Recap: Depicts the events of the battle at Tali-Ihantala 1944 between defending Finnish forces and invading Soviet army. It is told from a Finnish viewpoint with the beginning hardships and retreat, the later establishment of a new line of defence, and the subsequent battle to hold that line.
Comments: This is another very good Finnish war movie, made by director Åke Lindman, who also directed Framom främsta linjen (Beyond enemy lines). It has an impressive amount of extras and WWII equipment and so tells what feels like an accurate and plausible story of the events that occurred.
What it lacks is a clear story. There are no real main characters that remain throughout the movie, no real story that develops independently from the historic events. Characters that are shown are those in the units engaged in the battle at each time. So, this is more of a dramatized documentary than a narrative movie.
In that sense, I believe that you really need to enjoy film, and especially war movie, or be interested in war history, to enjoy this movie. If you do, I recommend it highly. If you do not, choose something else.
Me myself both enjoy movies a lot, and am interested in history, so I enjoyed it very much. But even I missed the narrative story, to identify with certain characters a bit. But hopefully this is not the last epic Finnish War movie.
7/10
Comments: This is another very good Finnish war movie, made by director Åke Lindman, who also directed Framom främsta linjen (Beyond enemy lines). It has an impressive amount of extras and WWII equipment and so tells what feels like an accurate and plausible story of the events that occurred.
What it lacks is a clear story. There are no real main characters that remain throughout the movie, no real story that develops independently from the historic events. Characters that are shown are those in the units engaged in the battle at each time. So, this is more of a dramatized documentary than a narrative movie.
In that sense, I believe that you really need to enjoy film, and especially war movie, or be interested in war history, to enjoy this movie. If you do, I recommend it highly. If you do not, choose something else.
Me myself both enjoy movies a lot, and am interested in history, so I enjoyed it very much. But even I missed the narrative story, to identify with certain characters a bit. But hopefully this is not the last epic Finnish War movie.
7/10