Tears of April

Finland, 1918. The civil war is under way. Miina, a young woman who fought on the Red side, is captured by the Whites and ordered to be executed. Aaro, the lieutenant on duty, is given the job of taking her to trial. Something forms between them on the road. The judge who receives them applies rules of his own. Aku Louhimies's Finnish film is adapted from a novel by Leena Lander. The telling clears neither side in the civil war; both do much the same things. The pressure and coercion the lieutenant faces from his superior is set down plainly in the film as an abuse of power. The images are cold and beautiful; the tone is without hope from beginning to end.