Director Jalmari Helander likes to twist solemn Finnish war dramas into spirited action genre pieces. First came Sisu (2023) which depicted the protagonist Aatami Korpi (Jorma Tommila) targeted by a German patrol during the Lapland War. Korpi – a grizzled veteran of the preceding Winter War, which had taken his family – is surprisingly unfazed by his position as an underdog.
The sequel transfers the setup into Karelia, where Soviet soldiers interrupt Korpi on a mission to retrieve the logs of his former home.
Writer-director Helander finds himself in a forest crossroads where Finnish myths and iconic masculine action heroes collide. At that same crossroads Helander has found Tommila, whose grim charisma shines through all the plentiful blood spatter.
Masculinity is not in crisis here, and doesn’t come off as arrogant self-assertion. It’s a body covered in trauma and scars, which gives back as much as it gets.
The Sisu films worked as Helander’s calling cards to Hollywood, where he is next helming a project where the protagonist is a natural successor of Aatami Korpi: John Rambo.
Kaisu Tervonen