Jorma Tommila in Sisu [Lionsgate]

SISU
Directed by Jalmari Helander
Certificate: 18
☆☆☆☆

THE word sisu is peculiar to Finland, and loses context when applied to another country.
The Finns use it to describe a mixture of courage, bravery, spirit, an absolute stoic approach to physical discomfort, and the ferociousness of a wolf. It is ingrained in Finnish culture, with Finns uttering the word as they leap into icy water or neck a triple shot of vodka, or do both at the same time.

Our hero, Aatami (Jorma Tommila), personifies it.

This Second World War-set, Lapland-located, gorily comic film draws unashamedly on the western.

Aatami is a traumatised veteran of the Russo-Finnish war, hiding out in the northern wilds and prospecting for gold, a loner with a dog and a horse. A pickaxe is slung across his back, a wigwam his home, a pot of coffee on an open fire provides domesticity while giant views stretching into the distance show the breadth of the land. Shaggy bearded and filthy clothed, he discovers a rich seam. He must now leave the wilderness and head towards a fire-lit horizon of war-ravaged buildings.

En route, he encounters a Nazi unit trying to make it to Norway. It starts a cat-and-mouse game of grab the gold.

Scene after scene of childish violence ranges from painful self-surgery on gaping wounds to a novel way of avoiding death by hanging.

Throw in limbs being blown sky high and faces squished under tanks, director Helander feels safe in the knowledge that, as with Quentin Tarantino’s Inglorious Basterds, audiences will roar each killing of another Nazi.

Aatami’s SS enemies are varying degrees of evil caricature.

SS Captain Wolf (a steely eyed Jack Doolan) is a desperate man. He knows what he deserves and what his future holds. Wolf’s grubby sidekick Bruno (Aksel Hennie) is the sour bully empowered by the brutish world he is part of.

They have kidnapped a group of women and Bruno ensures some bad karma coming his way by his treatment of the tough Aino (Mimosa Willamo).

Sisu draws on a specific form of Finnish humour. A deadpan and slightly dour approach to extraordinary situations is a classic Finnish meme.

Levels of preposterousness reach ever higher. But by the time Aatami uses his pickaxe to defy the accepted laws of physics (the laws of biology have long been disregarded), it doesn’t matter much. We are all rooting for this indestructible Nazi killer.