Possibly the single most celebrated of all Finish films, this adaptation of Vaino’s Linna’s searing novel of young men struggling to survive the long war against the Soviet Union during the 1940s still grips an audience from start to finish. Its gallery of engaging characters, its action sequences, and its abiding humanism give it a dignity that few war movies achieve.

Dir: Edvin Laine.
Finland, 1955.
Subtitled.
181 mins.