It is the summer of 1941. An eastern-Finnish machine gun company receives an order to turn in their surplus equipment. The company is transferred to the front lines. The next morning the soldiers wake to the sound of guns – the war has begun. The Finnish troops attack and quickly move across the border. The young, nervous rookies of the company get their baptism of fire, and the men become familiar with death and the hardships of war. Under strength and badly equipped they fight a superior enemy. The lists of heroes and of the dead seem endless. Edvin Laine’s epic interpretation of Väinö Linna’s war novel “Tuntematon Sotilas” is an entire chapter in the book of Finnish movie history. —IMDb
Edvin Laine (13 July 1905, Iisalmi – 18 November 1989, Helsinki) was a Finnish film director. Laine was born Bovellán.
Laine directed Aaltoska orkaniseeraa, a comedy, in 1949.
The Unknown Soldier, a film Laine directed in 1955 based on Väinö Linna’s novel, was a big sensation in Finland. Laine also directed another film based on Väinö Linna’s book, Under the North Star (1968), which also was a successful movie in Finland. 30 years later, in 1985, Rauni Mollberg directed a new version of The Unknown Soldier. It was based on Laine’s film, but he used unknown actors and it was filmed in colour.
His 1958 film Sven Tuuva the Hero was entered into the 9th Berlin International Film Festival. —Wikipedia
