And a man finds his way
like a migratory bird -
and you can't explain it.
What place comes to mind,
what beauty comes to mind?
What place does your soul desire?
To where does it become attached?
Name that place,
show it to me, go there.
For this young sergeant it's here.
He's on his way to work.
And a man finds his way
like a migratory bird.
And you can't explain it.
But he doesn't yet know that hell
and paradise aren't places -
but states of mind.
They're inside you
if you know where to look.
That is Jouni's cat poro.
That is very interesting poro.
Cat poro. Cat, kissa.
Pyh, sacred animal.
It has a reindeer of its own.
Cat?
What is it in English or German?
-I don't remember.
Do you speak English?
-Yes.
Jouni, isn't it worth two grand?
-Cat reindeer are priceless.
Two thousand mark, you understand?
Drive card?
And money too.
-This can't be settled with money.
How can it be settled?
-It can't.
Are you sure?
-Yes, I'm sure.
Vornanen, leave it.
Let them go.
You must go now.
His name was
difficult to spell, anyway.
You understand?
You must go now.
Goodbye and trevlig resa.
I'm Karvanaama.
If you don't know me, ask anyone.
This is Vornanen, he's a believer.
Shall I warm the sauna?
In the newcomer's honour.
Vornanen,
why don't you show him around?
There's a big crowd here because
of the native people's festival.
The duty officer
woke me after midnight.
Some Eskimo had been thrown
through the bar's window.
I called the police 120 miles away.
They sounded drowsy and
promised to send a patrol.
His fur trousers had protected him.
This is how it is,
the border guard work around here.
I'm getting the hang of it.
Hello.
What are you doing?
We've been testing these tents.
We're just finishing. Good tents.
The view is great.
-We have different kinds.
Those are tunnel tents,
and over there...
So...
In the spring, we move at night.
During the day, we lie in the sun.
We lay our foam mats on a bare spot
and make some coffee.
But in the autumn it's so dark...
Not that we couldn't...
The brook just keeps on flowing.
That's the Plough. Then up above
those two stars of the Plough -
that's the North Star,
Stella Polaris.
The north is that way,
we're walking south-east.
If it seems to be moving,
a star or a planet -
it doesn't necessarily move,
but we do...
I mean the Earth, Tellus -
is moving all the time
through space, quickly.
When you see a shooting star,
you can make a wish.
But you mustn't tell anyone
or it won't come true.
The wish, I mean.
Are you cold?
-A little.
Take this.
Thanks.
ls this how you live?
-It isn't bad.
Living with the seasons.
Soon the polar night will arrive,
and then there'll be snow and cold.
In the spring, there'll be light and
the sun will start melting the snow.
Think about it, there could be
six feet of snow right here -
and then it'll just disappear.
I've just come here
to the eastern border.
They closed down my previous guard.
So...
Bye bye.
Now she's gone.
Umur. Umur went.
And you don't realise until
someone leaves... has gone -
that you're standing there alone,
with the likes of you.
Like trees, alone.
Hello, thank you very much...
-Hello.
It just sort of slipped...
-There was a reindeer.
We tried to dodge it,
and the sun was in my eyes...
You can't just pull it back...
-No, it'll just slide downhill.
There you go...
-Thank you!
We're on our way to Hmeenlinna.
-Watch out for reindeer!
I have to be at work tomorrow.
Can you give me a ride? I have
some unfinished business back there.
I went to find Umur,
but she had already gone.
Now there are just trees and rivers,
the arch of heaven and longing.
You long for something,
go to the fells.
You think it's the right place
and you're sitting there, longing.
You wish you had
someone to go back to.
On whom your thoughts would linger.
The short summer and the autumn
are gone, and the winter is here.
But I don't mind.
The sky is arching over me,
the blue and bright winter sky.
The universe is quickly curving
over me, from one end to another.
Bright stars pierce the vault.
The snow crunches underfoot,
breath steams in the cold.
I have something warm
hidden in my chest.
I live in a land of my own.
I have a dream.
A longing for the dream.
Why shouldn't I drink?
Liquor is good!
Goddammit!
