Review of Tears of April (2008) by Mika H — 17 Oct 2009

As someone not of Finnish descent but someone who has an interest in the land and it's history, it's hard to put your finger on just how much of a profound effect that the civil war had, but from watching films as lovingly produced and beautifully moving as K�¤sky (Tears of April), you can at least feel the great passion and melancholy that this time holds.

K�¤sky is a beautifully shot and strongly scripted story of, to cut a long story short, two people of two opposing sides who fall in love. It is a long-used story, but not one that is lost through the tense feeling that the closing stages of war brings. The characters know what they feel but know that on some level there is something wrong with it.

Through the film, there are moments that may surprise such as the growing relationship between the young, ethical Jaeger and the judge who is to pass sentence on his female prisoner. For a Finnish film, it is astonishingly literal and really wonderfully scripted as well as acted. Samuli Vauramo and Eero Aho especially are superb.

Somehow through the melancholy and anger that fills films like this, there comes some light at the end of the tunnel, which is the thing that is most surprising of all. Aku Louhimies, who is fast becoming one of the most exciting directors to come out of northern Europe in years, has created another stunning tale of great beauty which shows some kinships with his masterful Paha M�¤�¤ (Frozen Land), but in a completely different time and setting. If he keeps this up, he will hopefully get the recognition he surely deserves.

Simply put, K�¤sky is a stunningly beautiful film, both in it's location of the Finnish countryside, it's wooden houses and lakes, and the way that it is performed, and ultimately what matters the most, the sense of beauty that you take away from it. There is a realism in films like these that you just wouldn't find in a Hollywood setting and that's what enhances films that are already full of power, especially from a director at his very peak.

2008 was a very good year for Finnish films with this and Tummien Perhosten Koti (The Home Of Dark Butterflies), amongst a few others of note, and K�¤sky is right up there with the very best of them.