The Cuckoo (2002) User Reviews

Surviving, Living and Even Loving Without a Shared Language

[lawprof · 8/10 · 20 July 2003]

A perennial subcategory of war films is the small-cast story of two enemies who encounter each other when isolated from their respective units and become mutually dependent. Hatred should be but isn't always subsumed to a common quest for survival. In 2001, "No Man's Land" showed the excruciatingly painful relationship of two adversaries trapped between lines during the Bosnia/Herzogovenia debacle. There was little humor in that film.

A surprisingly refreshing approach to the forced relationship between enemy soldiers comes to the screen in director Alexsandr Rogozhkin's "Kukushka" ("Cuckoo"). This fine Russian film is some welcome evidence of a resurgence in that country's filmmaking industry (with regard to quality). And it hasn't come too soon.

A Finnish soldier, Veikko, is chained by his unit to a boulder and left with a sniper rifle, food, water, ammunition and no means of escape. No reason is given for this unusual assignment which he resents, viewing it as rather suicidal. At that time in World War II Finland was an ally of Germany and the Finns were holding down considerable Soviet forces in their native land. Veikko wears a German uniform decorated with the twin lightning bolts of the SS. Through imaginative use of available resources Veikko is able to extricate himself.

Meanwhile, back at the Russian front, Ivan, a captain, sets off under guard with a driver and his unit's political officer for an investigation into his alleged anti-Soviet notes. Such investigations ended, in those days, with either execution or assignment to a "trampler" battalion (unarmed men sent ahead of an assault to set off mines and attract fire. They were not insurable.). Ivan knows what's to happen to him but luckily friendly fire from Russian aircraft kills the driver and commissar-type while leaving Ivan seriously wounded.

Enter Anni, a Laplander swathed in bulky clothes reflecting no hint of sexuality. She rescues the unconscious Ivan and takes him to her pad. This is pre-Nokia Finland at its indigenous best. As she takes care of the wounded officer the Finn shows up.

There are three languages in this movie: Russian, Finnish and the Lap dialect. The characters can't communciate verbally but they talk constantly, no meaning perceivable through the spoken word. Veikko, formerly a student, is predictably, stereotypically, disgusted with war. Ivan snarls with hatred for Germans and their allies, a very realistic portrayal.

Much of what goes on among the three is comic, especially when Anni, not having seen or heard from her husband in four years (and unlikely ever to again), expresses her now unbounded randiness first in words and then... In the process she starts looking less like a Laplander on a subsistence existence and more like a gal likely to be distracted by a call on her cell phone.

The evolving relationship of the three is realistic although the young Finn is allowed to mouth one too many anti-war sentiments for my taste. This is a story about a bizarre chance encounter, not "All Quiet on the Finnish Front."

Rogozhkin's direction is original but he owes, for one scene, some debt, I believe, to Ingmar Bergman. See the film and you'll figure out which one I'm talking about.

"Cuckoo" benefits enormously from the absence of music. The subtitles convey the dialogue but hearing the three languages without an overlay of music makes the story far more powerful.

The scenery is magnificent.

The ending is unsurprising but nonetheless affecting.

8/10.

Thoroughly enjoyable

[Dave D-2 · 9/10 · 21 September 2002]

Saw this film at the 2002 Toronto International Film Festival on September 9th and was pleasantly surprised. It is truly a thoroughly enjoyable film that easily merits the 9 out of 10 I voted herein. It is so regrettable that a wide release is likely to elude this little gem. I am certain that many film lovers throughout the world would delight in the results of its clearly creative, though not necessarily original, comedic plot's "communication barrier" underpinnings, which are effectively utilized to convey a sense of the profound absurdity of war in a way I found vastly more entertaining than the myriad of Hollywood fare that has plodded similar plot lines using copious brutal images. A refreshing surprise that I hope comes your way some day in a Festival or Foreign-film Television channel!

