It's 1906, the year of Finland's first parliamentary election.Also women get to vote, and the poor people are starting to see they have rights.Punainen Viiva (1959) is directed by Matti Kassila.Today I saw this 88-year old director reminiscing his wonderful career on the morning show (Aamu-Tv).Roland af Hällström was supposed to be the original director of this movie, but he had a heart attack and died.The movie is based on the great Ilmari Kianto's book from 1909, which I read a couple of years ago.I really liked the leading actors of this movie.Holger Salin (Jussi winner) and Liisa Nevalainen are just perfect as Topi and Riina Romppanen.Jussi Jurkka, who won one of the movie's five Jussi awards, is terrific as Agitator Puntarpää.Rakel Laakso is great as Kunilla.Tarmo Manni is excellent as Simana Arhippaini.Pentti Irjala is superb as Shoemaker Raappana.Toivo Mäkelä is very good as Jussi Kettuvaara.Great work by Matti Oravisto, who portrays Priest.Martti Kainulainen and Leo Jokela are fantastic as Guy #1 and #2.Tapio Hämäläinen, Kaarlo Juurela and Pertti Palo are seen as men on the hill.Veikko Linna is seen as Man and Elsa Turakainen is seen as Lady.This is some really skilled movie making by Mr. Kassila.I enjoyed watching the dream sequence.And all the drama in the end really touched me.
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