Unknown Soldier

In 1939, Stalin and Hitler arranged the division of influence in the neighbouring countries and soon began to carve them up. And no one stopped them from doing so. Together they occupied Poland, Stalin took Latvia and Estonia. Next up was Finland, which the Russians demanded hand over Karelia, located on their border near Leningrad. In November 1939, without a declaration of war, the Red Army invaded Finland, but despite being outnumbered in men and weapons many times over, they were unable to break through the Finnish defences. It was only after a few months of the so-called Winter War that they won a part of Finland's territory. In 1941 the situation changed. The German army invaded the Soviet Union and Finland decided to fight back the occupied borderlands. This wartime conflict between the small Nordic country and the totalitarian communist machine is reminiscent of a David and Goliath struggle. The war drama Unknown Soldier tells the story of one Finnish unit that stood up to defend the country against the aggressor during this war. The film portrays the real-life conflict of the war in a gritty and realistic way, seeing it through the eyes of a diverse group of men who were tightly bound together by the war. The film is based on the bestselling book by Väinö Linna, who also drew on his own experience for his stories