Mpls./St. Paul International Film Festival: "Tears Of April"

 How much loyalty do you owe to your government in times of war? Do you owe them more loyalty than in time of peace, a complete unquestioning loyalty that requires you to follow all orders and never ask questions even when what you've been told to do strikes you as wrong and even immoral? These questions have been raised often since 9/11, but they certainly are nothing new, and have been asked time and again throughout history and all around the world. The new film from Finland, "Tears Of April", screened at the current Minneapolis/St. Paul International Film Festival, gives us one such example.

The time is immediately after Finland's break from the Russian empire over 90 years ago. A bloody war has been fought and the government-backed forces, The Whites, have won. The Whites are now going around the country rounding up surviving members of their enemies, the Russian-backed Reds. A young idealistic soldier, Private Harjula, has joined the Whites to do what he feels is his duty to the country he loves. But after being continually ordered to participate in torture and illegal treatment of his prisoners, Harjula begins to doubt the righteousness of his case and to sympathize with the Reds, possibly at considerable cost.

"Tears Of April" has received one of the highest audience ratings of any film at this year's festival, and for good reason. It's a war movie with virtually no battle scenes that unflinchingly examines the costs of unquestioning loyalty to a questionable cause, and both the costs of never asking questions and the sometimes higher costs of asking them. More than 2,000 women fought in combat as part of the Red Brigade forces, and the particular prisoner being guarded by Private Harjula is one of them. At first, Harjula realizes that his prisoner is not responsible for the crimes she's been accused of but is content to simply follow her request and use part of his leave to see that her son is doing alright, but eventually begins to think that his commander is just plain evil and that the prisoner has to be helped to escape.... even though he'll be risking his own life to help her. Yes, folks: a philosphical war movie. Will wonders never cease?

This is also a movie about how... and if... strong moral ideals can even continue to exist at all during war. As Harjula sees the lessons of right and wrong that he's been taught all of his life violated by everyone around him, he is forced to ask himself if they even have any meaning any longer. If people can abandon their basic beliefs when it becomes inconvenient, are there really any rules to how people should live... and if there are no rules, how do people really differ from animals? Harjula is determined to show that there is a difference, but he might be in more danger by doing so than he's ever seen in combat.

Director Aku Louhimies has crafted a fine character study in the midst of all the violence and pain, as well. Harjula's subtle changes as he begins to rethink his moral compass never come across in a way that make him seem more like a personified lesson in moral behavior than a character... he's a real human in an almost unreal situation, and it's almost impossible not to feel for him and suffer along with him. And Harjula's superior officer, who at first seems merely to represent all that's wrong with the military , reveals some hidden layers and gives us a major surprise or two by the end of the film. The fierce dedication of the woman prisoner to both her cause and her family are inspirational, too, and a reminder of the basic humanity that even war cannot erase... not always, at any rate.

The Finnish film industry has established itself as a superior maker of films about war and peace, films that are accurate reflections of Finnish history even as they remain relevant to our own times and keep audiences asking questions about how and why we fight wars in the present day. "Tears Of April" is one of the very best of these films, and far superior to ALMOST any American war movie I can think of from recent years. For audiences at all interested in the questions it raises, it doesn't give easy answers but should give some surprising insights into them. I can only hope that it gets some degree of distribution in the U.S. because we don't have very many films like this available here, and we need all we can get.