The Unknown Soldier (1955)

Interesting facts

• Based on: The Unknown Soldier

The Unknown Soldier is a Finnish war film directed by Edvin Laine that premiered in December 1955. It is based on The Unknown Soldier, a novel by Väinö Linna. The story is about the Continuation War between Finland and the Soviet Union as told from the viewpoint of ordinary Finnish soldiers.

Production

The film began production and was released only a year after the release of the novel. There had been immediate competition for film rights, which were won by SF Film, led by T. J. Särkkä; Linna received one million Finnish marks in the deal. Filming began in April 1955 in Nurmijärvi, although the final script was not finished until the end of May.

The film is relatively loyal to the original novel, though the Soviets are rarely shown in most of the scenes. Kariluoto's death is different from the novel, though his last words are the same. Lammio's come-uppance from a disrespectful soldier during the Finns' retreat is absent from the film. The character Karjula has been omitted entirely.

Due to disagreements with SF Film, the Finnish Defense Forces refused to assist with the filming. Thus all soldiers are actors and there is a heavy use of stock footage in several scenes where Finnish artillery is shown.

As the soldiers are played by SF Film regulars, most are physically much older than their characters in the novel. Several actors were considered for the role of Rokka but were ultimately rejected because they couldn't deliver his Karelian Finnish dialect. Reino Tolvanen was an actual veteran of the Continuation War, having served in the air force, and was cast due to speaking the dialect naturally.

Edvin Laine and Väinö Linna became good friends during the production. Laine would go on to make several more films based on Linna's novels after the mid-1960s, when SF Film had gone bankrupt.

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