but willing to make the sacrifice for his country. Although he is easily the most capable man among them, he refuses to bend to what he sees as pointless demands by discipline-minded officers, including Koskela (Jussi Vatanen), the platoon leader who serves as the model of national rectitude. Most of the film is devoted to battlefield action, but there are occasional interludes, involving time spent back home and even, in one case, a wedding (the film also includes some archival documentary footage to provide context). Unknown Soldier will mean the most to Finnish audiences, but it is sufficiently compelling to engage others—even if the version here (the full three-hour cut released in Finland, rather than the 133-minute “international” one) is frequently repetitive. Recommended. (F. Swietek)