Yhdeksän miehen saappaat S1.E7 Sotamies Matti Nokkanen

Veli-Matti Saikkonen & Ralf Långbacka: Yhdeksän miehen saappaat S1.E7 Sotamies Matti Nokkanen (FI 1969) with Heikki Kinnunen as Private Matti Nokkanen. The nurse can be identified as a Lotta by the swastika badge. My screenshot from Yle Areena.

FI 1969. PC: Oy Yleisradio Ab - TV-ohjelma 2. P: Matti Tapio.
    D: Veli-Matti Saikkonen, Ralf Långbacka. SC: adaptation from Pentti Haanpää's novel [1945] by Veli-Matti Saikkonen, Ralf Långbacka. Cin: Pekka Mäkinen - b&w - 1,33:1. AD: Ensio Suominen. Cost: Eila Hyytiäinen, Oili Hämäläinen. Makeup: Marketta Paakkunainen. M: Heikki Aaltoila. S: Heikki Kujala. ED: Kaija Ahopelto. Military advisor: Pentti Palmu.
    Soundtrack: "Rakkautta ei se ollutkaan" ("Liebe war es nie [Blonde Natascha]"), comp. Alfred Markusch, lyr. Fritz Rotter (1931). Finnish lyr. Sauvo Puhtila (1957).
    In the opening credit music there is a reference to "Eldankajärven jää" ("Ali Baba"), comp. Alfred Markusch, lyr. Istvan Weiner (1928). Finnish lyr. Erkki Tiesmaa (1942).
    Christmas songs: "Soihdut sammuu" ("Tomtarnas julnatt", 1898) (comp. Vilhelm Sefve-Svensson,  lyr. Alfred Smedberg). "No onkos tullut kesä" (comp. trad., lyr. J. H. Erkko).
    C: Heikki Kinnunen (Private Matti Nokkanen), Ritva Holmberg (Kaija), Elsa Turakainen (landlady), Risto Aaltonen (Ensign, Kaija's husband), Vesa Mäkelä, Juha Hyppönen, Reino Manner, Armi Maaranen, Ritva Malmstedt.
    Narrator: Matti Oravisto.
    29 min
    Episode aired: 14 Dec 1969
    Viewed at home from the Yle Areena streaming platform, 3 Nov 2023.

In memoriam Veli-Matti Saikkonen (1941-2023).

Yle Areena: " Wounded soldier Nokkanen meets his old lady friend by chance while on leave. They spend Christmas together. But the Christmas celebrations are unexpectedly interrupted. "

AA: The title means: Nine Men's Boots. The classic Finnish television series is based on a novel by Pentti Haanpää. It is a Querschnitt / cross-section narrative covering a wide variety of wartime experiences via the device of army boots changing owners, to be compared with Die Abenteuer eines Zehnmarkscheines, Un carnet de bal, In jenen Zeiten, L'Argent and similar stories.

I saw and loved the series when it was first aired in 1969. It was an instant success, and it is permanently available at the Yle Areena platform. Today I revisit Episode 7 in memory of the great director Veli-Matti Saikkonen who died a month ago. I have just written his obituary for Helsingin Sanomat. 

I'm also trying to cope with pangs of conscience. 

Saikkonen has always been popular and highly esteemed, yet there is a major issue in film history, regarding him and all who have devoted their talent to television.

We revere great film artists who create movies for cinema theater distribution. But in film history overviews and specialized studies - such as histories of national cinemas - we neglect television film directors, although their work is of the highest level and finds larger audiences. That was too often the case with Saikkonen, as well.

It is a matter of time and energy, of course. But a solution must be found to do justice to all film artists, regardless of the medium.

...

Revisiting Nine Men's Boots I'm happy to register the assured mise-en-scène and the fine performances in solo scenes and ensembles. There is a particular sensitivity in the close-ups. The young couple of Heikki Kinnunen (Matti) and Ritva Holmberg (Kaija) has delightful chemistry. There is nothing obvious or mechanical in their interplay.

Veli-Matti Saikkonen and his teacher and mentor Ralf Långbacka were influenced by Brecht (Långbacka was also a major Brecht scholar), and Nine Men's Boots is an example of a non-linear play and storytelling without an identification structure. The device of the boots can be seen as a distanciation effect. This is a story about pure chance.

The director-screenwriters were also influenced by Chekhov, and the series does not belong to the tradition of classical drama but to the Chekhovian lineage which is about epiphany: the point of the story is about gaining a fuller, richer, more complex insight about life.

The episode of Private Matti Nokkanen belongs also to an ancient "conte drolatique" lineage with affinities in One Thousand and One Nights, Decamerone, and so on. Kaija is married, about which Matti does not know. Saikkonen & Långbacka refuse to exploit the potential for ribaldry. Instead there is a life-affirming tenderness, meaningful in a story about a war that was devastating and existential. There is a fine sense of tact and an appealing sense of humour in the potentially scandalous situation. 

In the beginning, Private Nikkanen's wounded arm is treated in the hospital. The pain and suffering is acute, but Nikkanen is surrounded by gentle and efficient hospital staff.

An entertainment event is arranged for the convalescents. A lady vocalist sings in Finnish "Liebe war es nie" ("Rakkautta ei se ollutkaan"), backed by a male accordeonist.  The camera roves among the faces of the thoughtfully listening convalescents. Each face counts, each face tells a story. I am not aware of English lyrics, but there is an eponymous movie whose English title is Love It Was Not. The literal translation would be "It Was Never Love". Among others, the song belonged to the repertory of Zarah Leander who recorded it in 1932 in Swedish as "Kärlek var det ej". I doubt she sang it after 1932, because the composer Fred Markusch was a Hungarian Jew. Incidentally, Markusch is also the composer of what was known in Finland as "Eldankajärven jää", one of our greatest wartime hits. It is heard during the opening credits. "Liebe war es nie" returns as the end credit theme, played by a harmonica.

Upon release from the military hospital, Nokkanen complains about the pair of stinking army boots that are thrown to him. The officer in charge of supplies responds that jazz boots are not available. Matti spends his leave of convalescence at home. His father works at a metal factory. When his folks ask how it is on the front, Matti has nothing to tell.

Saikkonen was a pacifist who directed many productions on military subjects, including Woyzeck (his acclaimed theater school diploma work) and its Finnish counterpart, Alpo Ruuth's Tykkimies Kauppalan viimeiset päivät (for the lead actor Vesa-Matti Loiri his crowning achievement).

Finland is a nation with an exceptional fighting spirit. I believe that Finnish pacifism is not an antithesis but an integral part of it. Pacifism is the expression of the better angels of our nature. A true soldier is always a pacifist because nobody knows better that in war everybody loses. Everybody who kills, dies inside.

All that take the sword shall perish by the sword.

These thoughts also evoke the memory of Martti Ahtisaari who died on 16 October 2023, the 10th president of Finland and a Nobel Peace Prize laureate who helped achieve peace on three continents (Namibia, Kosovo, Aceh).

Blessed are the peacemakers.