In short: Sisu (2022)

1944. The Nazis are leaving Lapland, but not without following through with scorched earth policy. As if the landscape weren’t already pretty bleak. Gold digger Aatami (Jorma Tommilla), escaping a violent past and the loss that came with it, has actually struck gold and is now transporting his find to the next town. Meeting Nazi troops ends in rather a lot of violence, for it turns out that our protagonist is a crazed veteran of the Winter War, dubbed Koshchei by his Russian enemies then, which does not bode well for Nazis out to take his gold and his life.

As far as low(ish) budget action movies with a bone-dry sense of humour and a love for the old ultra violence go, Jalmari Helander’s Sisu is rather great. There’s a wonderful sense of flow as well as of escalation to the film, a forward momentum that never quite becomes breathlessness – our hero’s a quick, methodical killer, after all, though also a messy one.

As in most great action movies, Sisu demonstrates an absolute willingness to leave the laws of physics (those old bores) behind for the joys of iconic and sometimes grotesque action, and very specifically understands the joy of Platonic pulpiness – having half a dozen female Nazi captives armed with machine guns mowing down a truckload of Nazis, a grizzled guy hitching a ride on the outside of a plane with a pick-axe, that sort of thing. At the same time, the film never presents these moments with a sense of ironic detachment – the audience is supposed to get sucked into this and feel it, instead of admire it from the outside, and at least for me, this approach to the material worked splendidly. But then, I prefer the absurdly awesome and the awesomely absurd presented to me with a straight face instead of a wink.

On a less visceral note, the film is very successful at portraying its version of Lapland as something that looks a lot like the movies have told me a post-apocalyptic wasteland looks, providing the proper mood for the grim and over the top violence going on in it; it certainly beats the warehouses you so often get in the cheaper action movies. The score and some scenes, as well as the film’s generally grim outlook do suggest the Italian West as a neighbouring realm as well; one would not be surprised meeting Franco Nero dragging a coffin with a special surprise inside around here. There’s certainly a lot of squinting going on, and our protagonist does have the proper air of mythic brutality, as well as one can only assume to be Wolverine's healing factor.