FINLAND: Äideistä Parhain (Mother of Mine) 2005

Director: Klaus Härö
Stars: Topi Majaniemi, Maria Lundqvist, Marjaana Maijala, Michael Nyqvist.
Release date: Finland: 30 September 2005
Based on the novel by Heikki Hietamies.

During the 2nd world war, 70,000 Finnish children were sent to neutral Sweden to be put into foster care while the Finns fought the Russians. This fictionalised account focuses on one such child & his interaction with his new 'mother', played by veteran Swedish actor Lundqvist. This is Finland's official entry for the 2006 Academy Awards. The critics say that the contemporary scenes that begin & end the film take away from the more dramatic middle section. It still looks to be an interesting film with a subject matter that hasn't really been covered in cinema before, well, not from a Scandinavian point of view anyway.

• IMDb
• Film website