The crowd for Jamari Helander’s “Sisu” was my first re-introduction to the atmosphere of Midnight Madness at the Toronto International Film Festival. When the gentleman behind me whooped and hollered at the first gory death, I knew I was home.
The Legend of Aatami
“Sisu” concerns a Finn named Aatami (Jorma Tormilla), a gold miner in Finland 1945. Tormilla’s totally fitting for the part as a chiseled, aging action hero, as he excels in his stunt work and physical acting in a silent performance. We start by quietly observing him combing through his property, looking for any signs of gold. Then, he cheers, hitting the absolute jackpot and he starts his journey to the bank.
On the road there, he runs into a band of Nazis who have just finished turning most of the Finland countryside into a barren wasteland. The group is led by Bruno (Askel Hennie) and his right-hand man, Wolf (Jack Doolan). Wolf wants to shoot on-sight as Aatami passes their convoy, but Bruno lets him go because he’s as good as dead, anyway. This becomes Bruno’s biggest mistake as it launches a battle of the Nazis trying to steal Aatami’s gold, and him having an absolutely ridiculous will to live.
Nicknamed The Immortal, the way the film handles his “legend” is great, making Aatami ooze cool, and everything he does on-screen backs this legend. The film asks us to have fun with the mayhem on-screen in general, through carefully orchestrated fight scenes, to a fantastic scene set in and by a lake, which has to be amongst my favourite sequences in Jamari Helander’s films thus far.
Jorma Tomilla as Aatami in “Sisu.” (Photo credit: Antti Rastivo.)
A Distinct Filmography
That’s the impressive thing about Helander as a filmmaker. His three films are all distinctly different. “Rare Exports” tells the darker story of the legend of Santa Claus. Then, Samuel L. Jackson stars as the U.S. President in “Big Game,” where Air Force One is shot down in the Finnish wilderness. Here, we get a good old-fashioned battle of wills between Nazis and a one-man wrecking machine.
“Sisu” calls to mind “Rambo: Fist Blood,” but solves my issue of not really buying the conflict in that film. Specifically, for me, I don’t get why the townsfolk initially want Rambo out of their town so badly. At least with “Sisu,” we know that Aatami is holding onto his gold because it’s the only thing he has left; and Bruno persists in his chase, despite warnings and the legend, because he knows he’s in a losing war and the gold is his ticket out.
The Nazis and Action
The character traits for Wolf and Bruno are interesting, as well, with Wolf having the first shirt attitude, and Bruno having careful leadership where he gives a lot of thought to his decisions before making them. They’re memorable, and both have some surprising moments of comedy in the film, especially in a scene where Aatami goes through a No Man’s Land, trying to evade canon fire and machine guns from their tank. Action sequences like these ones are so much fun, diverse in setting and their length, sometimes being a giant ordeal of gore, and other times smaller drawn-out battles between characters. Helander finds a perfect balance between portraying brutal violence, and completely fun violence.
There’s also what I imagine would have been a fun acting challenge between Jorma Tormilla and real-life son Onni, who are the stars of both “Rare Exports” and Onni co-leads “Big Game.” Both films they play father and son, and here they’re on opposite sides of the conflict, as Jorma anchors the film as a ruthless lead, and Onni is in the tank with Bruno and Wolf.
Aatami (Jorma Tomilla) passes a Nazi tank in “Sisu.” (Courtesy of TIFF.)
Also inside this conflict is a truck of women that have been taken as hostages from Finnish towns, led by Mimosa Willamo. When she gets her moments to shine, her dialogue is sharp, and these women inject a whole other layer of badassery to the film.
At the Midnight Madness premiere, Jamari Helander said it’s been eight years of trying to think of something cool to bring back to the Toronto International Film Festival. He does this successfully with “Sisu.” For a filmmaker with such distinct films, I look forward to whatever his next project may be.
