Young advertising executive Vatanen suddenly quits his job and his whole life in Helsinki, and decides to spend a while in the Finnish wilderness. A wounded hare hit by a car becomes his travel companion. Together they find reclusion in the Finnish Lapland, soon to be disturbed by a noisy group of foreign tourists and their pretentious Finnish hosts. When the hare gets ill and needs to see a vet, Vatanen must return to the city and finally face the choice between his new and former life.
Director: Risto Jarva.
Stars: Antti Litja, Kauko Helovirta, Markku Huhtamo, Paavo Hukkinen, Juha Kandolin, Kosti Klemelä, Anna-Maija Kokkinen, Martti Kuningas, Ahti Kuoppala, Hannele Lanu, Jukka Sipilä, Hannu Lauri, Heikki Nousiainen, Esa Pakarinen Jr., Martti Pennanen. AKA The Year of the Hare
Man, I recently became fascinated by Finnish cinema but most of these older films are so hard to find, especially with English subs. This is one I’ve been wanting to see for a while. You are making my day right now.
Thanks a lot for this too! It has been a long time since the book intrigued me, at this point I will watch the film first!
Hi!
Seen a few days ago, great film, ironic, grotesque, with notable characters (there is also a bit of antelitteram conspiracy ! :-)) in the middle of nature, beautiful folk soundtrack, and those Finnish 70s clothes!
Very current, moreover (and it’s from 1977!)
Thank you very much for giving me the chance to see it.
I saw that there is also a French film based on the same novel, “Le Lièvre de Vatanen” – from 2006 – by Marc Rivière, with Christopher Lambert, and music by Goran Bregovic, which seems interesting!
The last 20 minutes are completely baffling. I don’t think they could write women’s parts either. The fiancée just appears out of the blue with a backstory she tells within a couple of minutes and the audience just have to accept it….