Thank you, Jesus Christ!
It's by the hand and the gift
of Jesus that I broke the bottle!
Now my body has to suffer...
Bloody hell!
Goddammit,
all the bottles are broken!
Thank you, Jesus Christ,
for finally breaking the bottles.
I used to drink, but not anymore.
Now all the bottles are broken.
The milk has gone bad!
You have to take care of things!
And you haven't put up
the winter curtains yet.
I have old curtains
that would do just fine...
You should take care of things.
Has Eija been here?
She's just the kind of person who...
Listen, your sheets are filthy.
I'll take them with me.
How are you... otherwise?
Don't question her.
She'll be all right.
Come on now...
-I think we should go.
Air the room, it's stuffy in here!
Can I borrow your vacuum cleaner?
Hi.
-Hi.
Hello!
I have to beat the carpets,
since the weather is so nice.
What?
We have already met.
Are you taking horses?
With all that hay...
Or reindeer? Or what?
Quite a...
Well, I have to beat the carpets.
Maybe we can have coffee later.
They make these
swivel chairs nowadays.
How about some coffee?
Great paintings.
Who painted these?
Have some coffee.
Thanks for lending me this.
-No... keep it. I don't need it.
Umur came to visit me.
She came and took my heart,
and my sweater.
Soon it'll be Christmas.
I sent her a flower.
I wrote her that I love her...
and received a letter from her.
Umur wants to spend
Christmas at home.
Her sister is coming
from Sweden and everything.
A family feast.
Like in the old days
Like in the old days
Like in the old days
It's all just fine again
Yes...
Right...
Yes. Thank you.
They called from the hospital.
The girl has left,
right after our visit. -What?
Where did she go?
Do we have to call the police
on Christmas eve?
She can't just stop the treatment!
There's no answer.
Please, try to find her.
The medication makes her reckless.
I was in the hospital.
I had this dream...
I was walking in the street,
but no one saw me.
Still I had the feeling
that someone was watching me.
I was dead in that dream.
Don't be afraid.
So, that's it then.
Umur. I'm feeling confident.
Happy New Year.
I'm here tonight. Maybe I'll
spend tomorrow night in a snow pit.
Can't those boys have some coffee?
It's pretty cold.
We have plenty of coffee.
Down!
I came for a visit,
kind of like a house call.
Merry Christmas.
Thank you.
It was funny to see
the Russians climbing the trees.
I was skiing towards the border...
They fell from the trees
like frozen apples.
Are you sick?
Let's go out.
So, what are you thinking?
Nothing?
Why didn't you open the present?
You know what it is? It's...
I painted a picture for you.
There's a mountain and some snow,
the stars and the moon. And a man.
You can especially see...
The Plough and the North Star,
the Stella Polaris.
Glowing up there, like the moon.
Remember when I told you?
There's the man sitting
alone under the arch of sky.
Alone in the wilderness. He's...
He's sitting there and thinking...
about you...
Isn't he a funny boy?
Writing letters, saying he loves me.
Can you imagine, me!
What?
What, what, what?
Go to hell! Go away!
Hey, can I spend the night
at your place again?
The last bus has gone.
Why are you taking them there?
What do you mean?
You wanted to stay here.
What are you doing? You've spent
the night here before... sleeping.
Looked like you broke up with him.
-You don't understand this.
Understand? I saw it myself.
I love that man.
I sent Umur a cactus, not a rose.
Roses wither,
but a cactus stays alive.
It endures the drought for a long
time, and some day it will bloom.
New snow will fall.
New tracks will appear on the snow,
a new fall of snow will cover them.
It's hard to begin...
I think about you often,
but I let it pass.
We can meet some time
in the future -
but no one knows when,
and it mustn't be planned.
You can build a life for yourself,
but do it without me.
Don't start anything that doesn't
have a future. At least for me.
What's wrong with me...
I don't always know that myself.
I'm confused about a lot of things.
Someone had brought
a dog to the border.
Her owners had died
in a car accident.
She'll be put to sleep unless
they find a new home for her.
Her name is Taika.
So you're Taika.
How's it going?
You're already wagging your tail.
