Sisu (film)

''Sisu'' is a 2022 historical action thriller film written and directed by Jalmari Helander. Set in Finnish Lapland during World War II, the film follows a former legendary Finnish commando and gold prospector who attempts to secure his gold and defend himself from a German death squad led by a brutal SS officer. The film stars Jorma Tommila, Aksel Hennie, Jack Doolan, Mimosa Willamo and Onni Tommila.

Originally, Helander was supposed to work on the science fiction comedy ''Jerry and Ms. Universe'' as his next project after '' Big Game'', but the COVID-19 pandemic changed Helander's plan and he moved on to make ''Sisu''. The film was shot in 2021 near the Nuorgam village in Utsjoki, Lapland with a budget of about €6 million ($6.5 million). According to Helander, the 1982 film ''First Blood'' and the real-life Finnish military sniper Simo Häyhä, who fought against the Red Army, served as inspirations for the film.

Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions acquired the film's worldwide distribution rights outside Nordic countries, and then decided to team with Lionsgate to release the film in North America. The film debuted at the Midnight Madness section of the Toronto International Film Festival on 9 September 2022. The film premiered in Finland on 27 January 2023 and was released in the United States on 28 April 2023, where it received positive reviews from critics.

Plot

In late 1944 during the Lapland War, Aatami Korpi lives alone with his horse and faithful Bedlington Terrier while he prospects in the Lapland wilderness. Aatami uncovers a rich gold deposit, where he collects a hefty amount of nuggets and heads towards Rovaniemi. Along the way, Aatami encounters a large '' Waffen SS'' platoon led by the ruthless SS '' Obersturmführer'' Bruno Helldorf, who are destroying villages during their retreat towards Norway and have taken several Finnish women captive. Helldorf takes little interest in Aatami, letting him pass. Aatami is soon accosted by a second group of soldiers who discover his saddlebags full of gold and prepare to execute him, but he swiftly kills them all. Alerted by the gunfire, Helldorf investigates and discovers the massacre and one of Aatami's gold nuggets.

Helldorf and his tank pursue Aatami to the edge of a minefield, where Aatami's horse is killed by a landmine. Gathering up his gold, Aatami intentionally detonates another mine to make his escape. Several soldiers are sent after him, but are quickly blown up by mines. Helldorf orders two of the captive women ahead to ensure a clear path. After retrieving Aatami's dog tag, Helldorf's second-in-command Wolf learns over the radio of Aatami's past. After losing his family while fighting as a commando during the Winter War, the vengeful Aatami became a legendary "one-man death squad" nicknamed '' Koschei'' ("the Immortal"). Helldorf defies his orders to continue retreating in order to hunt down Aatami and take the gold.

The German soldiers dispatch dogs to follow Aatami's trail. Aatami sends his own dog away before using petrol from one of the German trucks to cover his scent. However, the soldiers soon discover him and Aatami dives into a nearby lake. Helldorf sends three soldiers onto the lake in a boat, but Aatami kills two of them by slitting their throats underwater and breathes in the escaping air from their necks. The remaining German soldier attempts to flee, where he is executed by Wolf. Aatami uses the soldier's body as a shield after reaching the riverbank and escapes. On the other side of the river, Aatami's dog is discovered by Helldorf.

Aatami discovers that Rovaniemi has been left in burning ruins and takes shelter in the remains of a petrol station. Helldorf sends Aatami's dog to find him, but with a lit stick of dynamite attached to his collar. Aatami saves his dog but is knocked down when the dynamite explodes. Helldorf, Wolf, and tank driver Schütze hang Aatami, taking the gold and leaving him for dead, but Aatami hooks his wounds onto protruding rebar, saving his life. Sometime later, a pair of German pilots land in search of fuel. Aatami kills the engineer and forces the surviving pilot to fly him ahead of Helldorf's platoon.

