My Favorite Finnish Movies

The daughter of a lighthouse keeper runs away with a shipwrecked businessman to the city. But instead of her dreams, she finds herself selling herself in the streets, until a painter finds her as an ideal model for his next painting.

A story about a farm trader who falls in love with a rich girl with many admirers.

In 1939, two Finnish brothers are conscripted in the army to fight in the war between Finland and the Soviet Union.

The tale of a platoon of soldiers during the Continuation War. Based on Väinö Linna's book of the same name.

A closed room mystery begins when an infamous tycoon is found dead in his bath tub. The famous police lieutenant Palmu is summoned to investigate.

Two brothers, one frivolous but fun, the other industrious but dull, both rivals to one woman worker on their farm they both fancy, told in black and white classic melodrama way.

A Lappish girl, the only daughter of a reindeer herder, rescues a crashed German fighter pilot during WW2. The two develop warm feelings for each other during his convalescence.

Archaeological team unearths a body of a young woman, who was told to be a witch buried in the bog some 300 years ago. Soon a naked woman appears and drives the men of the village crazy. Everybody is certain that this really is the witch killed in days of yore. At the end the wild happenings during those few days appeared to be a dream of the professor leading the excavations.

The German 27th Royal Jaeger Battalion is returning from the front to Libau. Jaeger corporal Martti Kari (Kullervo Kalske) falls in love with the Livonian dancer Sabina (Tuulikki Paananen) on a train journey, who has also caught the eye of Baron Rolf Lichtenstein (Erkki Uotila). Spies' plots and war cast shadows over the relationship between a beautiful dancer and a handsome jaeger.

Lieutenant Takala joins a group of war veterans who gather in a restaurant to reminisce their unit's operations on the Finnish-Soviet front. A flashback takes us back to summer 1944 where the unit, led by Takala, performs dangerous guerrilla operations behind enemy lines. A subplot alleges sexual liaisons between soldiers and female volunteers, which caused controversy when the film and the novel it's based on were released in the early 1960s.

A rich widow is found dead of gas poisoning in her flat in Helsinki. First the death is thought to be an accident, but lieutenant Palmu notices that the murderer has made a mistake, and Palmu and his assistants Kokki and Virta start an investigation into who has broken into the apartment through the balcony door and opened the gas tap when Mrs. Skrof was sleeping.

Drama about a young woman in rural Finland in the 1930s. The small village provides a scene for intrigues, fights, love, jealousy, accusations, and revenge.

About Olavi, a farmer's son who leaves his home after a dispute with his father and leads a life of a womanizing logger.

Turbulent, then tragic, marital relationship resulting in wife getting the upper hand from oppressive husband, on a post second world war farmstead.

The siblings Riitta and Anja love the same man, the treasurer Jyri Mara. Riitta ends up marrying Jyri, but when the couple loses their children Riitta gets jealous and mad.

Comedy set somewhere in the late 19th or early 20th century tells a story about lumberjacks, several beautiful girls, one family in trouble and one lawman who is willing to break law to get what he wants.

A happy and spirited lady is being courted by two gentlemen. Eventually she marries the other and leads a content family life - until through unlikely events she ends up in a prison, suffering from amnesia.

When the Winter War of 1939 begins but an evacuation order never arrives in Karelia, a local family must assemble the townspeople to flee their homes from the impending destruction.

The farm girl Hilja falls meet Yrjö, a student visiting the country side. They fall madly in love, which leads to consequences.

A biopic of Vili Vesterinen, a popular Finnish accordion virtuoso (1907-61). After years of playing by the ear and for free at local country dances in his home province Karelia, he is accepted at the Viipuri Conservatory to study double bass. Accordion is frowned upon in classical music circles, and Vili is frustrated for having to learn to read music and pick up notes from his large 'cupboard', as he calls his assigned instrument. Depressed even more after his childhood sweetheart Mirja gets engaged to his best friend, he finally manages to join Dallapé, the most prestigious dance band of pre-war Finland.