Tears of April
Käsky

Finland 2008 colour 116 min Helsinki-Filmi Oy

***½

Drama

cast: Samuli Vauramo (Aaro Harjula), Pihla Viitala (Miina Malin), Eero Aho (Emil Hallenberg), Eemeli Louhimies (Eino), Miina Maasola (Martta), Riina Maidre, Janne Virtanen, Sulevi Peltola, Ilkka Heiskanen, Mikko Kouki, Oskar Pösti
credits: dir. Aku Louhimies (also script with Jari Olavi Rantala), DOP Rauno Ronkainen, staging Markku Pätilä, music Pessi Levanto

The movie takes place in the age of the civil war of Finland. White and red sides are fighting. Reds have female fighters, who get caught. It's a horrible end for them - only one survives. A young and handsome Aaro (Samuli Vauramo) wants to do the right thing and bring this one in front of the justice. But that journey will be long and difficult.

This movie is breathtakingly wonderfully shot in the Finnish nature. There's not much of dialogue and in many scenes the image speaks much more than the characters. All the young actors give fine performances, but when it's Eero Aho's turn to appear on the screen, the director changes his way of storytelling all the sudden. Mr. Aho's character talks, talks and talks - and that breaks the fine atmosphere.

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