Pirkko Hamalainen Movies

Based on a novel by Antii Tuuri, Talvisota is a dramatized commemoration the 1939 Russo-Finnish war. Threatened with total annexation, Finland courageously faced down the Soviet forces, despite being outnumbered 50 to 1. The tiny country loses the vital Karelian Isthmus, but Finland remains an independent nation, never falling into the Communist sphere as the Soviets had intended. This long (3 hours plus) but never draggy film personalizes the war by concentrating on the exploits of one beleaguered resistance fighter (Taneli Makela). Also known as The Winter War, Talvisota was Finland's candidate for the 1989 Best Foreign Film Oscar. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this arthouse satirical interpretation of the famous Shakespeare play, a thug named Macbeth starts a gang war at the instigation of his ultimately suicidal girlfriend. As the mobsters become increasingly paranoid, their use of lines quoted from Shakespeare's plays becomes especially silly, as it is (apparently) intended to. In addition to being a wry hommage to plays by the Bard of Avalon, this film does double duty as a spoof of film noir. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi