World War II · Film · 2017
The Unknown Soldier
Tuntematon sotilas
A Finnish machine-gun company marches into Soviet Karelia in 1941 sure of a quick war, then spends three years in swamps and trenches before the great Soviet offensive of 1944 throws it back.
Where it happened
Follow the story across 4 places.
Stop 1: Petroskoi (Petrozavodsk), Karelia
After weeks of advance the company enters the captured Karelian capital and the men mix with the locals.
Stop 2: Svir River front
Key location
Dug in on the Svir, the company beats back winter attacks and then settles into years of trench life, sniper fire and home-brewed kilju.
Stop 3: Helsinki Cathedral
On leave, Lieutenant Kariluoto marries his fiancée in the capital's cathedral in the middle of the war.
Stop 4: Retreat through Ladoga Karelia
Under the 1944 offensive the company loses its guns and its officers, and makes a last stand before the ceasefire.
What really happened
The film adapts Väinö Linna's 1954 novel, based on his own service as a machine-gun squad leader in Infantry Regiment 8 during the Continuation War. Finland joined the German invasion of the USSR in June 1941 to recover the land lost in the Winter War, then pushed beyond the old border into East Karelia, taking Petrozavodsk on 1 October 1941 and reaching the Svir River.
The front then froze into trench warfare until 9 June 1944, when the Red Army's Vyborg–Petrozavodsk offensive forced the Finns back with heavy losses. Finland signed the Moscow Armistice on 19 September 1944. The character Antero Rokka is modelled on Viljam Pylkäs, who stopped a Soviet assault at Nietjärvi on 28 June 1944.
Where to watch
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Full details
- Original title
- Tuntematon sotilas
- Directed by
- Aku Louhimies
- Countries
- Finland
- Languages
- Finnish, Swedish, Russian
- Released
- 2017
- Period
- –
- Theaters of war
- Eastern Front
- Themes
- Combat