Want to come with me?
What? We're going, we're going!
Let's take a break.
There aren't any over there!
Look, Taika.
I was here before with a girl.
Her name is Umur.
They're only here! Here!
Maybe they're all duds,
there are so many.
There were more at Menesjrvi.
From the ammunition store. These
have been dropped from a plane.
Good thing we've eaten.
There'll be a bigger pile of shit
left if we get blown up by these.
You go and start a fire.
We'll be there soon for coffee.
They haven't exploded by
themselves for fifty years.
People prepare themselves
for a thousand years of youth.
You have to have entertainment
not to get bored with your youth.
Special effects.
We've traded this wilderness
for entertainment.
Taika, as you can see
they've developed a super tree.
But it's not this one.
This used to be just a regular tree.
For that and other reasons...
Bloody hell!
I've decided to leave the border.
How do you like that?
I bought an Inter Rail card
and travelled to Europe.
In Malaga I decided I'd had enough.
I checked the timetables and
sent an express letter to Umur -
as a test, some bait:
I'll come then and on that train.
I yearned to be with Umur.
I thought that maybe she'd meet me.
Hello.
Finnish marks, please.
Here's your money... Hello!
Greetings from Malaga.
I'm sorry.
I have to pick up that silly dog.
Something of you
will live inside me -
something of me
will live inside you.
What?
-Nothing! Look out for beasts!
Silly dog!
Hello there!
-What are you, what?
Come on, they don't bite!
So, would you rent it?
ls it wise to leave it empty?
Well no...
Or yes... well no...
Yes... no...
Well... I don't think...
It depends on how you look at it.
If it's cold in winter or
warm in summer, then it's not...
Or if it is, it is,
so I don't think...
It keeps what it keeps...
That may be so,
but is the house for rent?
Well yes... or no...
We'll sleep on it.
Well no... well yes...
no... yes... no...
It's not warm in summer or
cold in winter, unless it is...
It keeps what it keeps.
Wait!
You were supposed to wait!
After dinner,
we were washing the dishes.
I didn't say a word.
Happiness filled my soul.
I thought:
soon I can tell him something.
Don't come here!
It's bright out here!
-You're the one who's dazzling...
Hello? Did it come through?
Hello! It did!
The place is covered in soot!
Great!
Where would you like
to be right now? -Here.
Why not up here?
-It's the wish.
What?
-The wish.
It has come true.
The shooting star.
You're not supposed to tell!
I know.
Let's go.
-Not yet, wait a minute.
We're late.
-I can't make it.
What do you mean?
-This won't take long.
I'm going.
-I'll be right behind you.
Will it take long?
Okay, now we can go.
I'm not going.
-What's the matter?
I can't make it anymore.
Well, I'm going alone then.
My family will be there too.
-Go ahead.
Come on, let's go.
I'm not going.
Well no... well yes... no yes...
All right, we're not going.
-Actually, I'm going.
I'm not.
Neither am l.
We're not going.
We're going.
I'm not going.
-Neither am l.
Well, then I'm going.
Go ahead!
-No I won't.
You won't?
-No.
I'm going.
-Well no... well yes... no yes...
Are you coming?
You'll have to wait here.
We're going to a wedding.
The groom's speech!
Well no... or yes...
She isn't... they aren't...
They're sisters...
Sisters...
and now wives and sisters.
We are brothers...
They used to be waitresses, so
they won't be idle... sweethearts.
We thought about
building a holiday resort.
So we already have waitresses...
A holiday resort.
I make maps with a friend -
walking the areas that have been
unclear in the aerial photos.
Taika goes with me as a map dog.
She likes it. I don't mind either.
It's nice that you both have
wives now... sisters and all.
Well yes... well no...
It isn't... just waitressing.
It'll be all kinds of work...
My wife is there somewhere...
How did it...
a pretty wife like that...
Yes, yes... well of course not...
Yes, she is from there...
I mean, how did you...
such a pretty wife -
does she have
any more sisters there?
Do you know how to tune a guitar?
The last one did.
He would've tuned our piano, but
we didn't have a tuning key. -Mum!
