The Cuckoo (2002)

Wonderful character development!

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Fascinating film this, in many ways.Slow to start, as the conscientious objector is nailed to a rock as bait following the ending of WW2 hostilities in Scandanavia. The director takes is through a sometimes quite painfully slow process as or young soldier fights a battle with a nail and chain. The scene when the chain gets released is a relief.The scenery, the close-ups, the human facial reactions throughout carry this film well. I can't understand why some friends of mine say they cannot watch subtitled films - here we have no choice - though non verbal communication or body language is clearly universal, even in adversity.My favourite scene: when the young soldier suffers from the Russian guys bullet. He drifts away into unconsciousness and is bought back the Saami woman's traditional trance like spell - the scene cuts to a young boy in white (angel of death) leading our character away, only to be pulled back to the present at the very end.As someone interested in people and communications this film is a classic - ends beautifully and the camera-work throughout is wonderful.Watch it a few times, be sure to catch the humour!

'Kukushka' or 'The Cuckoo' is one of those movies that remind us so often that there is a lot of great cinema happening beyond the American or West-European circuit. Director Aleksandr Rogozhkin brings to screen a human story happening at the end of WW2. A Russian and a Finn soldier are being brought by fate together to the house and care of a young Lap woman. Each of them is far from the real soldier character - the Finn is a pacifist, the Russian is actually a prisoner brought to trial for writing some subversive poetry. Yet, the level of misunderstanding brought in each of us by the war machines they are part of is only accentuated by the lack of communication due to the barrier language. Each speaks only his own language, and none of them understands the other. The message of this simply filmed but yet rich movie is that human communication is beyond and above words.The treatment reminds not only the traditional Russian cinema relying so much on the contrapunct of dialogs and silence and acting, but also draws from the Far East cinema (Korean especially) in its treatment of the landscape. Acting is superb, but of all three main actors I will give a special mention to Anni-Kristiina Juuso, an amateur, who takes the role of the Lap woman to heights of ingenuity combined with feminine wisdom reminding and not falling below similar roles played by Audrey Tautou and Emily Watson.A touch of magic adds to the reality, and good camera work helps. It's only the ending that falls a little in the zone of the expected but overall this is a sensible and beautiful movie, very much worth watching.

This was a movie of beautiful outdoor photography and most of all brilliant performances by all involved and direction that was sensitive and humorous. The lack of communication literally is funny , but also can be seen in the bigger context of misunderstanding each other in war. The pivotal performance was by the female lead who I had never seen before , but will never forget.Her basic goodness and human needs and common sense anchored the film for the other two characters. Gritty realism and mystical power were brought together seeming without great effort by the screenplay and its cast and director. Definitely worth the time spent reading subtitles RWS

After struggling through the first 50 minutes, I got smart and Fast Forwarded it on 8x - and didn't miss a thing! Several pieces of the film are good to excellent - the acting, scenery, set, and production are the highlights. But, nothing can save it from the abysmal script - and the plot can be summarized in 3 sentences (which i won't do here). Watching this film is like watching 3 simultaneous uninteresting monologues. No one even pretends to know that they aren't being understood. I've been in situations involving extreme language barriers, and this isn't even remotely close to reality - or entertainment. By the end, I figured out that I'm 'cuckoo' for sitting and watching more than 15 minutes of this film (which would probably be more interesting without subtitles)!