Mother of Mine
Mother of Mine [Äideistä parhain] [Den Bästa Av Mödrar] (Klaus Härö, Finland/Sweden). Not many films set during World War II focus on Finland (at any rate, not any films I had ever heard of). During that time Finland cooperated militarily with Germany, in the Continuation War against the Soviet Union. With its territory being bombed, Finland sent 70,000 children to neutral Sweden. Nine-year-old Eero, the central character in “Mother of Mine”, whose father is sent to war and killed, does not want to leave his mother but has no choice in the matter. His Swedish hosts, Hjalmar and Signe, recently experienced their own tragedy and have not come to terms with it; they feel sorry for Eero but find it challenging to take care of a child who speaks a different language and makes frequent attempts to run away. As the adults try to protect Eero by shielding him from unpleasant information, they just exacerbate his feelings of helplessness. The story is beautifully told and the cast is excellent, with astonishing performances by Topi Majaniemi as Eero and Maria Lundqvist as Signe. I found this film deeply moving, and it could easily win the Oscar for best foreign-language film. 10