After Jalmari Helander was excited about the somewhat different Christmas movie “Rare Exports”, the big movie world quickly knocked on his door. Finally he shot the action movie “Big Game” in Germany with stars like Samuel L. Jackson, Ray Stevenson or Jim Broadbent – and then disappeared from the international public eye for eight years, during which he worked exclusively for Finnish television. Now he’s back. And how.
“Sisu“will be shown in German cinemas from May 11, 2023 and is a brutally brutal action grenade that took no prisoners. In the interview with Jalmari Helander, we naturally wanted to know why it took so long before a new film of his was finally released. Of course we also talk about the violence in “Sisu” and whether it compensates for the slightly too bloodless “Big Game” and how damned fun it is to kill Nazis.
Talking to him via Zoom, we notice that the director is sitting in his office in front of two posters – one is for his first feature “Rare Exports”, the other for one of his favorite films…
Rambo and Western – “Sisu” combines everything Helander likes!
Jalmari Helander: I think that came very naturally. I loved Rambo: First Blood when I first saw it as a kid. And ever since then I wanted to make action movies. And of course the Western references cannot be avoided if you have a main character riding through an open landscape on horseback.
This movie combines so many things that I personally like – just this kind of silent cinema where there’s not so much talking, where things are shown instead of explained.
Jalmari Helander: First of all my age. Of course, that’s the time when I learned to love movies and just watched everything. But it also feels like the 80s and 90s were a special time for action movies. I miss that time of filmmaking. There are way too many superhero movies these days. I think we need to go back to that golden age of cinema.
The time after “Big Game” was frustrating!
Jalmari Helander: After “Big Game” I really struggled to find anything. In the end, I didn’t like everything I wrote then. I used to be on a project for a few months or sometimes almost a year and then decide, “This isn’t good enough. I have to do something else!” And so I kept changing the project, which over time got really frustrating as time went on.
Just cool to finally be able to be really brutal
Jalmari Helander: Oh, you have no idea how much truth there is in that. It was so cool to not be tied to a PG-13 rating anymore and just do what I want to do. I had so much fun with it and threw out all the stuff that was brewing inside me. I feel really relaxed after the movie. That was good therapy for me.
Jalmari Helander: That was really the hardest part of working on this movie. I knew I had to innovate if I wanted to stand out from the many other action movies out there. I’ve really thought about this a lot.
But at some point I was in the right frame of mind so that these ideas came to me. Then I wrote the film in a few months. I was sitting here in my office, it was dark outside and suddenly I just felt like killing Nazis. And then I really had fun.
The underwater scene in “Sisu” is Helander’s favorite – a must-see
Jalmari Helander: My highlight is the scene where he has to survive underwater. I remember exactly how much I laughed when I came up with the idea. Because I’m pretty sure no one has seen anything like it before.
Jalmari Helander: It’s a really tough question because I just have these visual ideas in my head. I don’t know exactly where they come from. They’re probably from the many movies I’ve seen and are just a combination of everything. But I really don’t know, it just comes to mind.
That’s why Aksel Hennie is the perfect Nazi
Jalmari Helander: I’ve loved Aksel’s work ever since I saw Headhunters. When we first talked about this project, he immediately understood what I intend to do with this film. He wasn’t trying to cram superficial layers onto his character to make his role bigger. He realized it’s a simple story and we do simple things – but we do it the best we can. I really had fun with him. Of course, it also helped enormously that Aksel just looks like a Nazi with his blue eyes.
Jalmari Helander: That was very important to me. When I started writing, I knew exactly how I wanted the film to look. It should be an open landscape without trees. There should be almost no place to hide. At the same time, this vastness creates a size, the whole movie looks bigger – and the people in it are so small in comparison. It also shows how alone they are in this scenario. There are no places to look for help. You are alone in the middle of nowhere and you are dealing with these problems. It’s a way of telling stories that I love. And this part of Finland is probably the best place to make a movie like that.
Jalmari Helander: Yes, that was really hard. We were so far north of Finland that it was even a struggle to get all the people and material to this place. It was so windy there every day that the sand flew around our ears and settled everywhere, I mean everywhere. And because of the wind you couldn’t hear anything ten meters away.
But at the same time, this wind looks great on camera and helped me in such a way that I felt alive all the time. As I said before, I was not relaxed at first. I really struggled to make a movie again. But how everyone worked together in these difficult circumstances has given me new life. It’s not easy, but it makes a better film in my opinion: you have to be innovative all the time, you have to be fast, you have to be wide awake every second to get something done.
Sci-Fi in Finland? Action in Hollywood? We don’t have to wait another 8 years!
Jalmari Helander: I’m working on a Finnish sci-fi movie that we could shoot later this year. I’m already writing another action movie. I have a few offers from Hollywood that I’m looking into. The next movie will definitely be something with a lot of action again, I can promise you that and one more thing: it won’t take eight years!
“Sisu” – in cinemas now!
“SisuAs mentioned earlier, it is now playing in German cinemas. In our opinion, the film is a must-see for all fans of hard action – not only the underwater scene mentioned in the interview by Jalmari Helander has it all. If you want to know more about why a visit to the cinema is worthwhile, we recommend our 4-star review!
Author: Bjorn Becher
Source : Film Starts
I am Dawid Malan, a news reporter for 24 Instant News. I specialize in celebrity and entertainment news, writing stories that capture the attention of readers from all walks of life. My work has been featured in some of the world’s leading publications and I am passionate about delivering quality content to my readers.
