'The Swan And The Wanderer'
Kulkuri ja joutsen

Finland 1999 colour 117min Artista Filmi Oy

***½

Biography, drama

cast: Tapio Liinoja (Tapio Rautavaara), Martti Suosalo (Reino Helismaa), Pertti Koivula (Kauko Toivonen), Esko Nikkari, Tuija Piepponen (Siiri Angerkoski), Martti Katajisto (T.J. Särkkä), Heikki Nousiainen (Esa Pakarinen), Heidi Herala (Liisa Rautavaara), Anna Haaranen (Lempi Helismaa), Matti Mäntylä (Toivo Kärki), Ilkka Koivula, Raimo Grönberg (Olavi Virta)
credits: dir. Timo Koivusalo (also script with Juha Numminen and edit. with Jyrki Luukko), music Timo Koivusalo, Jaakko Salo, Tapio Rautavaara and Reino Helismaa, prod. Timo Koivusalo

Tapio Rautavaara, an Finnish icon. He was an Olympic star, but later also singer and actor. (I think he was as stiff as a log as singer and actor, but it's just my opinion).

Reino Helismaa was a singer and a comedy song writer. He wrote also plays (movies) and love songs. His face was seen in many movies aswell but he never came as big star as his good friends Esa Pakarinen and Tapio Rautavaara.

This film tells the story of these three good men. It's about their life and how hard is to keep friends.

Timo Koivusalo did the Pekko movie serie before this film, but he has no professional education from movie area. At times this shows, he makes decisions which are very common for people who have no real touch into movies. Fortunately he had a good team with him. Especially actor Martti Suosalo does wonderful work as Reino Helismaa. He is Mr. Helismaa.

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