Well, you can check
your wife's mood with it!
A Japanese machine writes the
notes down when you play the piano.
What kind of a machine is that?
Guess they had nothing better to do.
-We know a thing or two round here.
What was the sauna stove
that's always warm?
It's "the instant stove".
-Yes. That's something too.
I used to be with
the border guard as well...
When are you two
going to get married?
So you're sitting over here?
I don't care about
what your mother says.
I wonder if more of those sisters
will come to the village?
I had a bad dream last night.
No one saw me, but still it felt
that someone was watching.
I was dead in that dream.
-Don't be upset...
I've seen all kinds of dreams.
What's the use in brooding
on them? Let them be.
They can't harm us.
Taika, silly dog!
Hello!
-We brought the post on our way.
Well no... yes... no... yes...
A hut! Yes... no... yes... no...
An enterprising young man.
-Yeah, we're building a hut here.
It'll be nice to sit
by the fire when it rains.
The cloth will come in a week.
Otherwise it's almost ready.
Would you like some coffee?
-No... yes... no...
We talked about the holiday resort
at the wedding, remember?
Yes... -One has to try
all kinds of things nowadays.
Yes, yes... no... yes...
It's a lot of work.
I'll sell you the timber.
Oulu University Hospital
We'll tear these down and
build some rental cottages...
What's the matter?
We'll find a new place.
Surely we can stay until...
-It's not about that.
Then what?
I sent an application to Oulu.
For specialised studies.
It'll start in two weeks.
And you haven't told me before?
Well, we'll go to Oulu.
An old tar town. I'll find work.
Actually, this is just perfect
since we just lost the house.
I thought you could stay here.
-What?
Yes.
You're kidding.
-No I'm not.
You would go by yourself?
Yes.
When you're walking the forests with
the dog between morning and night -
your thoughts are
kind of sleepy, just stirring.
Where have you been
through all this before?
Where have you been to engrave
these few sounds into your mind?
Your own steps, the sounds of the
dog's paws, the sound of breathing.
The passage of time
feels clear and bright.
You walk to the river to fetch
water, and then some firewood.
You put it in the stove.
The stove and the water heat up
and you see the darkness withdraw.
And it all happens quietly
and confidently, inevitably.
Sometimes she sees a familiar move,
and for a while she thinks...
But no, it's not you.
Hi!
I was just leaving.
Bye! I'll get it!
Silly...
She doesn't even eat properly,
she's restless...
She wakes up at night
to look out of the window.
She's just walking,
thinking about you.
She's been sad
and her fur is a mess...
She... misses you.
Eija's boyfriend is dead.
He got hit by a car... an hour ago.
Shall we compete for
the worst-looking fur?
Why doesn't he understand?
Look at this.
Read them. You tell him.
I have to go...
Wait here,
I'll be back in a couple of hours.
Oulu University Hospital
Have you told him?
Put on your seat belt.
How do you feel about death?
-What do you mean?
Haven't you thought about it?
-I have, sometimes.
There isn't much left of
a reindeer carcass after the winter.
Some bones and hair
and some skin and a skull.
Still it's been
a whole reindeer once.
And it has all ended in a fight.
I don't mean a short, final fight,
but the one from the very beginning.
A calf defies everything
when it enters the world.
An hour after it's born,
it has to follow its mother.
Growing up...
The whole of life is a struggle.
And death...
I feel that it's some kind of
weariness, giving up.
When I'm on a hard trip
with the border guard -
I'd love to lie down in the snow,
but no, I just have to push on.
The warm person between the sheets,
my precious on the same mattress.
The final stop,
the place you don't want to leave.
Umur says that I can be here.
And I am, I am,
to the end of the world if I can be.
An earthquake
couldn't tear me away.
I'll take a deep breath
and rest... at home.
I can make coffee.
I woke up like
a man beside his wife.
I imagined Umur waking up
like a wife beside her husband.
Lauri's friend offered me a job.
I'm going to take it.
I'll start in two weeks.
Taika will come with me.
There'll be a group of people -
different people,
disabled and healthy -
and we'll have to help them,
the way you should help me...
