Writer/director Miia Tervo’s award-winning second feature (a.k.a. Ohjus) is an at times uneasy mix of romantic comedy, broad character/family drama, tensely doomy suspense, political satire (of both the ‘80s and now), and a nostalgic evocation of the days when nuclear Armageddon seemed to get ever closer (and closer). And yes, it’s drawn from some kind of historical fact, which is more than slightly unsettling.
Shot in snowbound Finnish and Estonian locations (and offering dialogue in Finnish, English and at least one of Lapland’s Sámi languages), this is the story of single Mum Niina Kuittinen (Oona Airola), who’s introduced having a playful day out with her two young kids and accidentally damaging one of the windows at her isolated town’s local newspaper’s offices. Forcing editor Esko (Hannu-Pekka Björkman with a mullet) to take her on as a journo to help pay off the debt, Niina then travels to her sister’s Christmastime wedding, and on the way hears an unexplained boom.
When she arrives at the huge family event, she learns that the Soviet Union has apparently fired a missile across the Finnish border to Inari, and the hotel is then besieged by soldiers and reporters all waiting to see what happens next. Is the missile real, or a lie? Is it a nuclear warhead? Will it irradiate the countryside? And does it mean the beginning of a global atomic apocalypse?
When the Lapland military turns up, Niina keeps bumping into nice young officer Kai Repola (Pyry Kähkönen), and there’s some sweet semi-screwball comedy where she trips all over herself and just can’t put the right words together whenever he’s around. And what does this new romance mean for her supposedly reformed ex-con ex-husband Tapio (Tommi Eronen with another mullet), who’s back on the scene? And does it even matter if the world’s coming to an end?
This director’s ambitiously shifting tone has been criticised by some, and yet it seems more than right for a story built upon such frightening uncertainty, and Oona is tremendous as Niina, with her performance moving from melancholy and resignation, to bravery, defiance, lust, love, hope, and powerful fear.
And the period soundtrack is fabulous too, with Bronski Beat’s No More War, Alphaville’s original Forever Young (“…are you gonna drop the bomb or not?”), and Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark’s Enola Gay fittingly playing while Niina and her family boozily dance in slo-mo, all trying not to think about the fact that they could soon be obliterated.
It’s also uncomfortably true that while the Cold War arms race of the 1980s seems so long ago and far away now, the nuclear threat still looms, and how much more dangerous the situation is sure to become if you-know-who… ahem… well, you know.
The Missile is screening as part of the SAXO Scandinavian Film Festival 2024
