The Cuckoo (2002)

I do not want to go into details described in other reviews. Yes, this movie is amazing by the fact the main protagonists cannot speak to each other because of totally different languages.But there is one scene that left me stunned: The "Wolf's call" scene, where Kukushka uses very strange and very chilling ritual to call back the dying one from "the otherworld" back to the life. It is absolutely stunning, I had to watch this one particular scene over and over again. It is absolutely stunning introduction to the north European mythology.Great, great movie!

I like it. It is very well done. Just Image there is only 3 or maybe 4 of you, and you can not understand each other.....(The rest may have Spoilers)Close at the End of WW 2... Finland has made a truce with the USSR.... The two young men at opposite ends of the War...A Finn made to wear a German "SS" uniform and Chained to a rock by his comrades for losing his will to fight…. A Russian (Soviet) been taken away by Smersh (A counter-intelligence departments in the Soviet Army created in 1943) No, note the same as James Bond. As luck will have it, the two that where taking him away gets killed. A young Lap Woman, not knowing or caring where there are from...... She just wanted to help them both. Speaking in three languages, not understanding each other. Trying to keep each others company..You may have to watch two or three times, But it is a good film to watch. I have seen other films made by the same film company (Base in Saint Petersburg) One coming to mind "Voyna", also well made. But this one "The Cucktoo" is clean and little humorist. This film is worth watching. Helps if you know Russian, or Finnish. But the Subtitles do help.As it has been put before, it is remarkable what a woman with a good clean mind can do.

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

Kukushka (The Cuckoo)is one of the best Russian films to be released since 2000, featuring a first-rate international cast and one of the finest directors working in Russia (or anywhere else) today. Rogozhkin's WWII-themed film follows the fates of a pacifist Finnish sniper who has been abandoned by his comrades, a Russian officer in the midst of being purged by the NKVD, and a Lapp (Sami) woman whose husband disappeared after going to war. The interplay between the three protagonists is sharp, and there is no small sense of accomplishment for the English-speaking viewer (with no knowledge of Russian, Finnish or Sami) to realize that they consistently understand the situation better than any of the characters. The linguistic challenges are amusing and, at times, heartbreaking. Although a few of the plot elements strain credibility, Kukushka is enjoyable to watch, and this unconventional take on the love triangle theme had me on the edge of my seat throughout the film. The Finnish actor Haapasalo, who Rogozhkin also worked with on the "National Hunting" series, displays his acting range, as well as his ability to mesh with Juuso and Bychkov (another "National Hunting" veteran), who are also excellent. The action sequences look professional, the cinematography is sublime and the story is intriguing, but it is the ensemble acting that makes this film worthy of multiple viewings.