Helldorf soon discovers the abandoned plane in their path with the pilot hanged by the same noose Wolf used on Aatami. As the convoy continues, Aatami climbs onto the truck holding the captives and kills their guards before arming them. Aino, the de-facto leader of the women, commandeers one of the trucks, allowing Aatami to leap onto Helldorf's tank while the women gun down the rest of the soldiers. Aatami pulls Wolf out of the tank before leaving him at the mercy of the women. Helldorf reaches a Soviet plane and kills Schütze before taking off with the pilot. Aatami fires at the plane, mortally wounding the pilot, and uses his pickaxe to get onboard in midair. Helldorf and Aatami engage in hand-to-hand combat. After Helldorf gets the upper hand, Aatami swiftly hooks a static line to a bomb before releasing it, dropping Helldorf to his death. After finding that the pilot had since died, Aatami straps himself as the plane crashes into a swamp.

Led by Aino, the freed women have commandeered the German tank and they deliver a beaten Wolf to an incredulous Finnish unit. Aatami crawls out of the swamp and reunites with his dog before making his way to the war-ravaged Helsinki. Aatami enters a bank, where he approaches a teller and empties his satchels of gold before speaking for the first time, asking for bills in exchange for his gold in his own words "so the load won't be so god-damn heavy to carry."

Cast

Reception

Box office

''Sisu'' grossed $7.3 million in the United States and Canada, and $6.7 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $13.9 million.

In the United States and Canada, ''Sisu'' was released alongside ''Big George Foreman'' and '' Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret.'', and was projected to gross around $4 million from 900 theaters in its opening weekend. It made $1.4 million on its first day, including $585,000 from Thursday night previews. It went on to debut to $3.3 million, finishing eighth.

Critical response

Audiences polled by PostTrak gave the film an 80% positive score, with 60% saying they would definitely recommend it.

Robert Daniels of ''RogerEbert.com'' gave the film three and half out of four stars, stating that "''Sisu'' is outlandishly entertaining, mostly because, contrary to its deeper themes, it isn't afraid to be nonsensical." Ross Bonaime of '' Collider'' gave the film grade of "B", saying that "''Sisu'' is certainly ridiculous, but sometimes it's just fun to watch an obscene amount of Nazis get what's coming to them." Tom Shone of ''The Times'' gave the film four out of five stars, saying that it "is violent in the pulpy, maximalist manner of a Tarantino film — bones snap, bodies fly apart, blood leaps across the screen — but there is nothing messy about the storytelling, which is as tight as a Sergio Leone flick."

On 1 August 2023, Japanese video game designer Hideo Kojima, best known for the ''Metal Gear'' video game series, posted a message on Twitter in which he highly praised the ''Sisu'' film, saying: "This is no longer a war movie. It is a MAD grind of a battle between terribly cool men. A lot of fight ideas that surpass Rambo, the immortal old man!" At the end of message, Kojima expresses his interest in making a game about the main character of the film.

Accolades

Future

In March 2023, Helander has hinted in an interview of ''STT'' at the idea that if the film is successful at the box office in the United States, he could consider making a possible sequel for ''Sisu''. In May 2023, Helander said during an interview of '' GamesRadar+'' that he might even have some kind of idea for continuing the story of Aatami Korpi.

See also

* Cinema of Finland
* List of Finnish films of the 2020s
* List of action films of the 2020s

Notes

References

External links

* of Nordisk Film (in Finnish)
* of Lionsgate
*

{{Portal bar, Film, Finland
2022 action films
Finnish action films
Finnish World War II films
Finnish multilingual films
Survival films
Films about Nazis
Films about mining
Films set in the 1940s
Films set in Lapland
Films shot in Finland
Films set in swamps
Films directed by Jalmari Helander
Stage 6 Films films
Lionsgate films
English-language Finnish films
2020s Finnish-language films
2020s English-language films
2022 multilingual films
2020s American films
American action films
American World War II films
American multilingual films
American survival films
Films about Nazi hunters