The Unknown Soldier

Summer 1941. Finland goes to war against the Soviet Union again and a machine gun company starts marching east. At first they advance: across Karelia, taking towns, thinking the war will be short. Then it turns. There are no heroes in this film. Rokka listens to nobody and fights better than anyone. Koskela is a quiet, fair officer. Lahtinen complains without stopping. Three years later, on the retreat, very few of the company are left. Rauni Mollberg directs the Finnish film; three hours and nineteen minutes, adapted from Väinö Linna's novel; Linna served in that war as an infantryman himself. The same book was filmed in 1955 and again in 2017. This second version was talked about for showing the war dirtier and barer than before.