Insider tip for home cinema: sex, death, violence and religious madness in one haunting masterpiece

Cold, darkness and a society dominated by sex, alcohol and violence – all this, but delusional wrapped in a cloak of religiosity: good humor is a rarity in the Finnish cinema classic “The Earth is a Sinful Song”. But in the feature debut of director-provocateur Rauni Mollberg, it is by no means taboo – because his film is also permeated with raw tenderness and vulnerable love.

While Finnish society’s drastic and dramatic take set box office records in its homeland, German film fans had an incredibly hard time getting their hands on the classic. This is now over: “The Earth is a Sinful Song” is now available in German home cinema as a special edition on Blu-ray.

One also came DVD* of the milestone hardly known in this country. The label image disturbance is responsible for the publication, which always equips its editions with interesting bonus material and enjoys a high reputation among fans of unusual and/or ambitious cinema.

It is therefore also worthwhile not to hesitate too long if you are interested: experience has shown that Bild Stör publications do not sell out quickly. But as soon as they are sold out, the editions on the second-hand market practically only sell at attractive prices.

“Earth is a sinful song”: a gory, earthy portrait of society

Lapland, late 1940s: Martta (Maritta Viitamäki) is only 19 years old, but already works half dead. She spends her scarce free time in the sauna or at village festivals – and always under the greedy observation of the male population. Martta is quite curious and therefore occasionally flirts back, but doesn’t want to get serious just yet. But then she meets the reindeer herder Oula (Niiles-Jouni Aikio), a Sami with a terrible reputation. Is he doing it for a good reason, or is he just a victim of jealousy and religious intolerance?

At the Locarno Film Festival, Rauni Mollberg received the prize for the best first work for “The Earth is a Sinful Song”, and the film was also screened in competition at the 24th Berlinale. In 1986, more than ten years after its performance at the Berlinale, the drama also known in Germany as “The Earth is our sinful song” celebrated its local free TV premiere on ZDF.

A worthy home theater release, on the other hand, has so far been denied. Therefore, the disturbingly distant adaptation of the novel of the same name by Finnish author Timo K. Mukka can be described as an insider tip with a clear conscience, even though the drastic social study celebrated huge success in Finland.

Given the almost desolate mood and the oppressive image of society, it is nothing short of astonishing how great this success was: The Earth Is a Sinful Song held the record for the most visited film in Finland for a few years — thus serving as a guideline for the local film industry on what audiences can digest.

Mollberg’s uncompromising style and his creative influence are also the focus of the 2021 documentary “Dinosaur”, which features image interference as an extra in the “The Earth is a Sinful Song” edition. The main movie has also been re-sampled and restored for release, although the dub is missing.

If you don’t speak Finnish (which probably should be the case for the majority of our audience), you’ll have to settle for subtitles. But that comes closer to the rough, exciting original. And in case you want to increase your collection of photo failures, the label has already released the most powerful war film in history…