Commando Assault

Sissit

Finland

1963

106 Min

Black and White

Finnish

Currently 3.7/5 Stars.
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EXEC Matti Kassila, Mauno Mäkelä

SCR Jouni Apajalahti, Matti Kassila, Mikko Niskanen, Paavo Rintala

CAST Matti Oravisto, Kauko Laurikainen, Paul Budsko, Heimo Lepistö, Valde Pitkänen, Jaakko Jokelin, Erkki Siltola, Yrjö Järvinen, Tea Ista, Anja Pohjola, Ritva Vepsä, Vieno Saaristo, Sirppa Sivori-Asp, Pehr-Olof Sirén, Oiva Sala, Eino Kaipainen, Pentti Saares, Seppo Wallin, Tauno Lehtonen, Yrjö Ikonen, Paavo Roiha, Anssi Mänttäri, Sulo Sulander, Arno Carlstedt, Svante Korkiakoski, Tuukka Soitso

SOUND Tuomo Kattilakoski, Gösta Salminen, Matti Ylinen

Synopsis

Lieutenant Takala joins a group of war veterans who gather in a restaurant to reminisce their unit’s operations on the Finnish-Soviet front. A flashback takes us back to summer 1944 where the unit, led by Takala, performs dangerous guerrilla operations behind enemy lines. A subplot alleges sexual liaisons between soldiers and female volunteers, which caused controversy when the film and the novel it’s based on were released in the early 1960s. —IMDb

Director

Mikko Niskanen

Mikko Niskanen (1929-1990) was a Finnish film director, writer, producer and actor. He started his directing career in 1962 after studying film making in Moscow. His first feature film Pojat (1962) was a proof of his talent and earned him a Jussi Award for directing. During the next 12 months he also directed movies Sissit (1963) – which he won an Jussi Award for directing also – and Hopeaa rajan takaa (1963). All of these three movies were war-themed.

During the next few years he worked for TV, but returned to film industry in 1966 with his film Käpy selän alla (1966). The film became a huge success with 700,000 tickets sold to screenings. The film stays in Finnish film industry as 12th highest grossing Finnish film of the history. It was also sold to several different countries. Niskanen won a Jussi for directing.

His next two films Lapualaismorsian (1967) and Asfalttilampaat (1968) weren’t so well received, but earned him a Jussi for directing the first one. In early… read more