Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #23853 in DVD
• Released on: 2004-09-13
• Rating: Suitable for 12 years and over
• Format: PAL
• Original language: Finnish, German, Russian
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 99 minutes

Synopsis
THE CUCKOO, from Russian director Alexander Rogozhkin, is about the friendship between three people from different countries at the end of World War II. Veiko (Ville Haapasalo), a Finn; Anni (Anni-Kristiina Juuso), a Lapp; and Ivan (Victor Bychkov), a Russian; come together, and although they are unable to speak each other's languages, they manage to communicate peace and understanding to one another.

Customer Reviews

Cloud Cuckoo Land
I bought this expecting something much more gory and dramatic (from the looks of the cover you'd think it was some kind of horror movie) but the film did not disappoint even though it was very slow-paced and mystical.

The premise of the film hinges largely on the mutual incomprehensibility of the three main characters, and it would be interesting to watch it as a Finnish speaker (I speak Russian very badly) to see just how incompatible Sami and Finnish actually are. Anny evidently understands Veiko more than Kartuzov (or "Sholty", as Veiko calls him after Kartuzov misunderstands his original question), but the biggest comedy is naturally between Kartuzov and Anny, over his eating arrangements and her ...proclivities towards the Finn. This is managed beautifully, but the action was too prolonged to be really tight and dramatic, and one started to yell at them to hurry up. Even though it was meant to be slow, the pace could have been quickened just slightly, to enhance the drama and the comedy of errors.

The good thing is that although Anny Juuso plays the part of the peasant woman with great dignity and attention to ethnic detail, there is no glorification of such a lifestyle, with "Cuckoo" being as prosaic as the next, describing her life as being like a fox eating its own dung if she doesn't get enough fish in for the winter, among other earthy metaphors. It is clear from the Russian-language documentary on the DVD that all three main characters are playing themselves, in a sense; Haapsalo and Bychkov are soldier material, and Juuso is earth mother, although in an electric blue catsuit rather than Sami ethnic dress.

The vagueness of the surrounding plot is a drawback, and long periods of silence mean that you have to pay extra attention to every single rustle in every single hedgerow or clump of grass. The sketchiness has evidently confused other reviewers, and although it is made clear that it takes place at the end of the war, the lack of background might put people off who expect a war film to be full of shooting and loud noises.

the cuckoo chirps thrice
This is a strange film. About a love triangle between a Finn, A Russian and a Lapp, none of whom speak each others language. Set in WWII it is unclear whether in 1940 or 1944. I found the beginning quite confusing as if a few minutes had been cut from the very start. I think it helps to know that some German soldiers have captured a Finn sniper and leave him in no mans land dressed in a SS uniform so he cannot surrender to the Russians. The main focus of the film is not the war, this is just a device to get the 3 protaganists together. The film is very gentle and I loved the female lead Anny Kristiine Juuso, if she is any other films I need to see more. She is cute yet also very sexual. The only problem apart from the start is the strange sexual moaning of the actress which is (unintentionally?) comic and the rather unsatisfactory pen-ultimate scene when the russian and finn soldiers leave our lapp heroine. No sex scenes or nudity so don't waste your money if that is what you want but it is gently erotic and funny.
Why thrice a cuckoo?
1. a cuckoo is a name for a sniper
2. a cuckoo doesn't bring up its own young
3. the heroines name is cuckoo
Could have been a 5 with a little more, made in a hurry and it shows a little, one of the few films I have seen that needs more, rather than editing down.

really nice international movie
After dinner we all moved into the living room for some idiots idea to watch a strange movie they had picked up called the Cuckoo. The back cover suggested little to be excited about so I sat down for what I expected to be a rather heavy plod of slow deep conversation. I was wrong.

The movie starts fast and doesn't give hints as to where it's going, the three main actors, two soldiers (one finnish and one russian) and a lapplander do not share a language so blather on in their own languages in the hope of communication, we as an audience see the humourous miscommunication in the subtitles and there are some really great comic situations as well.

The film is visually beautiful and full of life and essentially about people hearing what they want to hear regardless of the language it's in, by the people speaking different languages this is highlighted. the actors are great and really flesh out their respective cultures well.

Overall a good buy for those looking for a good foreign movie from the chilly north.