

User Score
21 votes
Pekka arrives back to his home village of Jerusalem to celebrate the last wedding of the village. His own marriage seems to have reached a dead end. The people of the village gather to prepare for the event, and the bitter spectrum of all human life, with its joys and sorrows, is condensed into one summer's day.
Director
Screenplay
Status
Released
Original Language
FI

Ilona, a young teacher, arrives in a village in Tavastia. She and Aarne, the wealthy owner of the Niskavuori farm, who is frustrated with his marriage, fall in love. The relationship becomes a public secret. Aarne's wife Martta, who owns half of Niskavuori, wants to hold on to her husband until the last. For Loviisa, the matriarch of Niskavuori, the most important thing is the reputation and honor of the family.

Jalmari Pesonen / Grim Reaper (voice)
Bright young soldier Mertsi suffers a permanent brain injury in the Second World War. In the late 1940s he wanders around the Finnish countryside looking for simple work and relying on other people's help. A workmate, Ville, tells him about his clever Spitz dog back home and the problems with her overlong dew claws. Together with his helpful war buddy Eetvi, Mertsi joins a lumber camp in the middle of a freezing winter, tries hard but finds the work there too strenuous for his body and mind. While he still sees nightmares about the war, in the daytime he keeps dreaming and worrying about the dog...