This ”monument of 1950’s Finnish Cinema” (according to Kari Uusitalo) turned a whole new page in the history of our national culture. Simple revelry became anarchy and catchy songs became bombs flung at the self-important cultural elite. Even though Reino “Repe” Helismaa and his gang probably never intended to draw up such a manifesto, a war was declared.
Director Jorma Nortimo masters light musical comedy as effortlessly as other genres from war evacuee stories (Little Ilona and her Lambkin) to Zapata Westerns (Lord and Master). He surely knew that immortalizing the sing-songs and the banter was serious business, and the caputuring of Pakarinen’s classic symphonic polka “Vesihiisi sihisi hississä” didn’t require any elaborate tricks, just one long and static shot.
Even if At the Rovaniemi Fair wouldn’t be included among the classics of world musicals (a colossal lapse of judgement!) no cinephile – Finnish or foregn – who has missed it will be taken seriously outside of greater Helsinki. So, if you haven’t yet had the chance to witness the finest hour of rillumarei, you now have the opportunity to correct this shortcoming in the classiest way possible – in the middle of a sing-along crowd inebriated from the midnight sun and cinema.
Petteri Kalliomäki