A delightful and provocative film

[shecrab · 9/10 · 1 June 2005]

It is rare that a film as simply plotted as The Cuckoo could be so affecting. Subtitled films often lack the subtlety of their original language, but the translation of this film is not only well done, it has its own quirky spin that gives it an extra dimension. The story is easy to grasp and seamlessly portrayed. Except for the very beginning, in which it is not known exactly why Veikko is being chained to his rock (unless you read the description of the film or watch the commentary in the DVD's special features,) the story catches your mind and heart immediately: three unlikely people meet and live together in harmony, despite being unable to understand the native languages each speaks. Though there are some humorous moments and some comic twists, generally, this story is one of accommodation and cooperation. The Finnish soldier, the Russian officer and the Sami woman all manage to make a life for themselves through the hardships inflicted by World War II, and in the end, nothing but the love and friendship shines out from their (sometimes) unwilling and often difficult partnership. The plot is best left to individual discovery by the viewer, rather than recounted here. Suffice it to say that this film will touch you in ways other films of grander scale could not. An excellent and well-played and extraordinarily satisfying story that raises the ultimate question of life on this planet: why can't we just all get along?

A film of transcendent beauty

[howard.schumann · 10/10 · 15 December 2003]

Somewhere in the forests of Northern Europe during the closing days of World War II, Finnish support for the Nazi cause is nearing an end. Veiko (Ville Haapsalo), a Finnish soldier has lost his will to fight. Forced to wear an SS uniform by his unit, he is chained to a rock and ordered to kill as many Russians as he can before one will eventually kill him. He is known as a "cuckoo", a sniper on a suicide mission. Set in an area rarely seen: Lapland, The Cuckoo (Kukushka), directed by Aleksandre Rogozhkin, is a touching Russian comedy about the failure to communicate. Its seamless mixture of earthy humor, anti-war sentiment, and otherworldly Lapp mysticism is enhanced by strong performances, especially from Anni-Kristina Juuso, who portrays a spunky but radiant young Reindeer farmer who has not seen a man in four years since her husband went to war and left her widowed.

Using his ingenuity and every resource at his command, Veiko manages to free himself after a protracted struggle that takes up a good half-hour of the film. Meanwhile, a few miles away, a Russian captain, Ivan (Viktor Bychkov) escapes while being taken by Soviet military police to be court-martialed for anti-Soviet sentiments. Circumstances bring all three together at a log outpost where Anni (Anni-Kristina Juuso) lives alone, sleeping in wooden tepees with log doorflaps. She gives them shelter and nurses them back to health but no one understands the other's language (the dialogue is in Finnish, Russian, and Saami, the language of Lapland). This leads to many confusing situations such as when Ivan tells them to "get lost" and they mistakenly think he is telling them that his name is Gerlost. Ivan wants to kill Veiko who tries to tell him that all he wants is peace, invoking the names of Tolstoy (War and Peace) and Hemingway (A Farewell to Arms).

In this Tower of Babel, the three can only reach each other through tone of voice, hand gestures, and body language, but Anni has no trouble convincing the men that she has "an aching below the tummy". Though Veiko is mistakenly thought to be a fascist since he still wears a German uniform, the three gradually form a bond based on mutual need and a common humanity. The Cuckoo is a gorgeously photographed and emotionally resonant film that is more than an anti-war fable; it is a film of transcendent beauty that directly touches the soul.

Finnish-Russian synergy creates an international hit

[monty-57 · 27 January 2003]

Russia's film industry is in a drought of international distribution, but the World War II-era drama KUKUSHKA(CUCKOO) seems set to break away from that rut. The film, by St. Petersburg-based director Alexander Rogozhkin, has been picked up by Sony Pictures Classics for limited distribution through American art-house theaters. Rogozhkin has achieved a level of recognition on the world festival circuit with his previous works, the comedy OSOBENNOSTI NATSIONALNOY OKHOTY (PECULIARTIES OF THE NATIONAL HUNT) and the Chechen-war drama BLOKPOST (CHECKPOINT).

PECULIARTIES OF THE NATIONAL HUNT, produced at Lenfilm Studios in 1994 during a low point in the studio's general track record, was a box office success in Russia, and spawned something of a franchise, with two sequels, spin-offs and even a brand of vodka named after Kuzmich, the tireless, boozing outdoorsman played by Viktor Bychkov. The plot of the original film involved a young Finnish man (played by Ville Haapasalo) coming to Russia to experience a real Russian hunt, only to fall in with Kuzmich and his motley group of friends, who seem more interested in drinking than hunting.

