Risto Jarva, arguably Finland’s most gifted director of the modern era, died in a car crash while returning home after the premiere of this film. He could not have wished for a better swan song than The Year of the Hare, with its bittersweet portrait of an advertising executive who takes off into the woods and makes friends with a hare so charming that it might have strayed from the pages of Beatrix Potter. Witty and relaxed, this is a film that is infectiously enjoyable, and way ahead of its time.

Dir: Risto Jarva.
Finland, 1977.
Subtitled.
128 mins.