Kuningas Lahtee Ranskaan (1986)

This tongue-in-cheek fairytale is adapted from an opera composed by Aulis Sallinen and written by Paavo Haavikko about a whimsical, attempted voyage to Paris by the King of England, his Prime Minister and his retinue. A few women in the traveling group appear to embody specific female traits such as shyness and its opposite, and the men are either self-serving schemers or lazy. The journey is not without incident since the entourage end up at the Siege of Calais and engage the King of France in battle. Alternating between song and spoken narration, neither the characters nor their situations are meant to be taken too seriously (as when a band of medieval men push along a stalled Volkswagen). ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi