Indy Film Fest: Sisu
"Sisu" is a lean, mean, Nazi-killing movie machine with little else going on in between.
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First off, if you’re reading this – thank you! Secondly, if you’re reading this and you’re still a Nazi in the year of our Lord 2023 – fuck you! Thirdly, if you’re reading this, you’re still a Nazi in the year of our Lord 2023 and you happen to see “Sisu” (which I saw as part of Indy Film Fest and opens widely in theaters on Friday, April 28) … you’re not gonna be a happy camper. The flick clearly shows what the rational among us already know – Nazis are cowardly little creeps and get dealt with as such … graphically.
Going into the movie I thought Sisu was the name of our hero. It’s not. It’s a Finnish word with no direct translation meaning stoic determination, grit, bravery, resilience, hardiness and white-knuckle courage. Aatami Korpi (Jorma Tommila … not Jorma Taccone) is the personification of these ideals.
It’s 1944 and we’re in northern Finland’s Lapland region. Korpi, a World War I veteran who lost his family to the Russians, is living in near-isolation as a prospector with only his company being his pooch (who strongly resembles my father-in-law’s dog, Dixie) and his horse.
Just as Korpi’s hit the mother lode, he runs across a retreating Nazi patrol led by SS Obersturmführer Bruno Helldorf (Aksel Hennie, a world away from his kindly “The Martian” character). The squadron is employing scorched earth tactics raping (they have a truck full of “bitches” with whom they take uninvited sexual liberties) and pillaging their way across the land.
The Nazis ill-advisedly try to abscond with the miner’s gold without realizing they’re tussling with a one-man death squad with 300 confirmed Russian kills under his belt. Korpi runs roughshod through the Nazis dispatching them with knives, guns, his pickaxe, hurled land mines, tank tracks, etc. It’s all very satisfying.
“Sisu” as written and directed by Finnish genre filmmaker Jalmari Helander (“Rare Exports,” “Big Game”) is a Spaghetti Western in style (stylized title cards, a near-silent hero, gorgeous golden hour photography by Kjell Lagerroos), but not in length. This is a lean and mean 91-minute Nazi-killing movie machine with little else going on in between.
Tommila gives a wonderfully physical performance as Korpi. The character is a more efficient Nazi killer than Indiana Jones and the Inglourious Basterds combined. Interestingly enough, Tommila’s son Onni turns up as the most sympathetic of the Nazis. Both father and son appeared in Helander’s previous pictures with Onni serving as star.
Not for Nazis nor the squeamish, “Sisu” is a squibby, squishy tip of the cap to Sergio Leone, Steven Spielberg, George Miller and Quentin Tarantino. It ain’t deep, but it’s well worth a peep.