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THE MIDWIFE

KÄTILÖ

By Antti J. JOKINEN

UNDER THE MILKY WAY (FRANCE) - as DISTR

Drama - Production 2013

Amid impossible circumstances an impossible love story is born. The telling is flavoured with a pinch of magical realism, fistfuls of harsh realities of war and Finland’s dark history. The fate of women in the prison camps of WW II was cruel, and the film depicts the era with an agonizing precision.

- Year of production
- 2013
- Genres
- Drama
- Countries
- FINLAND, LITHUANIA
- Languages
- FINNISH
- Budget
- 0 - 0.3 M$
- Director(s)
- Antti J. JOKINEN
- Writer(s)
- Anttij. JOKINEN, Katja KETTU
- Cast
- Elina KNIHTILÄ, Johannes BROTHERUS, Krista KOSONEN, Lauri TILKANEN, Leea KLEMOLA, Martti SUOSALO, Seppo PÄÄKKÖNEN, Tommi KORPELA
- ISAN
- 0000-0004-D2F2-0000-N-0000-0000-5
- EIDR
- 10.5240/7D0A-81A7-AFC6-FAF9-ACDC-I
- Producer(s)
- Jukka HELLE (Solar Films), Markus SELIN (Solar Films)
- Synopsis
- The movie Wildeye can best be described as a love story, set against the historical backdrop of “The Lapland War” in 1944-1945, a conflict between Germany and Finland in the aftermath of WWII.
  The moral and the human content of the story is exceptionally strong; the love story has ingredients and echoes of the Nazi ideology and the unhuman treatment of the prisoners-of-the-war. These themes, including the feel of love, as experienced by the main character, are so strong that they bypass the whispers and exceptations of morality and consciousness.
  The main character is a midwife called Helena, also nick-named as “False-Eye”. She falls in love with a Finnish-German SS-officer Johannes Angelhurst. To him the woman is different, a natural resource, more powerful and different from any other woman.
  The events take mainly place in Petsamo, Titovka Prison Camp and so-called “Dead Man’s Fjord”, a remote, unknown place somewhere at the Arctic Ocean; a place people believe is cursed.
  The cruel reality of the camp life is revealed slowly in the movie. The events are known from the history books; the Operation 1005, the human experiments conducted on the prisoners and the crude every-day life in the prison are visible in the movie.
  The background of Johannes shows us the soul of the soldier, torn by the feelings of guilt. All the central characters are battling with their own pasts. Fierce, burning love does not remove the past, it does not even allow oblivion. But, in the end, good wins over evil.
- Beginning of shooting
- May 01, 2014