Work on the film OSOBENNOSTI NATSIONALNOY RYBALKI (PECULIARTIES OF NATIONAL FISHING) cemented the friendship between Bychkov and Haapasalo, who went from relative obscurity to becoming household names in their respective countries with subsequent work on other films and TV commercials.

Haapasalo, a Finnish graduate of the St. Petersburg Theater Arts Academy, also acts on stage in Finland and is working on new translations of classic Russian drama into Finnish. Having appeared together in a stage adaption of Fyodor Dostoevsky's "Diary of a Madman," Haapasalo and Bychkov asked Rogozhkin to write a stage play for three people, something in which they could appear together. Rogozhkin accepted the challenge, and the screenplay for KUKUSHKA was the result.

"They asked me to write a play, but I didn't see a play," recalled Rogozhkin at a press conference before the film's release. "I saw the story I was writing as a film, and once I had the ending down, I knew I had the film."

A former history student, Rogozhkin was intrigued by the Continuation War, a protraction of the Russo-Finnish Winter War and part of the greater WWII conflict. The cease-fire with the Soviet Union began officially Sept. 4, 1944, although forces on both sides continued firing until the next morning. This is when the film's story begins.

Unaware of the conflict's end, one Soviet Army officer and one Finnish soldier are imprisoned in the wilderness for different, unexplained reasons. They escape through a mix of effort and circumstance, and end up in the hut of a lonely but spirited Saami woman who does not take sides, but takes care of - and comes to love - them both. Rogozhkin wanted to go beyond the story of three people converging in the hinterlands of war, to create a situation where three people speak three different languages but come to understand one another in other ways.

After some consultation with Haapasalo and others, Rogozhkin decided that the third person in the film would be a Saami woman, the correct term for the people more commonly known as the Lapp. The Saami language is part of the Finno-Ugric group, but is very different from Finnish. Traditionally, the Saami hunted wild reindeer, though they have adapted to herd semi-domesticated reindeer. The film offers a glimpse into Saami life through the microcosm of the life of Anni, a young widow living on the Karelian coast. Anni is played by Anni-Christina Juuso, a Saami who dealt with language barriers on the film's set. She does not speak Russian and depended upon Haapasalo for translation.

Haapasalo plays Veiko, a Finnish sniper - making the film's title a play on words, since "kukushka," or cuckoo, is also Russian military slang for sniper. Chained to a rock by SS officers, and clothed in an SS uniform that would condemn him to death if discovered by Russian patrols, Veiko spends a good portion of the film trying to extricate himself.

For the role, Haapasalo wore authentic Finnish army underclothes of the period, some of which belonged to his grandfather. "I changed after working on this film," Haapasalo said. "I began to see my grandfather in another light. I won't watch this film - I don't watch any of my films. But from what I know of it, I think the film will stand multiple viewings. It may take seeing it more than once to fully understand it."

Bychkov's portrayal of Captain Kartuzov is a real departure from his Kuzmich character. Bychkov put on some weight for the role, and his demeanor is solemn and conscientious, markedly different from his happy-go-lucky Kuzmich. The seriousness of the role broke his typecasting a little bit: "Some people who had addressed me informally before started calling me by my first name and patronymic after seeing the film," Bychkov said. KUKUSHKA premiered at the Moscow Film Festival in June 2002, where it won Silver St. George awards for Best Director and Best Actor (Haapasalo). The film has also been received favorably in Finland, and Haapasalo has received a Patriot of Finland Award from a Finnish veterans' association in Lahti.

The film has a lot riding on the Bychkov-Haapasalo rapport, but Rogozhkin is confident: "These are two actors with very different psycho-physical aspects," he admitted. "But they do have a peculiar chemistry."

And Bychkov says Juuso's contribution was no less important: "Despite the fact that Ville had to translate for her at every turn, she understood the story - with her heart."

An Ode To Humanity

[gogoschka-1 · 8/10 · 11 February 2018]

Absolutely heart-warming comedy about two stranded soldiers from opposite lines who get both taken in by a beautiful, child-of-nature like woman in the remote wilderness between Finland and the Soviet-Union. The trio speak three different languages, and on top of all the linguistic chaos, the two men naturally try to continue the warfare against each other. 'Kukushka' plays like an ode to humanity and is just a pure joy to watch. 8 stars out of 10.

