Rating: 
Summary: Outstanding Film! Not to be missed!
Review: The Cuckoo was one of my favorite films at the Seattle International Film Festival 2003. The DVD is great. Special features include interviews with cast, director and producer. It is beautifully filmed, the actors are perfect and the story is life affirming. I wish the film was more widely distributed. Major hunkster, Finnish actor Ville Haapsalo, deservedly won the best actor award at the Moscow 2002 International Film Festival.
Rating:
Summary: AN UNEXPECTED SURPRISE
Review: The main theme of this film is well known and very well worked out. Two enemies meet in a neutral surrounding. They want to kill each other, but by one reason or another, they don't. Sounds familiar? Well here we have an extra twist - a woman. None of these three people understand each other; they speak different languages and they have different backgrounds. There is no understanding but yet there is some. They feel each other.
The film is smartly complemented by the excellent director's work, superb acting, top cinematography, and the beautiful scenery of (Laplandia - Korelia) the northern Russia - southern Finland. This was the territory the Soviets aggressively took away from the Finns in 1939 in the Soviet - Finish war (the forgotten war). That is when the Finish snipers and the brutal winter destroyed the Soviet Army but still a little country as Finland could not defend itself against the Soviet might.
I give this film five stars and a very warm recommendation to everyone to watch it.
Rating:
Summary: anti-war AND anti-Hollywood
Review: The perfect film for people like me who get tired of the arrogant attitudes in most Hollywood films today. I think the reviewer yonfarcountry took the words right out of my mouth. All three actors were very good, but, Ani Juuso just charms you.
Great scenery and a realistic pace. Real life doesn't happen in quick MTV-style cuts. Beautiful.
Rating:
Summary: Remarkable Cuckoo
Review: This is an extraordinary tale of a Sami woman, a Russian Soldier, and a Finnish Conscript. The tale begins in Lappland, home to the Sami people, with the Finnish Conscript, garbed in SS costume, as a prisoner of the Russians being chained to a rock and left to die. Our Russian is himself a prisoner, taken to trial for his anti-Communist beliefs. On the road to his trial, he and his custodians are attacked by one of their own aircraft. The Finnish Conscript, a sniper on a suicide mission known as a "cuckoo," he bears witness to the events, but is more concerned with escaping from his bindings. This is where the Sami woman comes in. During the morning, while in search of materials, she comes across the carcasses of the Russian's captors, as well as the Russian who is dying after the attack. She buries the other Russians, and drags the Russian back to her encampment, and begins to nurse him back to health. Shortly afterwards the Finnish Conscript who had successfully freed himself from his chains, finds his way to the encampment. The story is about three people who speak three different languages, learning to communicate outside of language. This is not a war film, but an anti-war film. It is well written, well acted, and it is a story that will touch your heart. The actors are authentic, and the Sami actress, Anni-Christina Juuso, is extraordinary. The movie is beautifully photographed. It is funny, sad, and touching. Highly recomended.
Rating:
Summary: MY FAVORITE MOVIE
Review: This movie is my favorite. Don't miss this DVD.
Rating:
Summary: Extraordinary, funny, inspirational, beautiful
Review: What an extraordinary movie! I was confused at the beginning, as were the 3 people with whom I was watching this ultimately marvelous film. We couldn't figure out why the guy was being chained to the rock, who was on which side of the war, what languages they were speaking. But with a little patience and perseverance, it all becomes crystal clear and the movie soars to the stratosphere. Ten stars.
The whole movie is set in Lappland, home of the ethnic Sami people. There's a pacifist-Finnish-conscript-sniper-prisoner of the Russians (got all that?) who is chained to the rock and left to die (dressed in an SS uniform) because he just doesn't want to fight any more. Didn't want to fight in the first place. Most of the beginning of the movie is taken up with his persistent and ingenious attempts to free himself from the chains - and I think it was all of those schemes that kept my 18yo son fascinated. By the time the bolt came loose from the stone, my kid was hooked on 'the real story,' and, in spite of hating subtitles, he stuck around to the end and loved it.
Okay, stay with me here. Then there's a Russian prisoner of his own countrymen being taken to trial for the anti-Communist views found in his diaries. The jeep with the Russian is bombed; only the prisoner survives, but he's badly concussed.
And there's an utterly charming and luminous young Sami woman living alone (her husband was taken off 4 yrs earlier as a conscript) on a spit of land in a beautiful but pretty barren wilderness who ends up with both men in her hut. None of them speak a common language. The subtitles are hilarious as they babble on incessantly to each other with only occasional glimmers of real communication and understanding. But somehow they forge bonds, the seasons pass, the odd romances blossom and wane - and at the back of the whole story is one of the strongest anti-war messages I've ever seen.
Anni-Christina Juuso, the Sami actress, is nothing short of extraordinary.
The ending is touchingly beautiful, perfectly fitting for this touchingly beautiful film.
See it now.
Rating: 
Summary: At the edge of the world, at the end of the war
Review: WWII. Lapland. The last days of the hostilities between Finland and Russia. A Finnish sniper, Veiko, who for some unknown reason is wearing an SS uniform, is chained to a rock and left to die. For several days we follow his ingenious attempts to free himself from his chains. Meanwhile, a Russian soldier, Kartuzov, a military prisoner of his own army, is being taken to stand trial. They both eventually escape their respective predicaments and end up in the remote farm of a Sami woman, Anni, whose husband has left four years earlier to go to war and has apparently been killed. Once they reach the farm, they settle in with Anni and an interesting triangle develops. The Finn is a friendly pacifist, the Russian is suspicious and hostile and the Sami woman has no interest in the war at all. The Finn is also decidedly more attractive than the Russian. Anni does not fail to notice this. The relationships that develop have to do with a lot more than just their political viewpoints. Anni speaks only Sami; Veiko - Finnish and some German; Kartuzov only Russian. They make no attempt to communicate by other means, such as pointing at objects and using facial expressions and gestures. They just continue to engage in monologues in their own language, even though it is clear the others cannot understand what they're saying. Only the viewers know what is said, as it is all accompanied by English subtitles. Kartuzov's favourite word is "Faschist", which he hurls repeatedly at Veiko despite the latter's attempts to explain that he is Finnish, not German, and certainly not in the SS. I found this three sided monologue quite irritating at first. After a while, the comedic aspect of this lttle tower of Babel grew on me. It served to enhance the anti-war message of the film, as it showed how human relationships developed between the three despite the lack of verbal communication and despite the Russian's hostility and mistrust. All three actors are excellent. Veiko is played by the Finnish actor Haapasalo, Kartuzo by the Russian Bychkov. But the star of this movie in my mind is Anni, played by Anni-Christina Juuso - beautiful, impish, strong, happy, full of life, cute and confident. The first part of the film is somewhat tedious. It was hard to understand who's who and what's going on, and the sniper's struggle to free himself from his chains dragged on and on. As the film progressed, I grew more and more entranced with Anni and intrigued by the whole story. It is set in a beautiful environment and beautifully shot. Towards the end there is a particularly striking scene depicting a magical and surrealistic journey. Highly recommended, despite all the reservations I noted above.
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