Unknown Soldier (2017)

Finland has a long and complicated relationship with its own wartime history, and no single work has shaped that relationship more than Väinö Linna's novel Tuntematon Sotilas, known in English as The Unknown Soldier. First published in 1954, it became one of the best-selling Finnish novels ever written, and its unflinching, ground-level portrayal of ordinary Finnish soldiers fighting through the Continuation War of 1941 to 1944 against the Soviet Union struck a nerve that the country had been carefully avoiding. The book was controversial precisely because it refused to mythologise the men or the cause. Aku Louhimies's 2017 adaptation works from both Linna's original text and the author's own uncensored version, Sotaromaani (A War Novel), which gives the film a rawer, more unsparing foundation than previous adaptations had worked with. This was not the first time the novel had been brought to the screen (Finnish cinema had already produced notable adaptations in 1955 and 1985), which means Louhimies was working in the shadow of films that had become genuine cultural touchstones for Finnish audiences. The pressure to justify another go at the material was, to put it mildly, considerable.

Produced through a co-operation between Finnish, Icelandic and Belgian studios, including SCOPE Pictures and Elokuvaosakeyhtiö Suomi 2017, the film arrived as a major national event in Finland, released to coincide with the country's centenary of independence. At just under three hours, it is a deliberately substantial piece of work, the kind of runtime that signals the filmmakers were not interested in compression or convenience. Louhimies, whose career spans both Finnish television drama and feature film work, brings an approach rooted more in emotional realism than in spectacle, though the production scale is clearly significant. Iceland's involvement in the co-production is worth noting, given that the country has become a reliable creative partner on ambitious European projects, something you can see in other Icelandic co-productions from around the same period such as Winter Brothers (2017) and Adrift (2018). The ensemble cast is led by Eero Aho, Johannes Holopainen, Jussi Vatanen, Aku Hirviniemi and Hannes Suominen, a group of Finnish actors who were asked to carry not just a war film but something closer to a national reckoning. There are no recognisable international names here, which suits the material. The film has no interest in star power as a comfort blanket.

For those coming to it without much knowledge of Finnish or Nordic wartime history, it is worth knowing that the Continuation War occupies a morally and historically awkward position, involving alliances and reversals that do not map neatly onto the familiar Allied-versus-Axis framework most English-speaking audiences carry in their heads. The film, very much in the spirit of Linna's novel, is not particularly concerned with geopolitical explanation. Its focus is the men at ground level, a machine gun company moving through exhaustion, loss and the grinding monotony that sits between moments of violence. Comparisons to other war films that have been reviewed here, such as 1917 (2019) and the Werner Herzog documentary Lessons of Darkness (1992), are instructive. Each approaches conflict from a different angle, polished but unremarkable war cinema this is not, but the question of how much context a film owes its audience is one that different directors answer very differently.

A-Z World Movie Challenge Finland The Unknown Soldier (2017) is Finland’s answer to “Let’s make a war movie so bleak even the snow looks exhausted.” I wasn’t sure what to expect going in (besides frostbite and existential despair) but what I got was a gritty, unflinching portrait of war that left me equal parts impressed and emotionally drained. This isn’t your granddad’s WWII film. There’s no heroic trumpet swell or noble speeches about freedom. Instead, it’s all mud, blood, and dread. The film follows a ragtag squad of Machine Gunners through the Continuation War, and it doesn’t romanticize a thing, every victory feels hollow, every loss cuts deep. The cinematography is stark and brutal, like the landscape itself is judging humanity’s poor life choices. Sound mixing gets a bad rap from some, but as a subtitle-reader (my Finnish is limited to “kiitos” and “moi”), I found the chaos immersive. Gunfire rattled my bones, distant artillery felt like thunder in my chest. The actors sell every ounce of exhaustion and camaraderie; you feel their hunger, their frayed nerves, their desperate grip on sanity. Where it stumbles though is if you’re not already clued up on Finland’s WWII role (spoiler: it’s complicated, involving both Nazis and Soviets), the film offers zero hand-holding. I had to pause at times and google “Wait, are they fighting with Germany or against Germany now?” A quick primer on the Continuation War would’ve helped, but maybe that’s on me. Still, this is war done right, no gloss, no glory, just the raw, unvarnished toll of survival. Not my usual cuppa, but I respect the hell out of its honesty. For a war movie skeptic, that’s high praise. (P.S. Finland’s World War II history is… wild. Quick recap: They fought the USSR, then teamed up with Nazi Germany, then turned on them. It’s like a breakup revenge tour gone geopolitical.)

That tension between respecting what the film achieves and wishing it had offered just a little more orientation for the uninitiated is one I keep coming back to. For me, the emotional weight lands regardless, and the refusal to wrap things in meaning or resolution feels honest rather than withholding. I do think a few minutes of contextual framing early on would have cost the film nothing and given audiences outside Finland a firmer foothold, but then again, there is something to be said for being dropped in and made to feel the disorientation that the soldiers themselves must have felt. It is not a comfortable watch, and it is not meant to be. Sometimes the films that ask the most of you are the ones that stick around longest after the credits roll.

Rating: ★★½  | Year: 2017  | Watched: 2025-06-19

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Trailer

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