Sisu Road to Revenge movie review: Continuing with the no-prisoners-taken hero of the first Sisu film, Road to Revenge places Aatami Korpi (Tommila) in 1946, where the Soviet Union has occupied large parts of Finland and caused its occupants to flee. Aatami returns to the home where he lived with his wife and two young sons, who were killed in the war, and carts away logs from it, to build another house for himself in what remains of Finland.
Only, the Red Army won’t have it, and set the man who butchered Aatami’s wife and children, as well as many others, Draganov (Lang), after Aatami. The latter acquired legendary status as ‘The Immortal’ during the war for killing 300 Red Army soldiers after learning of his family’s massacre, and Draganov is freed from a Siberian prison to pay Aatami back in kind.
Like the first film, and like the Finnish word ‘sisu’ from which it derives its title, Road to Revenge is a tale of vengeance, with no blood or battered bodies or shattered heads spared. As the body count soars with lean detail, you can either sit back and admire the professionalism of this slaughter, or fast-forward to the end.
It’s in the final stretch, shot on a train hurtling to Siberia, with Aatami and Draganov directly pitted against each other as two mortal and unnatural enemies, that Road to Revenge reaches its high points. Using a missile to shoot yourself into enemy quarters is just one of the many awe-inspiring moments.
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Finnish writer-director Helander also cuts out all the pretence of dialogue in a film speaking as universal a language as revenge. Aatami doesn’t utter a word, and Draganov can easily pass off without the few lines he has. And yet, Aatami says a lot with his eyes and tears, grief and rage, and Helander with the silence of a desolate Finnish landscape through which Aatami rides his lonely, creaking truck, carrying the remains of his life.
Sisu Road to Revenge movie director: Jalmari Helander
Sisu Road to Revenge movie cast: Jorma Tommila, Stephen Lang, Richard Brake
Sisu Road to Revenge movie rating: 2.5 stars
