The great winner of the last Sitges Festival was ‘Sisu’, the confirmation of the idyll of this contest with the Finnish Jalmari Helanderbecause in 2010 he also won the award for best film thanks to his first film ‘Rare Exports: A Hooligan Christmas Carol’. What is not very clear to me is that many people already remember the triumph of ‘Sisu’, since its arrival in Spanish cinemas will finally take place this Friday, April 28, also coinciding with its release in theaters in the United States.
One of the aspects that has stood out the most about ‘Sisu’ is its brutality, to the point that the idea that we are facing a historical savagery can remain. That is where small disappointments can come, since the sad tendency to sell that everything is horrible or wonderful seems to leave us without any kind of intermediate point. And it is that ‘Sisu’ does stand out quite a bit for the better, but let’s not overdo it either.
A very particular mix
It soon becomes clear that Helander makes use of all kinds of ingredients in ‘Sisu’, from war movies to weird westerns and action thrillers, including a hero who at times makes you think of john rambo but in others in John Wick, sometimes applying a drawn logic and with a generous use of gore.
That mixture could have turned out fatal, but one of the great merits of the film is to make it stick and that its excesses serve as a basis to always go further. All this always betting on a simple story in which the greed for the gold that the protagonist has found becomes the main narrative engine. From there, Helander chooses to divide ‘Sisu’ into several episodes in order to differentiate what he wants to achieve in each of the set pieces with which he shapes a film that barely reaches 90 minutes of footage.
However, Helander does not want ‘Sisu’ to be a mere succession of action scenes with a weak link between them. For this reason, the fact of placing it during the final stage of the World War II and coinciding with the departure of the Nazis from Finland, it is key at all levels. This is the only way to understand both the reduced presence of German soldiers and the current situation of its protagonist, a force of nature that already holds the status of legend among the local population.
In the end, ‘Sisu’ is the story of someone who wants them to stop picking on their noses and the surprise that his enemies find out that he is not just another citizen that they can get out of the way with the same ease that they are applying the scorched earth policy to leave nothing behind. But with a humorous approach that he does not stop going further at all times, since Helander has a great time and wants to convey that same feeling to the public.
The thing is, Helander also limits himself a bit by not having any more Nazi soldiers to make things bigger. In fact, at all times gives the feeling of having perfectly under control what is going to happen next, something that plays both in its favor and against it, since on the one hand it avoids strange imbalances, but on the other it is difficult not to think that everything could have gotten more out of hand and turned into a truly unforgettable party. And that is really the only important drawback that can be put to him is that he needs to let go a little more and give everything without looking back.
There it is true that perhaps a higher budget would have suited him fabulously, since it is true that it looks much better than it should with a cost of 6 million euros -there the contribution of Kjell Lagerroos in photography it is priceless-, but I still have the question of how far Helander could have gone if he did not have any type of budgetary limitation.
Among the positive, it is also essential to highlight the authoritarian presence of jorma tommila giving life to the tireless hero, who does not stop accumulating blows and injuries but always manages to get ahead with authority. That is where ‘Sisu’ requires the public not to get fussy when it comes to credibility, but that is where Helander knows how to balance this point with the evolution of the story itself. And the notable presence of humor is also decisive for one to immerse oneself fully in this wild pastime.
So is it worth it or not?
‘Sisu’ is very clear at all times about what he wants to be and has no problem in embracing any type of excess or absurdity necessary to achieve it. Violence, fun and spectacle go hand in hand in a film that is not revolutionary at all, but with which It’s very easy to have a very entertaining time as long as you don’t have some kind of basic rejection of what Helander is proposing here.
In Espinof | 4 very funny movies to watch this weekend on Netflix and other streaming platforms