10 Best Movies Set in or About Finland

10 Movies Set in or About Finland

Foreign-led films whose sustained setting or subject remains centered on Finland.

1. 

   1. The Cuckoo

   Кукушка · 2002

   In the final days of Finland's war in 1944, a Finnish sniper and a Soviet officer, each fleeing their armies, wind up sheltered by a Sami woman on her remote farm — three people with no common language and every reason to distrust each other. A wry, humane anti-war fable.

   Why & details

   Curator’s note: A Russian-authored anti-war film set in Finnish Lapland, where a Finnish soldier, a Soviet soldier, and a Sámi woman confront war through mutually unintelligible languages.

2. 

   2. A Man and A Woman

   남과 여 · 2016

   Two married strangers who drop their children at a camp pickup in snowy Helsinki feel an unexpected spark and embark on a discreet, tender affair. A quietly sensual South Korean romantic drama.

3. 

   3. Olympia 52

   1952

   Chris Marker's debut feature is a documentary record of the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki, capturing the pageantry and drama of the games. An early work from the celebrated French filmmaker.

4. 

   4. Hanna

   2011

   Raised in the Finnish wilderness by her ex-agent father and trained from childhood to be the perfect assassin, a teenage girl is finally sent out into the world on a mission — and hunted across Europe by a ruthless operative. A stylish action thriller.

5. 

   5. No Tomorrow

   Ingen morgondag · 1957

   On the Karelian front during Finland's Continuation War, soldiers caught in relentless fighting confront fear, duty, and mortality. A Swedish-made war drama.

6. 

   6. Hemåt i natten

   1977

   An illiterate Finnish immigrant laborer in Sweden marries and starts a family, but after a fatal brawl he flees back across the border to Finland to rebuild his shattered life. A somber drama of the immigrant experience.

7. 

   7. En dag skall gry

   1944

   After discovering his wife with another man and killing his rival, an army officer boards a train to Finland to fight in the Winter War, seeking redemption or oblivion at the front. A Swedish wartime drama.

8. 

   8. Snow Flower

   雪の華 · 2019

   A terminally ill young woman who dreams of seeing the northern lights in Finland falls in love, and the two set out to make her wish come true. A tender Japanese romance.

9. 

   9. A Spell to Ward Off the Darkness

   2013

   A meditative, near-wordless triptych follows a man through three phases of life — in a commune on an Estonian island, alone in the Finnish wilderness, and fronting a black-metal band in Norway. An immersive, contemplative art film.

10. 

    10. Billion Dollar Brain

    1967

    A disillusioned former British spy is drawn into a bizarre plot by a fanatical Texas billionaire to topple Communism using a giant supercomputer, with the trail leading to icy Finland. Ken Russell's flamboyant Cold War thriller.