Mannerheim kuulee. FI 2014. PC: Teko Film & Also Starring. P: Frej Karlson. Production manager: Daniela Ollus.
D: Nalle Sjöblad. SC: Nalle Sjöblad, Kari Puumalainen, Frej Karlson. DP: Mikael Gustafsson. AD: Tony Alfström. Cost: Marjatta Nissinen. Makeup: Kati Koskela, Jani Kylmälä. S design: Juri Seppä. S: Vili Laitinen. Gaffer: Kosti Lehikoinen. ED: Anders Meinander. Colour grading: Pasi Mäkelä. Stills: Kim Öhrling.
C: Dick Idman (Mannerheim), Martin Bahne, Niklas Groundstroem, Jouko Puolanto, Kris Gummerus, Jessica Grabowsky, Milla Puolakanaho. In Swedish with Finnish subtitles. 2 min 22 sec
Screened at Kinopalatsi 2, Helsinki - Helsinki International Film Festival (HIFF) Love & Anarchy press conference - 4 Sep 2014
Expecting a spectacular biopic on him to be the gala attraction at the Love & Anarchy film festival at Bio Rex Mannerheim now hears that the film was never made.
A meta-parody. There have been thousands of parodies on the internet of the bunker scene of Downfall (Der Untergang, 2004). (Including one in which Hitler hears about the reorganization of the Finnish Film Archive). There have been already also meta-parodies in which Hitler hears about these parodies, or that the parodies are getting censored.
Mannerheim kuulee, a parody remake of the bunker scene, follows Oliver Hirschbiegel's mise-en-scène, direction of actors, and montage closely, but we are now in the headquarters of Marshal Mannerheim in Mikkeli, Finland. Perhaps this parody is fully comprehensible only to the Finnish viewer who is aware of the long record of failed Mannerheim biopic projects. It is also a satirical reminder for those who would like to weaken the status of the Swedish language in our land that the first language of our national hero was Swedish. Finnish Mannerheim learned first late in life, and he spoke it with difficulty.
I rate Mannerheim kuulee highly, to the top, with the brilliant parodies of "Weird Al" Yankovic, the creator of Gandhi II (1989), among others ("He's back, and this time he's mad. No more Mr. Passive Resistance he's out to kick some butt.").
In a twisted way Mannerheim kuulee is a tribute to our Marshal who was respected by both Hitler and Stalin. I don't share Mannerheim's Weltanschauung but I tend to think that without his presence in WWII Finland might not exist.
The main guest of the press conference was Mark Cousins. It was a great pleasure to meet him. There is no nicer guy. We sent a sms greeting to Peter von Bagh. He called right back, and thus those two film historian giants got to talk with each other for the first and only time.
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