The Paha Maa Men

Not so much the title to a Sigur Ros album (though it really should be) but yet another stunningly good foreign film that I've had the fortune to find out about. It's been a strong few weeks for us at the movies, what with Children Of Men and The Departed but they're in English and so not at all challenging or worthy as an anecdote. Just try and get to grips with this though...

For starters, director Aku Louhimies is responsible for me finally seeing a film set in Finland! Set against the backdrop of an iced-over contemporary Helsinki, and based on Leo Tolstoy's 'False Note', Frozen Land takes you on a journey through a strikingly bleak and occasionally blackly funny world, where money's the goal and drink abounds, and where loneliness and desperation push people to the edge of their lives and sanity. A brilliantly devised web of interconnecting fates, Frozen Land (hence Paha Maa) bounces between stories and characters' lives, set into motion by the printing of a forged 500 Euro note. Semi-improvised dialogue and gripping visuals form the compelling backdrop for an exceptionally powerful ensemble of performances, from a pair of young computer hackers and a depressed policewoman, to a mullet-haired car thief and a vacuum salesman and recovering-alcoholic, who falls off the wagon with a vengeance. Put it like this: you won't ever view the hoovering in quite the same way ever again.

Frozen Land is the very definition of a 'feel bad' film. Its Hollywood comparisons must be 21 Grams and Crash but it pre dates the latter and is infinitely superior to both. Whereas the above felt (to me, at least) contrived and over wrought, this film is so depressing, you leave the cinema not certain whether you ever want to go back. I can't remember one moment where any character experiences happiness (even the inevitable redemption at the end is tinged in tragedy) and yet anything else would have felt false. I certainly don't need to view it again but I hope you can find it as, presently, it's only playing at one cinema in the entire country! I suppose it is the very antithesis of a multiplex movie - there's as much taking of drugs, drunk driving and watching of porn as there is dialogue - but can be heartily recommended for its stellar performances and intriguing plot. The denouement, as hinted at earlier, is as harrowing as anything you'll ever see and will stay in the mind far longer than any Summer blockbuster you could care to mention. You might say that it's some Finnish...