In case you're interested in more underrated masterpieces, here's some of my favorites:

imdb.com/list/ls070242495

Strangely compelling movie...

[dwpollar · 7/10 · 31 August 2003]

1st watched 8/30/2003 - 7 out of 10(Dir-Aleksandr Rogozhkin): Strangely compelling movie about three people who can't understand each other's spoken words but somehow understand each other in the end. The movie is set at the end of World War II and begins with a prisoner of war being left and chained to a rock with very little in the amount of rations left for him. For about an hour, the viewers are treated to watching the prisoner meticulously putting together and executing a plan to remove the chains and be free. At the same time, we are introduced to a woman who is seen burying the dead in a war-torn area but keeping what is usable. One soldier wakes up while she's doing the burying and she basically takes him in and nurses him back to life. These are the three central characters in the rest of the film. They are thrown together by chance at a the woman's hut with nothing in the way of `modern conveniences.' The viewer gets to watch these characters `try' to interact with some humorous exchanges with the intent of helping each other survive. While watching you can't help but wonder how the exchanges would have been different if the characters would have stopped talking and used more sign language and object identification to explain themselves, but I guess the movie wouldn't have lasted very long and wouldn't have been as interesting. And at least this movie was definetly `interesting' and very thought provoking. This is yet another entry from another country that cares more about the story and the characters then special effects & action. Hooray for the filmmakers for giving us this gem!!

Masterexample of a micro cosmos

[Shaolin_Apu · 9/10 · 29 July 2006]

'Kukushka' is a very deep and enjoyable movie. The background is the situation of 1944 at the North-Western front of the Soviet Union and there are only three characters, each one of them representing their own world. There are also three languages and because of each character interprets each other in the manner they want to hear there are actually nine pragmatical meanings for each speech. This messing up with things creates comical situations and I think that Russian viewers are able to pick up more amusing details than the other nationalities.

The characters become very much a stereotypic representations of what they are, perhaps even a too much but that way they are anyway more interesting than in barren realism. Taking in account that this is a Russian movie it certainly makes people want to see more Russian films in the future. The insignificant minor bugs in some historical details are so few that they shouldn't be heeded at all.

After a tedious start, a watchable film

[vino-katse · 7/10 · 12 September 2009]

I did like the idea of bringing people of three different tongues together, and the comedy that followed. Once everyone was safely inside the kota (the Saami tent) the movie was quite enjoyable.

Unfortunately, before that it was quite tedious. The story of the chained sniper simply wasn't believable at all, rather ridiculous instead, and while the friendly fire incident on the Russian side could have happened, together the two were a bit too much.

Also, I found Haapasalo's lines about war clumsy, preachy and stiff. He was talking as if reading from a book: while people do often write in a formal manner here in Finland, very few actually talk like that. Those who do are usually considered great bores. Since I don't speak Russian or Saami, I can't tell whether the other characters suffered from the same problem.

Visually the film was excellent in places (especially with landscapes), and the story had potential, but could use quite a bit of improvement in the first third of the script.

Refreshing change from the mass produced Hollywood crap

[sekopaa · 10/10 · 2 December 2003]

This was a really good film, one of the best I've seen and it didn't have a single ounce of CG. Hollywood should take notice... Unlike the Hollywood films of today, this film has a story and good dialog. The fact that the 3 main characters all speak different languages gave the film an honest and quite funny appeal. I would highly recommend this film.

