Aleksandr Rogozhkin - Kukushka (2002)

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”The Cuckoo” is set during a confusing period at the end of World War II, when the Nazi occupiers of Finland were in retreat from the advancing Russian army. As the Nazis pulled out, they left behind many of the young Finns who had been pressed into service on the German side. This film, from the Russian director Alexander Rogozhkin (”Chekist,” 1992), tells the story of one of them: a beefy Finnish student named Veiko (Ville Haapasalo), who is dressed in an SS uniform, equipped with an ancient rifle and chained to a rock somewhere in Lapland with instructions to shoot as many Russians as possible before he is taken or starves to death. He is what the Russian soldiers call a cuckoo: a sniper on a suicide mission.

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.




Ms. Juuso, a nonprofessional chosen by Mr. Rogozhkin for her ability to speak the Lapp language, turns out to be a sly, minxlike creature with a wonderfully ironic, squaring-up look. She seems to need her two men like the proverbial fish needs a bicycle built for three, and she watches the sparring between them like a mother of two battling toddlers. 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.




Kukushka cuanta la historia de dos soldados, uno finés y otro ruso que son sentenciados por el ejército rojo. Cada uno a su manera consigue escapar de la muerte y acaban refugiándose en la cabaña de Anni, una lapona. Ninguno de los tres comprende al resto. Anni habla sami y sólo quiere llevar adelante la granja, Veikko habla finés y ha abandonado la guerra y las armas, e Iván lo que desea es vengarse de Veikko al que cree alemán y si de paso pude beneficiarse a la granjera, pues mejor que mejor. Anni además perdió a su marido cuatro años atrás, así que ahora que se ve rodeada de dos fornidos hombres le salen fuegos artificiales de “ahí abajo”.




A partir de aquí, lo que se supone un drama sobre la Segunda Guerra Mundial se transforma en un sketch de humor surrealista, con los tres hablando su propio idioma. Es interesante ver que aunque el pilar en el que se sustenta la cinta, los diálogos absurdos entre los personajes, no pierde fuelle ni interés a lo largo del relato. Es más, los personajes ganan profundidad cuando empiezan a contarse cosas que tal vez no mencionarían de saber que sus interlocutores les entienden. Subtítulos en castellano de un servidor.


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