Starring:
Outi Maenpaa, Riia Kataja, Martti Suosalo
Director:
Petri Kotwica
Scheduled release:
18 June

On her 40th birthday, gynaecologist Saara (Outi Maenpaa) discovers that her husband Leo (Martti Suosalo) is having an affair. Instead of confronting him with the stash of condoms she finds in his guitar case, she follows him until his lover is revealed. Tuuli (Riia Kataja) is one of Leo’s architectural students, a good decade younger than Saara, but both women are strong, sexy and more than capable of looking after themselves. In fact, Tuuli teaches karate in her spare time. As Saara mulls over a predicament that is threatening her childless marriage she chooses to approach Tuuli and, constructing her own intricate web of lies, she befriends her husband’s lover. As Saara explains her situation and Tuuli begins to spill the details of her romance, Saara’s carefully laid plans begin to unravel in ways she could never have foreseen.

Finnish cinema has rarely made much of an impact on the world scene, often eclipsed by the more robust Swedish industry or forced to settle for Scandinavian group recognition. Aki Kaurismaki enjoys a healthy art-house following overseas, but other than that the country’s work remains something of an anomaly. Earlier this year, however, the Hong Kong International Film Festival dedicated a whole section of its programme to Finnish new talents and Black Ice was one of, if not the, standout film from the selection.

From the perpetually wintry landscape to the clinical architecture of Leo and Saara’s homestead, director Petri Kotwica seems happy to confirm our suspicions that Finland is a foreboding and desolate country, forever snowbound and full of misery. The plot evokes the best of film noir, with a succession of devastating plot twists that are genuinely nail biting as a simple domestic drama spirals out of control. However, amid all of this runs a dark, malevolent sense of humour that keeps the tone playful – as if Kotwica is siding with the audience rather than his characters, laughing at their insecurities and incompetence in a way that evokes the work of Todd Solondz.

It cannot go unmentioned that the psychological sparring of these two blonde femmes fatales also strongly recalls the great Swedish director Ingmar Bergman’s Persona, a comparison that is both flattering and richly deserved. Both Maenpaa and Kataja turn in hugely impressive and convincing performances, which have garnered plaudits and awards. In fact Black Ice picked up six Finnish Academy Awards (or Jussis) last year, including Best Film, Best Director, Best Actress for Maenpaa and Best Screenplay. The film is tense, exciting, unpredictable and features a pair of great female performances the likes of which come around far too infrequently in films from any country. If you’ve never seen a Finnish film before, and I’ll gladly wager that the vast majority of you haven’t, then this is a pretty good place to start. James Marsh