Unimpressive movie

[alekdavis · 6/10 · 6 January 2005]

I am not sure why this movie received such a high praise. I was watching the film in Russian; the dubbed translation was awful (sounded very much like a cheap Brazilian soap opera) which could've made it worse than it is. I did not like acting. Well, the Finnish actors (main characters) were OK, but the Russian crew (soldiers, officers, main character) acted as if they were playing in a poorly directed high-school drama (maybe it is just an impression of a native Russian speaker). I am not a fan of action movies, but the pace of this one was too slow for me; given that I enjoyed such flicks as "The Winged Migration" and "In the Bedroom", this must tell something. The premise of the story is interesting: three people who do not understand each other's languages (and two of which are from the opposing armed forces) try to communicate with each other, but the dynamics of their interaction is so shallow. There is no character development. Some dialogs (monologues?) were funny, though, and the way the Russian character was addressed as Psholty (which loosely translates into "get lost") was hilarious, but other than that the movie was rather dreadful. What was the purpose of combining reality with folklore (Anne trying to bring the Finnish guy back to life)? Whatever the reason was, the episode was way too long. The scenery was beautiful, but other than that I was utterly disappointed.

A small masterpiece of humanity beyond language!

[Peegee-3 · 10/10 · 16 July 2003]

"Why can't we all get along?" asked Rodney King some time ago. This beautiful film speaks to just that...getting along..even without the benefit of common language. A young Lapp widow rescues a Russian soldier near death out in the wastelands...and then gives comfort to a Finnish soldier who had been chained, like Prometheus, to a rock by fellow soldiers. All three manage to live together in the woman's tiny hut without understanding a word of each other's language. Largely thanks to the woman's generosity and kindness the men survive and "get along." It's a lovely example of the feminine principle at work at its best. The images of the stark landscape have a beauty all their own. I couldn't help wondering how we, the audience, would fare in OUR understanding without the aid of subtitles!

I highly recommend this movie...superbly performed by the actors and skillfully directed by Alexander Rogozhkin.

War should make uncles, not widows?

[ThurstonHunger · 7/10 · 4 November 2006]

A parable as told in three simultaneous soliloquies? Anti-war mini drama that succeeds in what must be used to combat such aggression, forcing the enemy to see each other as actual people. Well at least as archetypes.

Comedy is introduced via the fact that the three leads share no tongue, and in fact, oft times the exact wrong message is misunderstood amongst them. Again, this amplifies the mistakes that masters of war can make. In more typical comedies, we get the wink in a scene before the scene, i.e. we know a dog is already dead before something peculiar happens...but in this the humor is left to the subtitles, unless you've got polyglot potential.

Still the film by and large worked even for this ugly American, the strangeness of the languages and the scenario (I knew vaguely of Laplander life, and had no idea how they would be affected by WWII). In some ways, this film is really quite simple and had Hollywood made it, I'm not sure if I would grade it as favorably to be honest.

For example, the Prometheus reference was enough without having Veiko actually utter it. Also how would one accept the near-death journey across the Finnish finish line. And in the US, would we have been as charmed by Renee Zellweger in the female lead? Hopefully we'll never know, this film is perfectly enjoyable as it is. The story/locale is not our nest, and we should respect that.

I found the two male leads quite well-spoken on the extra portion of the DVD, as befits their roles. We are led to believe that these two warriors are really more sensitive literal souls, a reader and a poet. I did like the former's attempt to use book titles, "War and Peace", "The Idiot" in his fruitless attempts to communicate to "Ivan." On the extras, the female lead seemed miles away from her "salt of the earth" (ironically without any salt) character in the film.

Spoiler coming...again I think this film is worth watching. Stop reading here if you have not yet, please.

So the ending, I guess is needed to really play up the parable in this...we are all brothers, or all our children are brothers. Interesting that the film was made by a Russian director, and the Russian character in the film is the more misguided missile. Of course, hinging his hatred upon the Germans and the SS band does make for a more complicated film, but the tale here really is quite simple.

Yet not so simply heeded...sadly.

7/10

Top 3 Most 'painful' films ever...

[travelstocks · 3/10 · 23 November 2005]

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)!

Run, do not walk. . .

[ekammin-1 · 24 December 2003]

This is an absolutely compelling, magnificent film, as much for eerie beauty of its setting (a subsistence farm in northern Finland during the Continuation War of 1944) as the power of its anti-war message. Two enemy soldiers, a Finn and a Russian are taken in by Anni, a young Sami (Lapp) woman, trying to run her farm herself since her husband left, evidently four years earlier, during the original Winter War. They eventually learn to get along (even though, to the end, the Russian keeps call the Finn "Fascist", to which the Finn replies that he is not a fascist, he's just a democrat - in Finnish, that the Russian can't understand.

