Subzero Film Entertainment, Stage 6 Films and Good Chaos’ Sisu (dubbed from the Finnish action film of the same name; A) is a story of unusual grit and determination. It is set in late 1944 in the midst of the Lapland War during World War II.
Gold prospector and Winter War veteran Aatami Korpi (Jorma Tommila) lives all by himself in the wilderness of Lapland. He pans and mines for gold. He gets lucky when he uncovers a rich deposit of gold. Korpi collects a huge amount of gold nuggets and sets out to take the gold to the nearest town. But getting there is not at all easy because he encounters the Nazi death squad’s Wehrmacht platoon led by the ruthless Bruno Helldorf and his subordinate, Wolf. Both, Helldorf and Wolf, are destroying settlements in their retreat, taking captives with them along the way. They attempt to seize Aatami’s gold and even succeed once but they don’t know that he is a skilled fighter of the Winter War and was nicknamed Koschei, meaning ‘The Immortal’, because of his almost unparalleled grit and determination to achieve what he sets out to do.
Jalmari Helander has penned a story that’s quite different from other action films in the sense that it concentrates only on the aspect of Aatami Korpi’s single-minded aim to save his gold nuggets from the Nazis. There are no diversions in his screenplay as only those scenes find a place in the script, which have a bearing on Korpi’s objective. Yes, the drama does become a bit monotonous at times but because the film has a running time of just a little more than 90 minutes, the viewers don’t mind the single track on which the drama moves. On the other hand, it is an experience to watch the lengths to which Korpi can go to achieve his objective. The film does not have too many dialogues and concentrates on action instead.
Jorma Tommila does a fine job as Aatami Korpi. Aksel Hennie is effective as Bruno Helldorf. Jack Doolan leaves a fine mark as Wolf. Mimosa Willamo has her moments as Aino. Onni Tommila makes his presence amply felt in the role of Schütze. Arttu Kapulainen makes his presence felt as Rower. Tatu Sinisalo, Vincent Willestrand, Miia Heikkenen and the rest lend adequate support.
Jalmari Helander’s direction is excellent. Juri Seppä and Tuomas Wäinölä’s background music is pretty impactful without being intruding. Kjell Lagerroos’ cinematography is first-rate. Action scenes are outstanding and often breathtaking. Otso Linnalaakso’s production designing is appropriate. Juho Virolainen’s editing is razor-sharp. Dubbing is very good.
On the whole, Sisu is an entertaining fare and deserves to do well at the turnstiles. But it will suffer on account of poor promotion and consequently, lack of awareness among the public about the film’s release.
Released on 28-4-’23 at Gemini (daily 3 shows) and other cinemas of Bombay thru Sony Pictures Films India Pvt. Ltd. Publicity & opening: poor. …….Also released all over.