The Unknown Soldier

Summer 1941. A machine gun company from eastern Finland is sent to the front. They wake the next morning to artillery and the war has begun. The film follows the next three years from inside that company: orders, marches, trenches, losses, and an advance that makes less and less sense. There is no hero, only men learning to tolerate each other. Edvin Laine adapted Väinö Linna's 1954 novel. The book caused argument in Finland when it appeared because it refused the narrative of military heroism, and the film kept that stance. The officers here are not figures of respect but frequently ridiculous or dangerous. The film remains the most-watched production in Finland's history; roughly two million eight hundred thousand people, more than half the population, saw it in cinemas. Screening it on television on Independence Day became a tradition. The novel was filmed again in 1985 and 2017. Who it's for: Anyone interested in war films, anti-heroic narrative, and Nordic cinema. Who it's not for: It runs long, there are many characters, and some passages will lack context without knowledge of Finnish history. The image also sits within the black and white limits of its period.