SPOILER HERE - CAREFUL!

At the end, having learned that the war is over (a really humiliating defeat for Finland, I understand, although nobody in the film cares) both men prepare to go home, and say goodbye to Anni. They have both had sex with her, but there is no sign of any children around. However, in an epilogue, Anni is shown telling the story to her two children, evidently one the son of the Finn, the other the son of the Russian. Now, how did she manage that? Oh, well, the Sami are reputed among the Finns to have magical powers. . .

Anyway, run, do not walk, to see this film.

The bliss of not understanding each other - down with Sartre

[btodorov · 9/10 · 20 January 2005]

Since the movie was initially meant to be a staged drama, it is no wonder it rings some bells. In the 1950's Sartre wrote his famous play "Huis clos" whose essential point was how intolerable human presence can be when the commonness of language allows us to understand all the thoughts of the people we share the same space with. "The Hell, this is the Other", concluded Sartre.

In Kukushka, nobody of the three characters understands a word from what the other two have to say, yet they DO speak all the time. All the three, the Finn, the Saami, and the Russian, are well aware of the presence of the other two, but do not have to submit themselves to any common pattern of judgment. The other two are like objects which fit the world of the third in the way s/he would like them to. Thus, the lack of verbal communication, even if it caused some, almost fatal, misunderstandings, in the long term offered the three characters with a kind of bliss not one of them had ever expected. In short, this is a story about the beauty of life which is essentially impossible to share with others because it is purely contemplative.

Like re-discovering how it can feel when a movie touches us deep inside

[fedtho · 10/10 · 31 October 2004]

VERY MINOR, RATHER POTENTIAL, SPOILERS... MAYBE...

I'm speechless, my comment will be utterly subjective, I mean beyond what can be called a "comment".

Because this work... story, tale, "Kiss of life" as Peter Gabriel named a song... well, it reached me in a time of change, vulnerability but also open-mindedness(is that English???) where I received it like I received some movies in my teens and twenties ('Pierrot le fou' and 'Le mépris' by J.-L. Godard, 'Touch of evil' by O. Welles, 'The state of things' by W. Wenders, 'Nostalghia' by Tarkovskij...).

It has just entered me with nothing relaying in between, as if I was in the movie, or as if I was the movie itself...

That girl is obviously so much braver than any of those two poor, lost grown-ups playing war; and she does not know or care about where they come from, just offering all the help she can give... and taking all the pleasure she can... her general attitude is a very healthy "why not", but in the most responsible way possible, you can't have anything but great respect for her.

As the fin soldier puts it: being "one with nature", leading "a simple life" (who's first for trying out THAT simplicity?).

She's smashing. Her face and her smile will remain with me for a long time. I'm glad tings led me into a theatre to see this movie.

The cinematography is far from poor, it captures the not so obvious beauty of the landscape, but only for the purpose of the story. This is not a film dripping with good intentions but lacking the means to tell a story with a camera. That's just what one might expect from superficial judgment (the poster, the plot...).

This is just an extremely powerful, generous story, told in exactly the way it needs to be told.

Try to see it if you get the chance (it IS a chance), if you get lucky.

Anyone who has seen and liked "Hell in the Pacific" should be able to like this

[jordondave-28085 · 7/10 · 22 September 2023]

(2002) The Cuckoo/ Kukushka (In Russian, Finnish and Saami with English subtitles) WAR DRAMA/ SOCIAL COMMENTARY

Fictional feel good anti-war film made somewhat in the same tradition as "Hell in the Pacific" which involves two guys and a girl- all ethnically different from different countries speaking their actual languages when no one understands one another, build a rapport with each other during WWII! Another interesting social commentary film with good intentions about intolerance despite religious and language barriers, but can sometimes drag since it's like watching a tourist foreigner conversing with a Japanese environment or a young child who doesn't understand any English to display to a parent what s/he wants.

powerful war movie set in the far north

[dromasca · 8/10 · 26 August 2006]

'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.

