Niskavuori taistelee

Niskavuori Fights / Niskavuoris kamp. FI 1957. PC: Suomen Filmiteollisuus. D: Edvin Laine. SC: Juha Nevalainen - based on the play by Hella Wuolijoki Entäs nyt Niskavuori (1953). DP: Osmo Harkimo. PD: Aarre Koivisto (1920-2005). M: Heikki Aaltoila. Starring Elsa Turakainen (Loviisa, the old lady of Niskavuori), Mirjam Novero (Ilona, the young lady of Niskavuori), Tauno Palo (Juhani Mattila/Juhani Niskavuori Jr.), Martti Katajisto (Paavo, the son of Ilona). 96 min. Swedish subtitles. Beautiful, clean print viewed at SEA, Orion, Helsinki, 2 Feb 2005. The final play of the Niskavuori epic ends in 1945. Aarne, the lord of the house, falls in the war. Juhani, the illegitimate son, appears decades after his mother had left the house where she served as a maid. Loviisa, the old lady, is losing her strength, and the house is about to fall apart as all her surviving children want to sell it, but there is a future in Juhani Jr., Ilona, and Paavo. Laine and Nevalainen softened the bitter politics of the play, yet they turned out a marvellous epic film. Again several sequences are purely visual and have a documentary quality recording the hard work of the people of the home front. "I have often built on injustice. I won't take it with me", are among Loviisa's last words. The final camera movement from outside the Niskavuori manor on a rainy night stops at Loviisa's eyes looking at us from her portrait on the wall. Maybe ****