Sisu

Sisu (2022) is Jalmari Helander's war action film, and you can watch it online on iFILM. Finland, 1944. The Germans are retreating across Lapland, burning everything behind them, when a lone prospector strikes a vein of gold in the wilderness. His trip home turns into a one-man war.

Aatami Korpi is a former soldier who killed hundreds of enemies single-handed and earned a near-mythic reputation for it. All he wants now is quiet: a horse, a dog, a gold pan. Then a unit of SS troops led by the ruthless officer Helldorf decides to take the old man's loot. They have no idea who they just crossed. The nuggets stay out of reach until they manage to kill a man who seems impossible to kill.

The Finnish word "sisu" has no clean translation — it's a stubborn grit that refuses to break even when everything is stacked against you. Helander made an almost wordless film where Jorma Tommila speaks through sheer force, with Norwegian actor Aksel Hennie squaring off against him. Bloody, dry and built like an old western, it's a revenge story stripped to the bone. Stream Sisu (2022) online on iFILM.