The highest common denominator

[=G= · 7/10 · 4 December 2003]

"The Cuckoo" is tells of the coming together of two wayward soldiers in the Arctic north of Finland at the farm of a lone Lapp woman during the end of WWII. The trio of players speak in different tongues making verbal communication impossible and though the men are sworn enemies they find common ground in a shared humanity which sees them through the difficulties of surviving wounds, coveting the same female, and learning lessons like the importance of being able to say "Don't Shoot!!" in your enemies' language. "The Cuckoo" is an minimalistic light drama with low end production value which distills life to the bare essentials of humanity with its bold austerity. Recommended for foreign film buffs only. (B)

Where the need for understanding transcends the misunderstandings in war.

[RJBurke1942 · 9/10 · 27 June 2008]

There are anti-war films that preach for justice; for example, Paths of Glory (1957). There are those that scream blue murder, like Apocalypse Now (1979). Then, there are those that savagely satirize, as we have seen with Catch-22 (1970).

Seldom, however, do we see an anti-war film presented as a simple need for communication, for understanding and, ultimately, for love.

This is a brilliantly conceived and photographed story, with the title a clever play on meaning in different languages. Apart from the azure skies, pristine forests and limpid waters of Lapland, it's also brilliant in conception and an astonishing statement about the nature of language – and, indeed, the language of nature. Hence, with apologies to Sir Winston Churchill, perhaps never in the field of human relationships have so few achieved so much with so little; including the director of this visual and acting gem, Aleksandr Rogozhkin.

The time is late 1944, World War II, somewhere in Lapland (presumably), with Finns, Russians and Germans all fighting each other. The story opens with a small band of Finnish soldiers leaving a young soldier, Veikko (Ville Haapasalo) pinned, by a chain attached to his right leg, atop a small rocky outcrop and fully exposed to the bitter cold - and to any Germans or Russians who might just turn up. Veikko is being punished for rebelling against the war. His reward: tied down with a chain and a sniper rifle and left to fight and die. As the others leave, however, he starts attempting to work free the large steel stake that's been hammered into the rock. His escape attempts, exquisitely photographed, consume the first twenty minutes or so of screen time.

Cut to a small group of Russian soldiers, stragglers and die-hards, all trying to make sense of what's happening – except a colonel and his driver who are transporting a prisoner, Ivan (Viktor Bychkov) to face court-martial because of his outspoken views about the war. The three are traveling in a jeep-type vehicle and generally in the direction of Veikko, still cleverly working himself free from that rocky hill.

Cut to a scene of a woman of the woods, Anni (Anni-Kristiina Juuso), a Saami of Lapland – the Saami being ancient indigenes of those areas - who lives alone at her small hut and reindeer farm on the edge of a lake that takes your breath away. She's walking through her territory, always looking, almost animal-like, mysterious, and very much at home within the natural world. She is nature personified, almost mythical...

Cut back to Veikko, now close to freeing himself as the Russian jeep approaches and, now also, as a couple of Russian fighter-bombers (looking like venerable North American Harvards) swoop in low to strafe the jeep (obviously mistaking the occupants for Finns or Germans) and then return to loose a couple of bombs and blow it up. Soon after that, and while Veikko watches, the Saami woman, Anni, emerges from the forest and proceeds to bury the dead, a thoughtfully poignant scene. In doing so, she realizes one – Ivan - is alive and drags him back to her hut to tend to his wounds.

Veikko finally frees the stake and follows her to her hut. And so, the fun starts.

Anni has been without a man for four years, her husband dragged off to war and presumed dead. She speaks only the Saami language. The Russian, Ivan, speaks no Saami nor Finnish. Veikko speaks Finnish and a smattering of German. Hence, none can understand each other when one speaks, and none can communicate effectively except with signs, role-playing, pointing and such like. The resulting verbal chaos was side-splitting for me because almost every sentence is misinterpreted; and the confusion and frustration on the actors' faces are simply priceless.

Who would have thought you could make a movie where the dialog is a barrier to communication? Such originality in story, script and filming comes only rarely.

Anni, however, knows what she wants: she wants a man. Veikko and Ivan simply want to get well, get away from there and get away from the war, both of them. But neither of the men trust each other, which is not very surprising. So, while they physically and verbally spar – and make little headway - Anni simply takes Veikko first to bed to relieve her frustrations. Much later, near the end, she takes Ivan also to bed. On both occasions, it's hilarious: all we see is a static long shot of her hut from which her appreciative moans gradually build to ring out through the forest and across the lake.

