Musta jää (2007)

Director:

Petri Kotwica

Writer:

Petri Kotwica (written by)

Release Date:

19 October 2007 (Finland)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

Saara is a middle-aged doctor who one day finds out that his architect-husband Leo is having an affair with a younger woman...

Plot Keywords:

Doctor | Revenge | Widescreen | Dysfunctional Marriage | False Identity

Awards:

6 wins & 5 nominations

Cast

Outi Mäenpää	...	Saara
Ria Kataja	...	Tuuli
Martti Suosalo	...	Leo
Ville Virtanen	...	Ilkka
Sara Paavolainen	...	Lea
Netta Heikkilä	...	Krista
Väinö Heiskanen	...	Joonas
Philipp Danne	...	Uwe
Matti Laine	...	Komu
Emilia Sinisalo	...	Receptionist
Kirsi Ylijoki	...	Female Cop
Marjut Maristo	...	Girl at Masquerade
Anne von Keller	...	Nurse
Christian Hagman	...	Hade
Arttu Eloranta	...	Guy at Afterparty

Also Known As:

Black Ice (International: English title)
Svart is (Finland: Swedish title)

Runtime:

110 min

Country:

Finland | Germany

Language:

Finnish | English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Finland:K-15 | Australia:MA (2008) | South Korea:18 | Hong Kong:III | New Zealand:R18

Filming Locations:

Finland

Company:

Making Movies Oy

Trivia:

Director-writer Petri Kotwica planned this film for 6 years.

Quotes:

Tuuli: What do you do?
Saara: I'm a psycho... logist.

Soundtrack:

Black Ice

Dark and cold, yet cleverly humorous European cinema

Musta Jää is a dark and cold love triangle and at times quite humorous one. It makes you laugh the first moment and the second it gives you the chills. Director Petri Kotwica clearly had no rush making this, because it seem so well finished, with not much faults. The only thing that I think didn't work all the time was the score. It is a score by a talented cello player from Apocalyptica, but it was playing maybe a bit too much during the movie. It's a minor minus, but not a big one.

All the actors are just fantastic, and the characters are very interesting. Outi Mäenpää is one of the best finnish actresses and she plays Saara, who finds out her husband is cheating on her. It happens the day she turns 40. Husband Leo is played by Martti Suosalo, a very fine actor too. Leo is having an affair with his student, 29 year old Tuuli (Ria Kataja). Saara starts planning a revenge, that is megalomanic and wonderful to watch, she even creates herself a new identity for it. The plot twists are not stunning but very entertaining and well made.

Movie is good looking too, visually. I think it's not a bit lower than the European medium of cinema. In my opinion it is by far the best finnish movie made in last few years, with Kaurismäki's Laitakaupungin Valot of course. This makes Petri Kotwica one of the most interesting new finnish directors. And this proves he's a great writer too. Movie has a lot of small little things - of acting, characters, cinematography, dialog - that are just genius, not really that much seen in finnish cinema. Much of it happens in Saara's mind. Not that much that you could analyze it like Ingmar Bergman's Persona (which has some fine similarities), but still some. The whole masquerade sequence is one of the things i like a lot too.

I recommend Musta Jää to people who like a well written, well acted and well directed little dark but cleverly humorous European, almost an art film-like cinema. Not for ones who dislike semi-low tempo, and too intelligent structure.