Premiered on 16 March 1984, the German-Finnish collaboration Bis später, ich muß mich erschießen is an interesting outlier in the history of Finnish cinema. During its cinema run, the film was seen by 7 758 viewers, placing it 106th among the 238 box office films listed that year. Since then, there have been no known public screenings in Finland – and hardly any elsewhere. This is not a ’forgotten masterpiece,’ but a peculiar find produced by Jussi Kohonen (the 2013 winner of the Sodankylä Prize).
The only Finnish actor to get a significant part was Terhi Panula in the lead female role. For her, this performance meant, in the midst of her theatrical career after Burball (1970), an impressive return to the big screen. As an indirect consequence of this project, she was also in consideration for a role in The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988), a role that ultimately went to a fresh French face called Juliette Binoche…
The director wasn’t just anyone, but Vojtěch Jasný (1925–2019), one of the father figures of 1960s New Wave in Czechoslovakia. The filmmaker behind Cannes successes The Cassandra Cat (1963) and All My Good Countrymen (1969) had, after the Soviet invasion, left his home country in 1970 to live and work in West Germany.
Its exterior scenes mostly shot in Vallila, Helsinki, Bis später, ich muß mich erschießen is based on Soviet dramatist Nikolai Erdman’s banned 1928 comedy play The Suicide. In this satire of the petty bourgeoisie of the era, the male lead role is played by Daniel Oldbrychski, one of the greatest film stars of Poland. Another big international name is French Marina Vlady, who has also starred in films by such directors as Godard, Welles, Tavernier, and Scola.
Timo Malmi