I guess some might argue about the morals of the situation; although I don't. But, gradually, and because of Anni's presence, the two men finally reach a level of trust and acceptance; so much so, they can part as true friends and are perhaps wiser about and more tolerant of whom they think are enemies. So, when the final scenes arrive, they're just sublime and I think you will appreciate them more if I stop right here.

As already implied, this is a timeless story about the need for understanding, with flawless acting and equally stunning directing. And, not having seen this director Rogozhkin before, I'll make sure that I do take in more of his work.

Finally, when you've seen this, and heard a soundtrack that produces shivery delight through your body, and thought more about the whole story, I think you'll want to see it again. I know I do.

Recommended for all.

A trilingual film of comic misunderstandings and heartwarming friendship

[crculver · 6/10 · 27 May 2015]

The 2002 Russian production KUKUSHKA ("The Cuckoo") is an entertaining tale of mutual understanding across language barriers on the Finland-Russian front in World War II. As the film begins Veikko (Ville Haapasalo), a recently drafted Finnish student who doesn't seen the point of fighting, is being chained to a rock. Punished for insubordination, he is forced to wear an SS uniform so he won't surrender, and given a gun to shot passing Russian troops. Only a couple of kilometers away Ivan (Viktor Bychkov), a Russian soldier who has just been arrested for the counter-revolutionary activity of writing poetry, is set free when his jailers perish in a bombing. Both of these condemned men are taken in by Anni (Anni-Kristiina Juuso), a Sami woman resident in the area, who holds on to her small farm four years after her husband disappeared.

Each of these three characters cannot speak the language of the others, and Ivan initially hopes to kill Veikko, whom he believes to be a Nazi soldier. The misunderstandings that arise make for fine comedy, but the final reconciliation amongst the three characters is heartwarming. The cinematography really brings out the beauty of the land above the Arctic Circle, and the writers have represented the traditions of the Sami with care. Director Aleksandr Rogozhkin has expertly handled the actors and the action.

The extras on some releases are quite entertaining, especially Juuso's bafflement at the suggestion that the Sami people are sex-obsessed.

I watched this film as a student of Finno-Ugrian linguistics resident in Finland, passionate about the Finnish and Sami languages and with training in Russian as well. Audiences with different backgrounds might not care as much for the film, and you might find it a three-star effort instead of four. Nonetheless, I am sure you'll find KUKUSHKA an entertaining film.

A small film but well worth the time

[cglassey · 8/10 · 29 April 2004]

This film is set in a part of the world that I have never seen and I'd like to thank the director for making an engaging film with this setting. The film makes no effort to explain at the start and for the first half hour it was not entirely clear what was going on. Later the Finnish soldier is FAR to forgiving of the efforts by the Russian soldier to kill him. As far as I'm concerned, one attempt to kill me is quite enough, the Finn by contrast laughs off three different attempts. That is idealism taken to an absurd dimension.

The three characters all speak a different language but since I don't know Finnish, Russian or Saami, I couldn't tell when they were communicating and when they weren't. The subtitles could have more clearly indicated this fact.

All that aside, the acting was good, the Saami girl was quite compelling in her "calling the dead" scenes. All in all a good film about something most people know nothing about set in a strange and wonderful location.

I'm talking AT you, not with you.

[rxw · 11 October 2004]

spoilers to follow:

very inventive and compelling film, great narrative. since the dialog had such peculiar constraints (each of the three characters speaks a language the other two don't understand), the photography of the movie became even more prominent than usual.

I was particularly impressed with the flow and pacing of the movie. each development was unexpected but not improbable. even the fact that everything in the movie happens within a minimal context of the world the audience lives in didn't bother me.

I recommend this movie.

Boldly introduced in Telluride as `The film that will win the Best Foreign Film Oscar'.

[tadiv-4 · 9/10 · 11 October 2002]

This movie is a great deal of fun. It also reveals the horrors, difficulties, and craziness of war. It has a wonderful, artistic look at a near-death situation that is very touching. A really great film that should not be missed.