|
In 1944, a Finnish sniper (Ville Haaspasalo) and a disgraced Russian officer (Viktor Bychkov) take shelter in the home of Anni (Anni-Kristiina Juuso), a Saami (Lapp) reindeer farmer. The Russian thinks the Finn is a German and wants to kill him. As far as the Finn, a pacifist, is concerned, the war is over. Anni, who hasn’t been with a man in four years, would also prefer it if the three of them could get along. The main innovation of Aleksandr Rogozhkin’s film also proves its fatal flaw: each of the three characters speaks a different language, and they’re unable to understand one another, but everything they say is subtitled for our benefit. Since the film’s linguistic point of view thus changes with each line of dialogue, and since the characters exist only through their speech, no emotional involvement with them is possible. The Cuckoo becomes a series of ludicrous misunderstandings, and that leads to a dreadful turn as Anni tries to prevent the dying Finn’s spirit from leaving his body. In a shot that unfortunately must be seen to be believed, the spirit, strolling away with a boy guide over the Lapp landscape, stops and signifies to the audience that he hears Anni’s call by cupping his hand to his ear. In Finnish, Russian, and Saami with English subtitles. (99 minutes)
BY CHRIS FUJIWARA
|
