Sisu: Road to Revenge review – Finnish hero takes on a Red Army butcher in a brilliant sequel | film

IIn 2022, Finnish indie action film Sisu looks like a one-hit wonder. By pitting a grizzled prospector against an entire platoon of Nazis, writer-director Jalmari Helander has heeded the lessons of George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road, that there’s serious cinematic value in going metal along one straight narrative line. This profitable sleeper hit now leads to the follow-up Selection, which somehow feels more expansive while still clocking in at under 90 minutes.

After eliminating the SS, indomitable hero Atami (Jorma Tomela) gains a tragic backstory and a sinister new post-war enemy in a Red Army butcher named Igor Draganov, played by James Cameron favorite Stephen Lang. Once again, Helander’s economic approach proved striking and exciting. No unnecessary barriers are placed between the audience and the films having a good time: we have one scene of Atami dismantling beams of his family home after beams, and one scene of Draganov breaking out of prison before the two cross paths on the back roads of Soviet-occupied Finland. Cutting off the chase gives Helander time to craft set pieces in which Atami outruns and outruns the Red Army force; In this regard, Sisu 2 is a sequel more of the same. The good news is that it’s still great: good old-fashioned solid stunt work, neat and varied cuts, and a diverse and inventive scattering of villains from the moment Aatami deploys one of those beams to shoot down a fighter jet.

Helander enjoys the gorgeous, sun-drenched landscapes of his homeland, and has the boyish enthusiasm of a child playing war games in the forest; You half expect someone’s mother to call everyone over for tea. It may be cartoonish – it looks sharp for a sadly misplaced mousetrap – but the simplicity of the comics is a rebuke to the more complex films. It doesn’t need excessive CGI with practical special effects as powerfully convincing as Tommila’s bloodied, defiant face. At the same time, the text offers one note of grace after another; Those beams become a souvenir, then a life raft, then a new beginning.

Like the protagonist, Helander sticks to the basics, ignites the rest, and works harder and faster to make it happen. His film should raise huge cheers in Kiev – and indeed everywhere else.