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| Skavabölen pojat. On the sofa: Onni Tommila, Leea Klemola, Ilmari Järvenpää, Elina Knihtilä and Tommi Korpela.Behind: Martti Suosalo. Please click to enlarge the image. |
Skavabölegrabbarna
FI / DE © 2009 Juonifilmi / Nikovantastic. D: Zaida Bergroth. SC: Antti Raivio, Jan Forsström, Zaida Bergroth – based on the play by Antti Raivio (1991). DP: Anu Keränen. M: Alexander Hacke.
CAST: Lauri Tilkanen (Rupert), Iiro Panula (Evert), Ilmari Järvenpää (Rupert as a child), Onni Tommila (Evert as a child), Leea Klemola (mother), Martti Suosalo (father), Sulevi Peltola (Magician Kinnunen), Elina Knihtilä (Anu), Tommi Korpela (Ossi), Henriikka Salo (Anneli), Eila Roine (aunt Hilppa), Saara Kotkaniemi (Maria), Kirsi Asikainen (Anja Sallinen), Annu Valonen (Farkku-Tamara), Tarja Kirjatankki (Rosenqvist), Hannu Kivioja (grandfather), Tuomas Turkka (Russian soldier). 126 min.
A FS Film release with Swedish subtitles by Joanna Erkkilä.
D-Cinema at Tennispalatsi 2, Helsinki, 5 Sep 2009 (premiere weekend).
Skavaböle = Hyrylä, the center of Tuusula, not far from Helsinki.
Antti Raivio is a well-known Finnish actor, director, playwright and co-founder of Q-Teatteri (The Q Theatre). His play Skavabölen pojat was an acclaimed production of Q-Teatteri in 1991.
Positive features in the film:
– a good cast
– Zaida Bergroth is an excellent director of children
– the subject is strong: the boys surviving a dysfunctional family
– the father (Martti Suosalo) succumbing to alcoholism, the mother (Leea Klemola) to psychosis and suicide.
The subject is depressive, and the general atmosphere is melancholy. There are uplifting passages, usually related to the media: Lasse Virén winning a gold medal in the Munich Olympics, Millie Small doing her ska hit "My Boy Lollipop", the boys dancing to "Sugar Baby Love" by Rubettes.
The main theme tune of the film by Alexander Hacke is an homage to Led Zeppelin's "Stairway To Heaven".
The presence of history is also depressing, symbolized by the skull of the Russian soldier. The grandfather (Hannu Kivioja) had been an army doctor.
There is little sense of inner drive and tempo in the movie. It is a bit static, and the characters seem so crushed by their circumstances that the viewer may get exasperated.
Laila had seen the Q-Teatteri production of Skavabölen pojat, which she found powerful, but in her opinion the subject had lost some of its force in the film adaptation.
A heavy digital look.
