Review: « The silent trilogy » offers Finnish lakonisms.

Finnish filmmaker Juho Kuosmanen has completely deservedly achieved global success with the charm offensives « The happiest day in Olli Mäki’s life » and « Kupé no. 6 ». In his new work he peels down and goes into film -historical childhood. Three short silent films, bound by a thin, red thematic thread, that blows past on the hour evenly.

The middle party is the « Hemburners », a remake of the very first Finnish film from 1907, called « maple burner » – a film that has disappeared, however, and thus only exists in the memories and testimonies of the film history. Juho Kuosmanen made it to order in 2017, and then tied it together with one of his first short films « Scrap-Mattila and the beautiful woman » (2011).

Now he has gave the duo a third and closing part in « a distant planet ». In other words, it is not a purple work, but at the same time the trilogy, in more than one way, is a living proof of the time of time.

The initial drama is also the most memorable. Skrot-Mattila has been forced away from its old cabin, pulling around on the roads with its pick and pack (which is not much) and soon ends up on an smoked little tavern. When he orders a beer, the bartender wonders if he has any money to pay with:

– No, but many good qualities.

– We do not receive good qualities, or show Electronic.

Similar small humor beads are scattered along Mattila’s path towards sunset. Knaster dry and extreme laconic humor with a bell -modern heart. As is well known, a Finnish national branch, which has probably been in the nation’s source code long before Kalevala’s days, but which in a reasonably modern era was mainly the film nests Aki Kaurismäki’s signature.

Yes, I know, It is a bit let to point to the old K-labeled cultural icon as soon as a pimple looks into Swedish repertoire but here he is a co-producer and mental kinsman, so it may have happened. Both filmmakers have the ability to find beauty where no one else is looking, usually among shame -filled Finnish filurs on society’s shadow pages. Yes, only the title « Scrap-Mattila and the beautiful woman » gives Kaurismäki vibes.

But … there is also something slightly annoying, something disturbing self -conscious, with all these dry toxins. For also laconism can be flabby if repeated too often. Excuse a swearing in the Film Church, but this is actually the case for the above -mentioned giant, whose works often trust that the audience always wants more of exactly the same word nap.

Reach. Juho Kuosmanen and his team have put a lot of effort into giving the triptych the right silent film patina; With associated scratches, coarse black and white texture and ornamented text signs. In other words, it is neat and stylish as the ick, but « the silent trilogy » is, in all its shimmering nostalgia, perhaps mostly a curiosity cabinet for cineaster and fennophiles.

See more: Other contemporary silent films: « The last battle » (1983), « The Artist » (2011), « Flow » (2024).

Read more Film and TV reviews In DN and other texts by Fredrik Sahlin