Everyone loves a good John Wick fight scene but, after the latest installment of the series, we may never again see Keanu Reeves kill a hundred bad guys without tearing his suit. Luckily, Lionsgate, the studio that brought us Wick, is bringing a new action hero along those same lines -- and just as good.
"Sisu" stars Finnish actor Jorma Tommila as a former soldier named Aatami Korpi. Korpi is living in Lapland during World War II, where he discovers gold in a remote wilderness. Since Lapland is the northernmost area of Finland, he must bring the gold to more populated areas of the country to sell it.
As he makes the trek to the closest viable city, he encounters soldiers from the German SS, who try to take it from him. The attempt might go well for the Nazis at first, but Korpi is no ordinary Finnish soldier. Even if he were, the Finns had a reputation for being particularly good at killing their enemies. He's determined to get his gold back by any means necessary.
In fact, the word sisu has no direct translation to English, but the gist of its meaning is a white-knuckled form of courage and unimaginable determination in the face of overwhelming odds, which Korpi inflicts on any Nazi who gets in his way.
Reader beware: The Red Band trailer below has some pretty gnarly scenes.
The history of Finland during World War II is an interesting one. The war began to engulf the entire European continent in 1939, when Germany invaded Poland from one side and the Soviet Union from the other. While the world watched the war between France and Germany, the Soviets also invaded Finland.
Finland initially repelled the Red Army, inflicting massive casualties of at least 125,000 dead or missing and 208,000 wounded. The Finns were unable to resist the Soviet onslaught and were forced to capitulate. They never forgot the Soviet treachery, so when Nazi Germany was ready to invade the USSR, Finland was eager to let them invade Russia from its Lapland territory.
When the Germans launched the invasion, called Operation Barbarossa, Finland joined them to kick the Russians out of Finnish territory. The Finns again inflicted massive casualties on the Russians. The low estimate of Soviet dead during what Finland calls the Continuation War was one-quarter of a million. The total number of Red Army killed, wounded and missing in Finland was upward of a million.
As we all know, the Soviet Union was eventually able to turn the tide, and Finland made a separate peace with the USSR. That peace left some 200,000 German troops in Lapland trying to withdraw to occupied Norway, with Finnish soldiers nipping at their heels. Despite being outnumbered three to one, the Finns expelled the Nazis within seven months.
It's during these last days of the war, when the Finns have turned on the Germans, that Korpi is trying to move his newfound gold. The Nazis are conducting a scorched-earth retreat and have no issues with taking the property of a lone prospector by force -- until Korpi makes it an issue. Over and over and over again.
"Sisu" is in theaters starting April 28, 2023. To learn more about this piece of cinematic gold, visit the official website ... just don't try to steal that gold.
-- Blake Stilwell also enjoys foreign films and can be reached at blake.stilwell@military.com. He can be found on Twitter @blakestilwell or on LinkedIn.
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