And become my wife.
-Are you nuts?
I was just thinking...
-No you weren't.
I'm thinking about it all the time.
-I'll never get married.
We've lived together...
-We used to, but not anymore!
Don't you understand?
-No...
I can't help it.
I think about it
everywhere and all the time.
Poor boy... Not a chance.
Okay.
I'll wait for five years
and then marry someone else.
Although it'll be you anyway.
Why don't you go already?
Stop harassing me...
You can carry this.
Umur doesn't know about it.
We'll give it to her
when the time comes.
This time we got the brush-off.
For the autumn and winter,
I worked in course centres.
I haven't seen her the whole winter.
I won't unless she asks me to.
My mind tells me to forget -
but people are alike,
everyone wants the same thing.
To be and live
with their loved ones.
I no longer think
about you every moment, Ari...
But you'll always stay with me.
Everyone wants to
love and be loved. Why?
If you love,
it will be taken away. Why?
I wanted to drive love away.
I tried to suffocate it,
but he's always with me.
I want him to forget me
and I want him to remember me.
Why does love hurt so much?
Why don't I tell him?
I want him to be here and
I want him to be somewhere else.
I'm afraid, but I don't
know what I'm afraid of.
I miss him so much.
Hi!
Umur is visiting
her sister in Sweden.
The ladder angel climbed up and down
and spread her wings
She said: Under the shield of the
sun, there's a nest for children.
The ladder angel climbed up and down
and held out her hand
She said: Everything is fine,
you're a child of the sun
The angel flew as fast as she could,
and even though she might be busy
To the shield of the sun
she'll take me too
The ladder angel is an angel,
as are many children of the sun
Do you want me to tell him?
Give him these...
Sometime.
They're transferring me to Helsinki.
Hey, buddy, wake up!
Wake up!
Hey, where are you going?
I have no idea
how this will turn out -
but I'm nursing
a little flame in my soul.
Umur, I am a vagrant,
I have no home.
Just like Taika has a home in me,
like my scent means home to her -
you're as far from me
as walking home.
How are you doing, Toivo?
Can't complain, and you?
I think I've struck lucky.
A friend of mine, Lauri,
a business man -
has managed to get this place
that's familiar to me.
A very special place.
By the river.
I'm going to rent it.
I'll just have to go and
sign the lease in Helsinki.
And then I have... this girl.
Oh, I see!
She's mine. Umur.
Taika is over there!
She can't move!
Taika...
You marked your territory here.
The marks will fade away,
fade away in the sunshine.
But don't worry,
I'll always remember them.
And Umur will always remember you.
Rest in peace, Taika.
Remember my scent,
and when you meet me some day -
we'll go wandering together.
Taika went to dogs' heaven -
to the place where she can
wander to her heart's content.
There she can see the bright day,
the river and the hill.
Taika, oh God...
I'll never see your eyes again -
when you turn around
to make sure I'm with you.
Nor the wagging of your tail
when you go on.
Taika had gone after a dog on heat.
She tried to cross the road,
but never made it.
A car had come,
hit her and driven on.
Fuck if I know,
I've put up with all kinds of shit!
I don't dig those fucking niggers!
I'm gonna rip up
your fucking picture!
Do something!
These few sounds.
The sound of the wind
moving the clouds.
The damp scent of the air.
Where has your mind wandered -
to want love and
to hear these few sounds?
Where does your mind realise -
that the scent of damp air
brings to mind a time past?
The one you had never
loved so much before.
The smell of smoke.
The sound, like the wind,
comes down from the treetops.
It's already after midnight.
The ancient smell of smoke.
The fire is fluttering
like a bunch of claws.
The wind is coming from the north.
Even further from the north.
Early hours, the smoke,
the ancient smoke rising -
moving with the wind.
Like in the old days
Like in the old days
The ladder angel.
-To the shield of the sun...
The trees, the nightly ground.
The smoke is moving,
the fire is fluttering.
The face is glowing in the heat.
And now, the world has stopped.
And a man finds his way
like a migratory bird -
and you can't explain it.
I'm nursing
a little flame in my soul.