Sisu is a Finnish term for intransigence or perseverance, and the bearded hero of the action film of the same name lives up to that term. The gold digger takes on an SS division in the new film from Rare Exports director Jalmari Helander.
If Sisu is showing at a theater near you, unless you have an aversion to having limbs ripped off, be sure to give the taciturn carnage a shot.
Gold diggers + SS division = bomb action
The film is set in a World War II setting that plays a minor role in local classrooms: Finland. German and Finnish troops first fought together against the Soviet Red Army in the 1940s. This emerged victorious and was followed by the so-called Lapland War: Finland undertook to expel the German troops from its territory.
This is where the gold digger comes into play.
Sony
Sisu
In 1944, the hard-nosed Finn (Jorma Tommila) tirelessly hacks the earth on the barren plains of Lapland until he stumbles upon a vein of gold. As he is about to take his find away, he crosses the path of a marauding German SS train. Its Obersturmfuhrer (Aksel Hennie) recognizes the gold as a free ticket for the period after the end of the war. But the Finns won’t give up the wealth of their soil that easily, and soon limbs that have been blown off pile up on the side of the road. The nominal superiority has nothing to do with a perfectly normal gold digger.
Between Tarantino, Rambo and Leone: Sisu is still a beast in his own right
The juicy splatter effects achieved with grenades and machine guns are reminiscent of Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds or Django Unchained. The Lapland setting with the monosyllabic warrior and the run-down SS men has a clear Sergio Leone touch, above all the sweaty sadness of Spiel mir das Lied vom Tod. All that’s really missing is a railroad crossing and a tirelessly buzzing fly. The ability to defend the one-man army with a dark past gives you a gift Flashbacks to Sylvester Stallone’s first Rambo film.
These are cinematic relatives to be expected and welcomed in a genre-conscious director like Jalmari Helander. Unlike many Tarantino imitators and wannabe trash producers, Helander has the skills to… to implement bloody ideas in a sleek and pointed manner. The carnage is staged with pinpoint accuracy and just when you’ve had enough, the 91-minute film is over.
Second, the blood in Sisu is spilled on the ground of a bitter melancholy that could be described as Finnish, Lapland, or perhaps more Helander-esque. It’s a cold, unsentimental, depressed vibe, not a splatter fest. Leading actor Jorma Tommila is her personification. Between Tarantino, Leone, Stallone and many others, Sisu carves out an identity of his own. She is bloody, deadly serious and wears one of the most magnificent beards of the cinema year.
Sisu has been in German cinemas since May 11th.