Main Cast: Eero Aho, Marketta Tikkanen, Johannes Holopainen, Jussi Vaatanen

With the biggest budget in the history of Finnish film and shot over 4 seasons with 14,000 extras, Aku Louhimies’s Unknown Soldier is the most anticipated presentation at Subtitle 2017. The film is based on a best-selling book by Väinö Linna, who wrote about his personal experiences in the war and it follows a platoon of ordinary Finnish soldiers in the battlefield between Finland and the Soviet Union during World War 2.

Linna’s depiction of the human psyche and warm humour make the story still very relevant, but significantly Louhimies has based his picture on the uncensored version of the story, which was published in 2000. This has allowed him to anchor the film with an unflinching realism, which is one of his trademarks.

The director believes this to be an essential ingredient to making Unknown Soldier accessible and thought-provoking to a contemporary audience: bringing the past and present together in an exploration of what it is to be human. It’s a remarkably accomplished work from a special director – beautifully scored by Sinfonia Lahti and brilliantly photographed by Mika Orasmaa. Louhimies and over 10 of the cast will be in Kilkenny for a special VIP preview of this film. We. Can’t. Wait.